the weaknesses of mankind, imposes on the credulity of those he pretends to serve, and successfully hides his determined ignorance, his idleness, and his heartless greediness; but it is more miserable, and almost hopelessly disappointing, to hear it asserted that in our own ranks there are a few individuals so devoid of self-respect, and so utterly benumbed to all that is serious and good and true in medicine, as to submit to the farce of a consultation with such a one, and thus by one single act bring on us a disgrace which the courage and self-devotion of hundreds of perhaps less successful, but more honorable men will hardly obliterate.

Advance in medicine has at all times been so intimately associated with, if not absolutely dependent upon, the progress of certain collateral sciences, especially anatomy and animal chemistry, that it is to be regretted that these pursuits are not more generally prosecuted by physicians than they are at present, in this country. When we consider how medicine has been advanced by such men as Harvey and Hunter, is it not surprising that scientific investigation in connection with medicine is not carried on under the superintendence of the physician to a much greater extent than it now is? I believe that this is in great measure to be attributed to serious defect in what ought to be an important department in all our hospitals. Many physicians must have felt the want of well arranged scientific work-rooms where various microscopical and chemical investigations could be carefully carried out under their direction.

I am so sanguine as to hope that the time is not very far distant when this defect will be remedied and the principle generally recognized, that we should prosecute scientific investigation, in order that we may discover new truths which will certainly, though perhaps not at the moment, be productive of practical good, as well as afford what relief we can to present suffering.

In the minds of some persons there is undoubtedly an im

pression that such enquiries cannot be conducted without disadvantage to the patient, and there is a tendency in the public mind to draw a distinction between the so-called practical doctor who cures the ailment with a single dose, and the scientific man who, like a dreamer and useless speculator, thinks and theorises, but is not up to the direct means of giving relief to a patient in pain. We are, however, all aware how much we have learnt during the last few years from the investigations into the secretions in health and disease, which have been lately carried on both in this country and on the continent, and there can be no doubt that if careful researches could be prosecuted on a larger scale in our public Institutions great advance would very soon be manifest.

I think we should make every effort to establish such a department in connexion with our large hospitals, for surely, besides endeavouring to relieve the ills of our contemporaries, a very important part of our duty is to work out and enforce principles which when acted upon may increase the physical development and mental vigour, and largely contribute to the happiness of those who are to follow us.

In thus urging the importance of scientific investigation in its minute details to practical medicine, I am not ignorant of the difficulties with which the effort is surrounded, and had I not had some practical experience I should not have ventured to allude to the matter here. I have felt the disappointments, regretted the wasted hours, and sighed over the useless results of many days' hard labour; and like every one who has worked in this direction, have in my possession volumes of observations which have led to nothing, and long analyses from which no reliable inferences can be drawn. For seven years I worked and taught in a laboratory which I had arranged close to the hospital; and although of late I have been engaged in work of another kind, I am now looking forward to an opportunity, which will I hope soon be afforded me, of carrying out on a larger scale chemical and microscopic

work bearing on medicine, which was commenced while a student, and in which I shall endeavour to take an active part as long as I have health and strength to work.

I have ventured to make these remarks because I cannot help feeling that, till within the last few years, an impression has been gaining ground, and is even now, I fear, too generally diffused, not only amongst practitioners but among students, that minute investigation tends to make us unpractical, and that work in the laboratory and in the museum is antagonistic to the study of disease in the wards of an Hospital. It seems to me that we ought, all of us, to make an effort to oppose very strongly such statements, which are most positively contradicted by the history of those who have led the most useful professional lives. This disparagement, I am quite sure, has discouraged many from prosecuting serious and useful work who would otherwise now be advancing the best interests of their profession, and employing their spare time in a manner most advantageous to themselves, instead of feeling dissatisfied with their progress, and perhaps discontented with their profession. Surely the earlier years of professional life cannot be more use. fully or more happily spent than in prosecuting some branch of scientific inquiry in connection with our profession, and certainly there can be no more fitting preparation for the great work of our lives than the practice and continual study of medicine.

During the last few years, the love for such work seems to have revived, and if the taste is as widely diffused and encouraged as this College desires, the position which we shall occupy in Europe and America as prosecutors of scientific medical inquiry will not be inferior to that which is generally accorded to us in questions relating to the practical treatment of disease.

It is far from my intention to obtrude upon your notice in very positive terms the conclusions to which I have been led by my investigations, or to lay down dogmatically my own interpretations of observations, and ask you to accept them; nor shall

I uphold my conclusions by bringing forward all the facts and arguments I can in their support, for I am most anxious that you should examine the preparations from which my inferences have been drawn, and consider if the arrangement you observe can be explained on any other view. The doctrine which I shall advocate has resulted solely from observation, and I did not enunciate it until about a year since, when the accumulation of facts became so considerable that I thought myself justified in attempting to frame a theory which should serve to account for the appearances I had observed, which I could not explain by the view generally entertained. Some of my conclusions are at variance with the opinions generally held, especially in Germany, and in bringing them forward I am, I think, fully sensible of the difficulties which all observers have experienced, and I trust that the plain manner in which I shall discuss some of these questions will not be construed into disrespect for the opinions of those who entertain opposite views.

I would not have placed myself in this position had I not fortunately succeeded in making preparations, and also in preserving them, so that they may be examined by any one desirous of doing so, and with the highest magnifying powers which have yet been made.

The difficulty of understanding many of the views now held, and the still greater difficulty of teaching them, are, I think, alone sufficient to justify the reconsideration of the whole question of the minute structure and growth of the tissues.

There is no branch of scientific enquiry in which general conclusions have been so many times altered as in that which relates to the anatomy and mode of growth of the different tissues and organs of the body, and in proposing a view which, as far as I can judge, accounts for a greater number of observed facts than those generally entertained, I am fully conscious that, as investigation advances, it may be necessary to modify it in many important particulars. I believe that it will be found to possess a temporary usefulness, and to whatever charges I

may be exposed in bringing forward another view, I think I am free from the charge of increasing the difficulty of explaining some of these complex phenomena, and proposing new and difficult terms, the meaning of which cannot be easily defined. I hope that the points which I shall endeavour to establish may assist us in the attempt to determine what phenomena taking place in living beings are dependent alone upon physical and chemical actions, and may enable us to distinguish these from the changes which are dependent upon powers which every living being has inherited from those from which it sprung, and may transmit to its successors; and which are peculiar to every different kind of creature.

The only terms which are not generally used in quite the same sense in which I shall employ them are the following:

Elementary parts, into which every structure may be divided. A particle of epithelium is an elementary part. The elementary part consists of matter in two states.

Germinal Matter.-Matter in a state of activity, or capable of assuming this condition, possessing inherent powers of selecting certain inanimate substances, and of communicating its properties to these, exists in all living beings, and from it every tissue is produced. I propose to call this germinal matter. A certain portion of the germinal matter of many elementary parts is comparatively quiescent, but is capable of assuming an active state at a subsequent period These portions are the socalled nuclei and nucleoli, and new nuclei and nucleoli will make their appearance within them when they have grown into ordinary elementary parts.

The matter on the external part of every elementary part exists in a passive state, as

Formed material, which was once in the condition of germinal matter, but it has now ceased to be active. It cannot communicate its powers to lifeless matter. Its composition, form, and properties depend upon the powers of the germinal matter which it often protects.