Page:The Harveian oration delivered at the Royal College of Physicians June 26, 1889 (IA b22361285).pdf/30

 In making these remarks, I would not desire to give more than due importance to this law in its application to the condition of membrane while constituting a portion of organised beings.

There is much danger in this temptation, for though it is difficult to believe hut that these forces, manifested so strongly in dead matter, have their influence under what we must call conventionally vital conditions, still we are bound to wait patiently for further observations and discoveries before we can presume to push forward theory from such a basis. We see the necessity for this caution in the fact, that living membrane in some cases possesses qualities under the conditions of health which apparently render it capable of resisting the action of this law; and therefore, in explaining the phenomena of disease, we must carefully remember that we probably have to deal with other and modifying forces, concerning which we are, as yet, uninformed. Thus, it is our duty to keep in mind the possibility of applying every physical fact which relates to our science, and to watch anxiously for the moment when it may become useful; but, at the same time, not to lose sight of the varying conditions of the materials with which we have to deal, and of the