Problems of physiology of the present time / by William Henry Howell.
- William Henry Howell
- Date:
- [1905-1907]
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Problems of physiology of the present time / by William Henry Howell. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![w PROBLEMS OF Exposition, St. Louis, z. PRESENT TIME [.Reprinted from “ BY WILLIAM HENEY HOWELL [William Henry Howell, Professor of Physiology, Johns Hopkins University, and Dean of the Medical Department, b. February 20, 1860, Baltimore, Mary- land. A.B. Johns Hopkins University, 1881; Ph.D. 1884; M.D. University of Michigan, 1890; LL.D. Trinity College, 1901; Post-graduate, Johns Hopkins University, 1881-84. Professor of Physiology and Histology, University of Michigan, 1889—92; Associate Professor of Physiology, Harvard University, 1892-93. Member of the National Academy of Sciences; the American Philo- sophical Society; the American Association for the Advancement of Science; American Physiological Society; American Society of Naturalists; Societv for Experimental Biology and Medicine, etc. Editor of The American Text-Book of Physiology; American Journal of Physiology, etc.] Most of the masters in physiology have attempted in one way or another to lay before their fellow craftsmen their ideas concerning the right methods to be used in physiology, its natural boundaries, and its future development. We read these utterances sometimes with admiration, sometimes with doubt, but always with interest, and also, alas, with disappointment. For it has not been given to any of our saints or prophets to pierce very far into the uncertain future, and one seeks in vain for a fundamental thought or principle which shall illuminate the mystery of life. Our greatest men have, in fact, been wise enough to teach us by example rather than by precept; the chief lesson that one may learn from their lives and writings is that we must continue to investigate, to observe, and to experiment, and that in this way only can sure progress be made toward the goal of which we all dream. The time seems not yet ripe for the master-mind to gather the scattered data and mold them into great generalizations or laws such as have been achieved in other sciences. We must, per- haps, admit that the philosophical basis of physiology, its general prin- ciples and quantitative laws, have been borrowed in large part from other departments, and that the subject has not as yet fully repaid this indebtedness by contributions derived solely from its own re- sources. We have no names to which science as a whole owes as much as it does to Galileo, Lavoisier, Newton, Mayer and Joule, Darwin or Pasteur,1 and since we may claim that our greatest physiologists rank with the first intellects of their age, their failure to penetrate arther into the causation of vital phenomena must be attributed to the intrinsic difficulties and complexity which the subject offers °™h“an.minA None of us change thta condition, and W o desire to forecast the future must be content, therefore to view the subject from the standpoint of past experience and the (Lai^isierand ^nonS physiologists mental to all sciences were^^^^d^artm^tsof chem^t^and^l^sicsCUS° ^U11^a'](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22471200_0003.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
