chine are endowed. The same structure, the same actions, which in health tend to nutrition and enjoyment, under circumstances of injury are used for relief and reparation. Hence it is utterly impossible that pathology can be successfully pursued by any one who entirely neglects physiology.

The utility of the comprehensive system adopted by John Hunter, cannot be better shown than by comparing him with his brother Dr. W. Hunter. Dr. W. Hunter greatly surpassed his brother John in education, in method, in clearness of conception, in powers of reasoning, in facility and elegance of expression. He was also eminent for industry, and enthusiastic in the pursuit of science. Yet he has left behind him scarcely anything to perpetuate his memory, except the work on the Gravid Uterus, which, though undoubtedly of great merit, has had no very extensive influence on the progress of knowledge, and cannot in any manner be compared with what has been effected by his brother. The one great distinction was this, that, while Dr. W. Hunter confined his enquiries for the most part to human anatomy and human pathology, those of John Hunter were carried through every part of the animal creation.

Nor is this any novelty in the history of medicine. If we look back to the steps by which medicine has advanced to its present condition, we shall find that each advance has been rather attributable to the cultivation of some subsidiary science,

than to any increased attention to the phenomena of disease themselves. The value of these subsidiary branches of knowledge has at the time been little understood, and those who have prosecuted them have been considered as deviating from the plain and practical course, by which they might have benefited their fellow-creatures, into matters which were more amusing than useful: but posterity has rectified the judgment, and has honoured them as the greatest benefactors of mankind. When at the close of the 15th century, medicine, in common with the other sciences, experienced a revival, it was the cultivation of anatomy, and not any closer attention to the symptoms of disease, which restored it to life. Vesalius was undoubtedly considered by his contemporaries, as wasting, in the gratification of an idle curiosity, energies which would have been more usefully employed in the study of disease. Yet, while those who held this language are forgotten, Vesalius is justly celebrated as the founder of modern medicine. He first laid a solid foundation, on which the science has been erected by others. When, a century later, Harvey drew from anatomical and physiological investigations the discovery of the circulation, it is recorded that his fame as a physician was injured, because his talents were supposed to be devoted to pursuits foreign to the science of medicine. Yet this physiological discovery is now universally confessed, to have first introduced the true knowledge of disease, and the

true principles of treatment. In the same manner John Hunter was considered by the majority of his contemporaries as a theorist; as one who was rather a physiologist than a surgeon, and whose pursuits had little connexion with the practical improvement of his profession. Yet the works of the greatest surgeons of the day, of Cheselden, of Sharpe, or of Pott, were trivial and transient, when compared with the vast and enduring results which have proceeded from the theories of Hunter.

In truth a microscopic view of a particular fact will never bring to light the great laws on which it depends. The errors of the senses are not sufficiently corrected; the reasoning powers are not sufficiently called to aid. The eye, to borrow an illustration from Lord Bacon, must be so far removed from the objects of its contemplation, as to allow the rays proceeding from them to converge into one focus. Then only will analogies be perceived; what is obscure in one subject will be solved by what is obvious in another; the regular gradations of nature will be made out, and all the links of the chain brought distinctly into view. It was not by a concentrated examination of the course of projectiles alone, that Newton arrived at the great law of attraction. It was by comparing projectiles on the surface of the earth with the motions of the heavenly bodies; it was by combining astronomy with mechanics. For the adaptation of the laws of pathology to practice, attention to the practice of

medicine may be sufficient; but the laws themselves can only be ascertained by the aid of physiology.

It is under a deep conviction of this truth that the College of Surgeons have always considered the encouragement of physiology and comparative anatomy as forming an essential part of their public duty. The direct encouragement of practical surgery is indeed scarcely in their power. They can offer no inducements to its cultivation which can be compared with the inducement of professional distinction; nor can they supply any means for the study of it, which can be compared with our large hospitals. But in the subsidiary sciences, they may hope to give efficient assistance, and hold out the prospect of advantages which are not to be found elsewhere. With this view they have published a descriptive Catalogue of the Museum in a most elaborate form, which has rendered its treasures readily accessible to all; they have, at great expense, made large additions to the collection; they have established an annual course of Lectures on physiology and comparative anatomy; and lastly, they have instituted three Studentships in anatomy, open to public competition, in which the successful candidate secures at once a reward for his proficiency, and the best opportunity for the further prosecution of his studies. As to the mode in which the catalogues have been executed, and the value of the public lectures which have been delivered

by the Hunterian Professor, it is not necessary to speak; nor could I say anything which could add to the high and general reputation of Mr. Owen for anatomical and physiological knowledge. It has been no small advantage to him, to have studied the ideas of John Hunter in the only record in which they are fully expressed, till he has imbibed something of the spirit by which Hunter himself was animated. The same fountain, with the assistance of the printed catalogues, is accessible to others also. Those who will be at the pains thoroughly to examine and comprehend the museum as it now exists, will find that it contains a more complete system of physiological science than is to be found elsewhere in the world.

With the exception of the fossils, the whole of the collection has been catalogued; but the constant addition of fresh specimens, and the progressive extension of the plan render it necessary, from time to time, that the catalogues should be revised and enlarged. It may be confidently hoped that each successive edition of the work will show that the museum has been greatly enriched in the interim, and that it will be always kept on a level with the progressive advances of science.

For it is impossible to doubt that science will be constantly advancing, and will daily approach nearer and nearer to perfection. To trace the course of future discovery is indeed impossible. To do that would be to effect the, discovery. The obscurity which surrounds us is impenetrable but