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JUNE, 1804 
THE OBJECTS OF THE WISTAR INSTITUTE. 
BY HARRISON ALLEN, M.D. THE OBJECTS OF THE WISTAR INSTITUTE.1 
By Harrison Arlkn, M.D. 
What are you going to do at the Wistar Institute ? I have been 
asked this question many times. Perhaps I cannot do better with the 
time allotted to me this afternoon than to attempt to answer it. 
The Wistar Institute, in the first place, will take charge of the 
Wistar and Horner Museum. In the second place, it will afford an 
opportunity to advanced students in anatomy to pursue researches. In 
the third place, and, in part as a result of the plan just named, it will 
permit of extensions to be made along the lines suggested by the 
present state of the biological sciences. These lines are in a sense 
revolutionary, and, if successfully pursued, will end in the University 
possessing one of the finest museums of anatomy that the world has 
yet seen. 
Now, what are the opportunities afforded by an institute such as 
this? First, we have unusually fine opportunities of studying the 
anatomy of race. And why is this so important? Permit me to 
quote a few lines from a recent address of Dr. J. Wellington Byers2 on 
the causes of the pneumonia in the negro : ‘ ‘ The bacteriology and 
pathology of pneumonia have been very clearly made out, though what 
constitute the special conditions that determine susceptibility have not 
been ascertained. In a general way we may speculate that there must 
be some anatomical defect leading to corresponding physiological 
incompetence of the cells and tissues engaged as the factors of vital 
resistance to the pathogenic agencies of this disease in the negro. 
Whether this be an absence of defect of leucocytosis, as has been shown 
to be the case in fatal instances of pneumonia, remains to be investi- 
gated and shown. My chief purpose has been to awaken some interest 
in the much-neglected department of ethnological medicine, if I may so 
use the term. A gross comparison of the physiological characteristics 
1 An address delivered at the opening of the Wistar Institute, May 21,1894. .Since this address 
will appear in its present form as a separate communication from that of the Provost, Prof. Wm. 
Pepper, as well as from that of Prof. Wm. Osier, who delivered the main address, it is incumbent 
upon the author to state that as Director it became his duty to represent the Board of Manage- 
ment, at the same time to give expression to opinions for which he alone is responsible. He 
believes, however, that the spirit actuating him is also that which is entertained by the Board of 
Management. For additional expression of opinion of the author, the reader is referred to an 
essay read before the Biological Section of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, 1880 ; to an address delivered before the Association of American Anatomists at Washing- 
ton, on the Teaching of Anatomy to Advanced Medical Students, Medical News, December 26, 
1891, as well as to an admirable essay by Prof. John A. Ryder, referred to on p. 591. 
2 International Medical Magazine, Vol. hi, 189, 1894. Harrison Allen. 
2 
of the white, yellow, and black races suggests a higher and lower form 
of organization, though variations in skin, hair, size, and shape of skull 
and face do not afford an explanation of these diversities of disease, 
and we must pass beyond them to still finer and more subtle peculiari- 
ties of tissue and cells as the ultimate causes of difference in vital 
resistance or exemption from disease. Investigation may discover and 
interpret the nature of these. ’ ’ Is not this a sufficient answer why the 
anatomy of race may prove of interest to medical men ? 
Secondly, we have an opportunity equally good with the foregoing 
of studying the anatomy of the animals which are related to man. 
The psalmist tells us that the animals are placed under man’s dominion. 
That dominion ordinarily implies a right to use animals for food, cloth- 
ing, and service. But since man exercises dominion over the animals, 
has he not on that account also a responsibility ? Are not the animals 
in a sense given him in trust, “to show, O Lord our Lord, how excel- 
lent is thy name in the earth” ? At least upon the anatomist rests the 
responsibility of explaining the structure of the animal kingdom, and 
through a knowledge of this structure how human ills can be alleviated. 
It is incumbent on the student to collect data on the structure of 
all our indigenous animals. Some of the larger, and to the systematist 
some of the most valuable, animals are threatened with extinction. 
Can it be doubted that this institute is an appropriate place to ascertain 
all that is possible to know of the organization of these members of 
our fauna ? Surely it is not enough to collect skeletons and skins, we 
should prepare the viscera, describe the muscles, the brain, and the 
nerves. Among the forms which I now have in mind which should 
receive attention are the bison, the various species of deer, the prong- 
horn antelope, the Rocky Mountain sheep, the Rocky Mountain goat, 
the sea-otter, the manatee, the eared seals, and the musk-ox. 
Even among animals of a less rare sort than the foregoing excel- 
lent work can be done. Forms which are infrequent in one section are 
common in another. A student could not do better than monograph 
some one type which is abundant in the locality in which he resides. 
In this connection our series in the anatomy of allied animals will be 
of service. 
The cultivation of the science of anatomy is inseparably con- 
nected with that of medicine. Since every medical student must 
embrace anatomy in the curriculum demanded by college authorities, 
it is easy to see how the dormant faculties for anatomical investigation 
might be awakened. At rare intervals men appear who have these 
faculties fully expanded from early youth. The Socratic demon im- 
peratively calls them to careers in which the inherent talent finds 
exercise. A second and larger group acknowledges a strong inclina- The Objects of the Wistar Institute. 
3 
tion to anatomical research, yet are content to unite it with a profes- 
sion. The one last named naturally inclines to make medical applica- 
tion of anatomical knowledge. The one first named is indifferent of 
such application. Owing to the increase of wealth in the community 
a larger opportunity is now offered than has been heretofore the case 
for men to be independent of the support derived from the practice of 
medicine. Students relying upon the offices of the national service, 
the incumbency of endowed positions in learned institutions, or upon 
adequate private means, are, as a rule, but little in touch with medical 
anatomists. 
I am of the opinion that it is not wise to separate in a plan of 
institute organization the last phase of expansion of any branch of 
science from its first phase. I believe that those workers who from 
inclination continue to study anatomy in relation to its ancient mis- 
tress, medicine, are pursuing a line of work identical in kind with those 
who treat anatomy in its relations with a scheme of evolution of organic 
forms. The intellectual attitude of a student in the museum of a 
medical college where he concentrates his energies on specimens of 
morbid anatomy—on physiological anatomy,—on the anatomy of 
race—is the same as the student in a museum of natural history 
who deals for the most part with normal individuals selected 
from the entire animal kingdom. The Wistar Institute, it is 
hoped, will be a centre of cultivation of medical anatomy, if one may 
so name it. 
Let me give an example of what may be meant as the import of 
an anatomical investigation taking a medical trend. As late as 1877, 
Ercolani, in speaking of his researches on the human placenta, states 
that he was indebted to Ingrassius and Fabricius for a proper method 
of study, and criticises Kolliker, who, in 1876, had accepted (in Erco- 
lani’s opinion) a wrong one. Few will be inclined to doubt that 
Kolliker represents the most advanced position in embryological and 
histological work. Yet Ercolani insists that Kolliker forgets the im- 
portant precept left us from the old Italian anatomical school, which 
was the same inculcated by Ingrassius for pathology, that it is of great 
service in clearing up intricate and difficult questions of human anatomy 
and pathology to consult comparative anatomy and pathology. Kbl- 
liker did not seek to fulfil the serious and important duty of explaining 
the physiological unity or office of the placenta. Ercolani attributes 
his own success to the university in which he was educated in medical 
knowledge, and claims that a direct gain to zoology has been the result 
of his researches. 
I cannot forget that Linneus and John Hunter were physicians ; 
that at one time Johannes Muller practised medicine, and was at all 4 
Harrison Allen. 
times an anatomist, a zoologist, and a physiologist.1 I cannot cease to 
give some value to the fact that at this moment twenty societies are in 
existence in Europe which exhibit in their titles the union of interests 
of naturalists and physicians. Nor will I assume that in this day of 
extraordinary development of the organic sciences careers of distin- 
guished usefulness are not open to those who are inclined to unite 
natural science with medical work. Robert Tomes, a London dentist, 
is a leading student in the comparative anatomy of the teeth. W. F. 
Miller, an American dentist, practising in Berlin, has discovered the 
bacterial origin of dental caries. The late Franklin H. Hooper, of 
Boston, a laryngologist, made important contributions to the physiology 
of the larynx. 
But a few years ago a distinguished German anatomist contended 
that zoology and comparative anatomy were distinct sciences, and 
refused to give facilities to a student of zoology who wished through 
the professor’s aid to increase his anatomical knowledge. It is strange 
that such an opinion should have been held by one in Berlin at a time 
when Johannes Muller’s example of keeping both medical anatomy and 
zoology in close relation to each other (and developing upon the ped- 
estal thus formed the twin superstructure of modern morphology and 
physiology) should have been lost. Surely it is no longer entertained 
in Germany, nor should we in America renew the attempt at partition 
of a subject essentially one and indivisible. Indeed, I would recommend 
every student to become familiar with the study of at least one closely 
related group of species, even if he ultimately intends to confine himself 
to the phenomena and conditions of general biology or of any of its 
subdivisions. 
It is well within bounds of prudence to state that all peculiarities 
of an organism are related to each other. The integers in the sum of 
these peculiarities are held together by a bond. What this bond is to 
be called is undetermined. It often appears to be a bond of utility ; 
often a bond which is defined by the operations of a crudely-defined 
law of inheritance. To study the nature of this bond demands search 
over a wide field. The etiology of many diseases is based on con- 
genital malformations, and exacts on the part of the student knowledge 
of the deductions drawn from general embryology. To understand the 
localization of diseased action he must be in possession of the phys- 
iological anatomy of the regions invaded. It cannot be a coincidence 
that the localities at which cancer develops in the human esophagus 
are those at which the greatest amount of impact occurs between the 
1 Are we no longer to have such titles as that selected by Eschricht for his classical memoir on 
the Cetacea? It reads as follows: Zoologisch-Anatomisch-Physiologische Untersuchungen iiber 
die Nordischen Wallthiere. The Objects of the Wistar Institute. 
5 
food and the walls of the esophagus. It cannot be an accidental cir- 
cumstance that while generic characters in the cetacea are derived from 
the pterygoid bones that this region in a specimen of Hyperoodon should 
also be selected for the site of hyperostosis. In the attempt at eluci- 
dation of such phenomena the general biologist, the zoologist, the 
human anatomist, the comparative anatomist, the embryologist, and 
the pathologist meet on common ground. 
I hope I have stated enough to show the manner in which a 
museum of anatomy may exist, and along what lines it can grow. I 
look upon a museum as a book made up of many chapters, each speci- 
men being an illustration. What would be thought of the writer of a 
book whose illustrations are subordinated to a text which is not some- 
thing better than a mere description of specimens ! Do not we find 
that the books we most esteem are those that tell us of truths, the 
illustrations simply making clear the meaning of the author ? I hope 
the Museum of the Wistar Institute will be spared the affliction of 
displaying any specimen whatever which is not in exact illustration 
of an idea. Of course, the ideas must be those in which professional 
men are interested, or at least are those in which they may be induced 
to take an interest. 
L,et me state in a general way what some of these may be. Since 
life is a function, so the periods of life are defined by functions. The 
prenatal and postnatal changes are separated by broadly-defined func- 
tions. The postnatal changes are again divided by the times of erup- 
tions of teeth, the times of activities of the visceral organs, etc. To many 
of these periods we have correlations of structural changes, and I am 
of the impression that these correlations will be more exact if they are 
more carefully searched for. The functions of the embryo are closely 
associated in our minds with the presence of a ductus arteriosus and 
a foramen ovale as well as with an open umbilicus and those of the 
infant with an absence of all these structures. Now, if this is an 
exact correlation, why should we not ask for similar correlations 
with the later periods ? It is odd that here curiosity often ends 
and no series express the stage when the thymus gland disappears as a 
time when other important functions interchange. Nor do we find 
ourselves to be curious about the adenoid mass in the pharynx which 
assumes such an important phase in modern medicine. Even the times 
of eruption of the teeth are looked upon more as isolated dates instead 
of times of import to many divisions of functional labor in the 
economy. It is true that the impress of the several phases of nutrition 
in senility is recognized, yet we lack exact knowledge of the changes 
of the body in the period of old age. If with propositions such as are 
here rudely outlined the observer walks through museums of anatomy 6 
Harrison Allen. 
and asks himself in what manner are the divisions of human life checked 
off in the specimens therein displayed, or, to put the proposition con- 
versely, to ask in what way these structures are arranged so as to 
teach the observer what have been the functions of the body which 
has controlled and enforced them, he will find little or nothing in the 
way of answers. He will not see so much as a single classification of 
specimens on a philosophical plan. He will not see as much as a series 
of skeletons of all the periods of life. It is likely the museum may 
not possess examples of adenoid growths, of the stages of the thymus 
gland, or of any specimens in illustration of the influence exerted by 
sex on nutrition. The absence of such series tells plainly enough the 
truth that professional zeal takes other directions than in expressions 
of functions through the forms of structure, the display of which gives 
opportunity to the anatomist.1 Not that a museum erected on the plan 
of physiological anatomy combined with pathology is new. John 
Hunter outlined it a century ago. 
Hunter’s influence in medicine has been profound. It brought the 
standard of professional attainment to a higher level than it had secured 
before he labored. A beautiful custom exists in England of delivering 
addresses under the name of Hunterian orations which serve to keep 
the memory of John Hunter always green. Under the constant guar- 
dianship of this noble sentiment it would be supposed that the 
method of Hunter himself would be closely followed. On the con- 
trary, while his countrymen acknowledge that the achievements of 
the man John Hunter are as yet models for practice, the methods of 
the philosopher John Hunter are in a measure as unregarded as they 
were in his own time. One would suppose that following the guidance 
of a man whom every one praises that each medical centre would have 
its museum of physiological anatomy, and its laboratories where ex- 
periments in nutrition would be fostered. I believe the time will come 
when this will be the case. 
I object to the statement often made that studies in physiological 
anatomy interfere with success in practical life,—on the contrary, the 
work itself is urged along by the labors of many specialists. The 
clinician, the pure physiologist, the physicist all help the anatomist. 
Their studies are among those which prepare the anatomist for his 
work. The splendid results in studying the etiology of myxedema 
by clinical methods enables the anatomist to make a better classi- 
fication, than was before the case, of all the so-called blood-vessel-gland 
series. The application of photography to animal movements has 
1 For an elaborate philosophical plan of a synthetic Museum of Comparative Anatomy as a 
basis for a comprehensive system of research, the reader is referred to an essay by Prof. John A. 
Ryder in Zoology. Contributions from Biological Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania, 1893. The Objects of the Wistar Institute. 
7 
given us for the first time a proper method for analysis of the body and 
limb muscles. The effects of sex impressions on general nutrition 
would never have been surmised if experimentation upon the domestic 
animals had not prepared us for them. The gross effects on the entire 
system of the removal of the sexual organs in the growing animals cannot 
be separated from minor effects which probably relate to retarded or 
transient phases of malnutrition in these organs. How can the best 
results be secured in working along lines established by these sugges- 
tions ? In no way in my humble opinion other than by institutions 
especially endowed, in no way but by the sympathy and support of 
the medical profession, and by encouraging the younger men to pursue 
studies of the kind to wThich the management of this Institute is 
committed. 
We can assure these novitiates in anatomical work that they will 
have a better time than their forerunners. The anatomist is not now 
compelled to work in rooms unheated in winter; or in attics so high 
as to be above the limit at which water supply is practicable ; or in 
cellars so damp and dark as to be unwholesome ; or in open sheds in 
summer where he is plagued by myriads of flies. He no longer has 
his plans ridiculed by attempting lines of work so far out of the com- 
mon as to be removed from ordinary sympathy and fellowship. 
Gen. Isaac J. Wistar has given the profession a noble institution 
fully equipped, adequately endowed. But with it comes a keen sense 
of responsibility. Endowment is not of necessity a benefit. The 
power of wealth expressed in the creation of a fantastic institution 
would be productive of harm. But a wise endowment is not only of 
use, but is an essential condition to scientific progress. Now the 
wisdom of a public act relates always to the state of the community 
for whose benefit it is designed. If the community is not in a con- 
dition to accept the terms of the gift in spirit as well as in letter the 
endowment becomes at best an encumbrance. Indeed, in no rela- 
tion of society can sympathy be prudently omitted. While the 
multitude need not perceive the intention of a far-sighted founder, 
it is absolutely necessary to the success of his plans that thought- 
ful people should not only perceive it, but lend their aid. In 
military parlance a line of work, no matter how fortified, cannot exist 
projected in air but must be a part of a mutually sustaining system. 
So this institute cannot be held, without endangering its existence, as 
something out of the scheme of University organization. We, there- 
fore, appeal for sympathy, and we believe that the appeal will not be 
made in vain.