Page:The Harveian oration, delivered before the Royal College of Physicians, Wednesday, June 27th, 1877 (IA b22314623).pdf/29

 fessional practice supplies neither opportunity nor immediate stimulus for them; studies of elaborate and purely scientific research in aid of the develop- ment of medical knowledge, studies never im- mediately convertible to pecuniary profit, but perhaps, on the contrary, involving heavy cost; studies, too, which, from their nature, cannot promise rapid results, nor be conducted in fragments of leisure, but require systematic and continuous labour extending over long periods of time.

Dr. Sanderson's researches have especially served to open out a new vista with regard to many inflammatory and febrile processes; and, although they are not to be regarded as concluded, they have already shed much light, particularly on the origin and course of infective processes. We owe to his earlier experiments the discovery of the fact that when in the lower animals local inflammations are produced, either in the skin or peritoneum, by the introduction of irritant sub- stances, two distinct sets of consequences manifest themselves-viz., a chronic disease exhibiting in all respects the anatomical characters of tubercu- losis, and consisting essentially in the overgrowth of certain tissues, designated as lymphatic or adenoid, and shown to be in close relation with the lymphatic system; and (2) an acute disease presenting the leading features of pyæmia, attended