Page:The Harveian oration ; delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, June 26th, 1879 (IA b24976465).pdf/22

 rial nature, a knowledge of which can be possessed by the physician and physiologist only, and upon which all social regulations must ultimately depend.

I hope I have not uttered a disparaging word against the study of pure physiology, for I would not for a moment deny the advantages or necessity of the pursuit. I have rather wished to express my opinion as to the duties of the physician in not overlooking his opportunities in promoting its advancement. I am quito aware that the mere contemplation of man, the paragon of animals, can never reveal to us the intricacies of his mechanism, or give us the interpretation of his mental faculties. The problems before us are far too complex and abstruse to be solved without first surmounting the various steps in the process. We must go back in animal life, and even to the lowest forms of vegetable life, before we can get a clue to the higher of nature's processes; we cannot even stop here, for it requires a knowledge of the ordinary laws of physics to understand many of the phenomena of the human body. Whether we look at the human frame, as a whole, or limit our attention to particular portions of it, these truths are mani-