Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 62.djvu/46

40 I have entered into this subject at some length because it so admirably illustrates the kind of research which is now in progress; it is also of interest to others than mere physiologists. I have not by any means exhausted the subject, but for fear I may exhaust my audience let me hasten to a conclusion. I began by eulogizing the progress of the branch of science on which I have elected to speak to you. Let me conclude with a word of warning on the danger of over-specialization. The ultra-specialist is apt to become narrow, to confine himself so closely to his own groove that he forgets to notice what is occurring in the parallel and intercrossing grooves of others. But those who devote themselves to the chemical side of physiology run but little danger of this evil. The subject cannot be studied apart from other branches of physiology, so closely are both branches and roots intertwined. As an illustration of this may I be permitted to speak of some of my own work? During the past few years the energies of my laboratory have been devoted to investigations on the chemical side of nervous activity, and I have had the advantage of cooperating to this end with a number of investigators, of whom I may particularly mention Dr. Mott and Dr. T. G. Brodie. But we soon found that any narrow investigation of the chemical properties of nervous matter and the changes this undergoes during life and after death was impossible. Our work extended in a pathological direction so as to investigate the matter in the brains of those suffering from nervous disease; it extended in a histological direction so as to determine the chemical meaning of various staining reactions presented by normal and abnormal structures in the brain and spinal cord; it extended in an experimental direction in the elucidation of the phenomena of fatigue, and to ascertain whether there was any difference in medullated and non-medullated nerve fibers in this respect; it extended into what one may call a pharmacological direction in the investigation of the action of the poisonous products of the breakdown of nervous tissues. I think I have said enough to show you how intimate are the connections of the chemical with the other aspects of physiology, and although I have given you but one instance, that which is freshest to my mind, the same could be said for almost any other well-planned piece of research work of a bio-chemical nature.