M&rtiV^A
4.—
DR. ALCOTT'S ADDRESS
BEFORE THE
      AMERICAN





PHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
<► 
 
AN
         ADDRESS

            DELIVERED BEFORE THE

            AMERICAN

PHYSIOLOGICAL  SOCIETY,

              MARCH 7, 1837.


         B Y W M. A. ALCOTT.
   Published by direction of the Society.



         BOSTON:
LIGHT &  STEARNS, 1  CORNHILL,
           1837, 
H 
ADDRESS.
   In addressing the  American Physiological  So-
 ciety, at its first regular meeting, and by particu-
 lar  request of the Council of the  association, it
 will probably be  expected that  I say something
 in  regard  to  our future conduct  and course  of
 action.  I  trust I am not insensible of the honor
 done me by this appointment, and with those ex-
 pectations  on  the part of the  society; and  yet I
 hardly need assure you that I enter upon the task
 assigned me with no little diffidence.
  Our course,  at  best, is beset  with difficulties.
 Many of us are utter strangers to each other, and
 strangers to the best modes of conducting the affairs
 of an association of any kind  whatever, especially
 of one for  whose conduct Ave have no model.  For
 it need not be concealed that ours is the only asso-
 ciation of the kind,  so far as we know, now in
 existence in either hemisphere; nor are we aware
 that any other of  the  kind has ever been formed.
It  is indeed strange  that  it should be so when the
importance of  the subject which  we propose  to
investigate  is so obvious, and so generally conceded.
But however strange it may seem, thus it is. 
4
   But what are the objects of the American Physio-
logical Society 1 What are the considerations which
should move us, and the hopes which should inspire
us 1  And by what means do we expect to accom-
plish our purposes?
   The  objects  at which  we aim are  briefly but
plainly stated in  the  Constitution  which we have
adopted.   They  are simply the  acquisition and
diffusion of physiological knowledge.  What this
physiological  knowledge  is, I need  not now  at-
tempt to tell you ;  especially as the time allotted to
this address would be insufficient to do the sub-
ject anything like justice.   The task has been
repeatedly  performed among you, by one who is
acknowledged,  on all hands, to be a master  of  the
science. I need only observe, that Physiology, or the
science  of  life, in its  most extended sense, is a
knowledge  of  ourselves.   It treats  of the laws
which obtain in the various  parts or organs  which
go to make up our physical frame;  and of the rela-
tions of those organs to each other, and to objects in
the external  world—air, temperature, light,  food,
drink, <fcc.  It teaches  us, in one  word,  ourselves ;
and " know thyself," as you are  well aware, has
been  deemed from  all antiquity, an  injunction of
wisdom. He who  truly knows himself, morally
and physically, is a wise man, even though  he
should seem  to know  little  else;   he who knows
not himself, though he  appear to  understand " all
knowledge  and all mysteries "  beside, is yet pro-
foundly ignorant.
  It is, however,  to be remembered, that he who
studies the  science of life cannot long  remain  igno-
rant of other sciences.   All the  sciences  are indeed 
5
related;  and they frequently run into  each other;
so that  in becoming thoroughly  acquainted  with
one, we can  scarcely fail  to knoAV  something of
many others.   But this is eminently true of physi-
ology.  A profound knowledge of  this great science
would lead,  very naturally,  to the investigation,
more or less profound, of the whole range of natural
science.   Besides,  it is  an excellent  discipline of
the mind in all its faculties.   Let us pursue for a
few moments this train of thought.
  If all, or at least the greater part  of our knowl-
edge comes to us through the medium of our senses,
and if that  knowledge may be modified or affected
by the degree of perfection which those senses have
acquired, then  how exceedingly important must be
the study, not only of the organs of sight, hearing,
smell, taste  and  feeling, but of that brain and ner-
vous system  with which they are so curiously and
at the same time  so inseparably connected!  If our
feelings,  nay, our very affections  and  passions are
modified—and  who can doubt it ?—by the  state  of
the stomach,  the lungs, the  heart, the  liver, the
skin, the muscular system, &c, must not the study
of these  organs or parts be a matter of the highest
moment  and the deepest interest?  And can  we
pursue the study of  the human system, with its
laws and relations, without being led to explore, in
a greater or less  degree, those fields of science on
whose fair borders we are continually treading?
  Suppose we study the  eye.  How naturally and
how necessarily are Ave  led  to  look a little at the
science of optics  in general, and  the principles on
which  the  common optical instruments are con-
structed.  We examine the ear.  How natural the
           1 * 
6
transition to the study of the laws of  sound,  or
acoustics.  We study the nature of locomotion, and
the organs by which locomotion is performed—the
bones, muscles,  tendons, ligaments, &c.   This in-
volves a knowledge of the  laws of attraction and
gravitation;  of  the  various  kinds, of  levers,  and
of the pulley.   We  study the  heart.   It leads us,
almost insensibly, to a more  or  less  perfect ac-
quaintance with other branches of natural philoso-
phy—hydrostatics, hydraulics, and  pneumatics—
and  with the instruments which, in the progress
of the arts  and sciences,  have been constructed  to
develope or execute some of their laws.   We study
digestion and respiration.   Both  lead  to an ac-
quaintance,  in  some small  degree at least, with
chemistry—mechanical, agricultural and vital.  We
study human anatomy and physiology as a Avhole,
and it leads to comparative anatomy and physiology
—to  the  natural history of man and all  other ani-
mals—to mineralogy, geology and electricity.
  Again: the study of the relations of some of the
internal organs—the lungs and the stomach—con-
ducts us,  almost  imperceptibly,  to  an intimate
knowledge  of nature  in the  departments of agri-
culture,  horticulture  and  botany;  as  well as  to
an acquaintance with domestic and political econ-
omy.
  In short, physiology is like a key, which might
lawfully be  applied to unlock the hidden treasures
and mysteries of all  nature  herself; and he who,
while he understands  it, should not avail himself
of its use, would be like the person who, possessing
such a key as I  have described, should never take
the pains to employ it. 
7
  A practical knowledge of physiology is of especial
importance to the housewife.  How  can  the best
processes  of cookery  be understood or  adopted,
without an acquaintance with the  constitutional
laws and relations of the  digestive apparatus—the
stomach in particular?   How can the housewife
prepare the best kinds of food,  and present them in
a manner best  calculated to sustain  in the highest
and most  healthy  condition, and for  the longest
possible period,  all the powers of life, unless she
understands man's true nature and  dietetic char-
acter?  Above all the  rest, how can she, without
this knowledge, prepare, in  the highest perfection,
that almost  indispensable  article of human sus-
tenance, which has  been  so  universally and  so
justly called  the staff of  life ?  Is it  too  much to
say that no person  but a wife and  a mother will
ever make the  best of bread,  and that no person
who is ignorant of physiology can ever  make it in
such perfection as she who is acquainted  with the
principles of this science ?   Is  it  too  much to say
that she who understands not the art of making a
good  loaf of bread—one  which is best adapted  to
promote human health  and  longevity—is  destitute
of an important part of her  profession ?
  I might illustrate the importance of physiological
knowledge to the houseAvife by relating  instances
in great numbers, where  life has been destroyed,
outright, by  her ignorance.  But these cases are
not so frequent as those of quite another character.
I allude to cases in which life, though prolonged, is
rendered scarcely worth possessing.
  I have  sometimes been ready  to say, that if it
were  the  object  of  modern cookery  not  only  to 
8
destroy, gradually,  all true gustatory pleasure, as
Avell as all  other  physical comfort  and happiness,
but by  rendering men  either a  pack of dolts of
invalids, as  unfit for the exercise or enjoyment of
high-toned  morality, or even  piety, as they are for
the healthiest and happiest exercise of all the phys-
ical  functions,  a  surer  course to  effect the  object
could hardly be pursued than  that which  is now
usually  taken.   Nay, more;  I have sometimes, as
a believer in the agency of infernal spirits, been all
but driven to the  conclusion  that  here, precisely at
these avenues, has the arch destroyer of the human
race and arch  enemy of human  felicity taken his
post to lure to destruction.
  To no class of persons, however, is the science
of  human  life of  more  importance than  to the
mother.   She  cannot stir a  step  to  any great or
valuable purpose  in life without it.  No, not a step.
In the present state of Avhat is called civilization or
refinement, she cannot judiciously feed, or dress, or
carry her infant, without physiology.
  The same information is required in the case of a
nurse, whether it be the mother or another individ-
ual. She, too,  is unfit for her task—almost wholly
so—without it.  The fire, the lights, the  tempera-
ture and the purity  of the air in the nursery, with
a thousand other  nameless things, ought  to  be at-
tended to on the principles of true science, and not
as matters of mere hap hazard.
  How  many thousands of our fellow beings have
lost their lives,  and how many other  thousands
have been compelled to drag  out  a most miserable
existence, little better than death itself, because the
ignorant attendant of a sick bed understood  not the 
9
laws of life, and knew not the indispensable neces-
sity of complying with the requisitions of the phy-
sician.   I have  seen this ignorance take  on  so
much of prejudice as to lead to the rejection of one
part of the physician's prescriptions, and the  adop-
tion of the other.  Thus it has happened as if fire
and water had both been  prescribed, the latter to
counteract the former, and yet the Avater Avas omitted
and the  fire  administered,—to ra\rage,  rage and
destroy.
   There  is scarcely a mechanic to be named who
would not—as  such—be  greatly  benefited by a
knowledge of  the science of human  life, and espe-
cially of the  structure  of the  human form.  The
best boots,  in some of our cities,  are  said  to  be
constructed on anatomical and  physiological prin-
ciples.
   The day laborer, no matter how small or unim-
portant his  employment  may seem, (I do not say
how mean, for I cannot bring myself to attach the
idea of meanness to any useful employment,) Avould
find, from investigation,  that his condition  is sus-
ceptible  of much improvement and a vast increase
of happiness, from  understanding  and yielding  an
implicit obedience to the  IaAvs of life.
   I  cannot forbear, in  passing, to call your at-
tention, for  a  few moments, to this valuable but
neglected class of citizens. Here is a field wide
enough, it seems to me, for the display of all the
wise benevolence to be found in  this portion of the
universe; and that,  too, for a  thousand years  to
come. To consider the low condition of our common
laborers in the streets, on canals and railroads,  in
ditches and elsewhere, by hundreds, by thousands, 
10
and by tens of thousands, and to consider the  state
of their families;—to think, moreover, of their  pros-
pects, for time and for eternity—and then  to think
Avhat blessings physiology has in reserve  for them,
to raise them from their present physical, intellectual
and moral debasement, to a state of comparatively
angelic excellence and  enjoyment—whose  heart
should not bleed, and whose bosom should not burn ?
Is it not true, that while society, constituted as it
is, and unenlightened as  it is, may be said to  be
training many of this  host of immortals for igno-
miny—peradventure  for  the  galloAvs, the result of
ignominy—there is no reason to be derived  from
their  internal  structure  why they should not  be
made good  and virtuous  citizens?  Their  children,
at the least,  might  be  made  so.   And  what an
accession Avould this  be, not only to society in its
outward forms, but to the everlasting kingdom of
virtue and happiness !
  He Avho knows the nature of the human stomach,
and its constitutional relations to the productions of
the earth, will  find no difficulty in believing  that
our present system of agriculture and horticulture,
though obviously improving  in some  respects,  is
yet,  as  I  have already  intimated, very far  from
being what it  should  be, and what  it is  destined
yet to become.   Who, at present, ever thinks  of
cultivating, manuring and dressing the soil  with a
reference to the best health of those Avho may  con-
sume its products? Who is even willing to do this?
Who—where is the man—who would not  refuse to
raise a smaller crop which he knew would be more
conducive to health and longevity, when  he could
get more dollars  by a larger crop,  whose influence 
11
on  the  public  health was  more doubtful?  And
what market can be found which is not supplied,
every year, with productions of the earth, which, if
not actually poisonous, are yet very far from  being
of .the very best quality ?
  Hence, in  part, the advantage of physiological
science to the farmer.  Not that  it Avould of neces-
sity make him better, in  proportion as it  made him
wiser; but only that he  will never become greatly
better without  this  additional light.  Let  him be
truly enlightened, and let the public sentiment be
enlightened at the same time, and then he will not
longer dare to disobey or disregard its voice.
  The manufacturer, too, and the shop-keeper,—
how advantageous  to them would a knowledge of
this subject be, especially  to the former!   How
much suffering is produced, directly or  indirectly,
by congregating human beings  in factories 1  The
evils, both  moral and physical,  connected  with
these factories, have never, to my knowledge, been
over-stated, either in the old world or the new.  I am
still obliged to acknowledge, it does not follow that
if physiology Avere thoroughly understood, it would
at once  regulate  this matter.  It cannot be denied
that men do not ahvays act up to  the  light they
possess.  But yet it is equally undeniable, I must
again say, that without light at all, men  cannot be
expected to make much permanent effort for the
amelioration of their own condition, or the improve-
ment of the condition of  others.
  I may have seemed to  admit  that  merchants  or
shop-keepers would  be  less benefited in the dis-
charge of the duties they owe to  the community, by
a knoAvledge of the laws of life, than manufactur- 
12
ers.  But I mean not thus much.   Would grocers
and dry goods dealers, and many other shop-keepers
continue to sell some articles or Avares—as many
are now accustomed  to  do—which are not only
very far from  being best calculated to promote
human health and longevity, but  which  are, in a
few instances, positively destructive of human hap-
piness, under the full blaze of the light of physi-
ology?  Would they continue  to plead the vulgar
but profane maxim, that  if they buy " the devil,"
they have  a  right to sell  him  again ?  Could they
do it,  as  honest men?   Could they do it, above
all, as christians ?  And I say again, would they
doit?
  Of  the advantages of physiological  science  to
instructors of every grade,  from  the teacher of the
infant  school to the president or provost of  the
highest college  or  university, I  hardly  need  to
speak.  They have been, in part, suggested by
what I have said  in regard  to its importance to
mothers.   Besides, it is gratifying to learn from the
printed regulations of these institutions, that anato-
my and  physiology are  beginning  to have a place
in their regular course of instruction.
   Physicians—the only class  formerly supposed to
be entitled to a knowledge of what  were deemed
the secret mysteries of this  science—ought  aboye
all other men to be thorough  physiologists.  But is
there one in three of this class, who has very much
practical knowledge on the subject ?  Is there one in
three of their number who possesses any other than
that confused, and superficial, and unavailable  sort
of knowledge,  which a  district  school-boy usually
has of his grammar  and geography, after having 
13
recited it  word  for word to the teacher, without
paying much attention to the sense ?
I*: Ministers  fail, and have  long  failed  to produce
on the community  all the effect they might, would
they—or rather knew they how—to labor as Paul
seems to have done, to promote the redemption, the
purification, the sanctification of the whole body;—
that is, as I  understand  him,  of  the whole being,
body, soul and spirit.   In regard to this  duty, how-
ever, many of them seem to be aAvaking; and I am
truly glad they are so.  They will not only be thus
able to do   more  for the people  of their charge,
but also for themselves.  Like the great missionary
to the Gentiles, they will  thus be  enabled to labor
Avilh more success to keep their bodies in subjec-
tion ;  and we should hear of feAver cast-aways.
   To the laAvyer, the judge, the legislator, and  even
to the magistrate, from  the highest to  the  lowest
degree, physiology sheds a species of light, without
which they must,  in  the  discharge of their respec-
tive duties, often grope in thick darkness.  Among
legislators, above all,  I am  sometimes surprised to
find this matter so Avholly overlooked.  Since, how-
ever, it is a well known fact, that  a  large majority
of these men receive nearly  all  their instruction,
either  in  the family, or the  common  or district
school,  what more  could  be  expected of  them?
And yet can  it be that men are justified  in framing
laAvs for their fellow men without any reference to
the habitation in  which  they dwell, and to which
they are, while amenable to human laws, insepara-
bly connected?
  I have spoken briefly of the general advantages
which would result to some  of the occupations and
             2 
14
 professions of men from the light and truth of phy-
 siology.   Let  not the  views I have  presented be
 regarded as misplaced.   Let it not  be  said  that
 several of the callings or professions I have named,
 have no  representatives in this association.  There
 is no assemblage of persons like this, from which,
 in the good providence of God, individuals may not
 be selected to fill every one of the stations to  which
 I have alluded, even the presidential chair.
   But after all, the great work Ave have to do is for
 ourselves—independently, in  some degree  at least,
 of occupation or profession.   Let us be of what age
 or sex Ave may, let  us  be of what employment Ave
 may, let us be in what part of the  Avorld  we may,
 let us be sick or well, we have bodies; and  much
 of our  happiness will depend on their  condition.
 If man is, as has sometimes been affirmed by theo-
 logians, the arbiter of his own fate morally—if his
 spiritual happiness, here and hereafter, is to be pro-
 portional to his own moral efforts to obtain it—is it
 not still more  true that our physical  well-being is
 made to depend,  under  God, in no  inconsiderable
 degree, on our own exertions?  Is not man, in this
 respect, and in a most remarkable degree, the arbi-
 ter of his own destiny ?
  Physiology does not  indeed say, that man shall
 live forever.  Nay, she  even disclaims  any such
 doctrine.   She  distinctly announces an end of his
 present mode of existence.  But she noAvhere says
 Iioav long that existence  shall continue ;—Avhether
one hundred, two hundred or fWe  hundred years.
There  is, however,  no good  reason  for believing
that anything in the human constitution, aside from
our abuse of it, Avould prevent its lasting, in  every 
                       15

instance, to  old age.   The sins of our progenitors,
visited upon us their children, together  with our
own numberless transgressions, would, indeed, under
the most favorable  circumstances, cut short very
considerably the days of the years of our pilgrim-
age, so that a constitution which, in its normal state,
might, for ought  Ave know, have  lasted  to five
hundred years, will  inevitably be worn out at a
hundred.  But a  generation  trained under our
hands to follow, from the first,  the  great laws  of
nature, might be made  to last twenty or thirty or
fifty  years  longer,  and  a  subsequent  generation
fifty years longer  still, and  so on.   As the Creator
has Avisely ordered that occasional abuses, though
great, instead of destroying us in a single generation,
shall only produce  a gradual deterioration,  so, on
the other  hand, our obedience can  only raise us
again gradually to our primitive condition.
   But were it  true that no individual of this associ-
ation could, by the strictest  obedience to the great
laAVS of  life, prolong  his  own existence more than
ten or a dozen or tAventy years beyond what would
otherAvise have happened, still even that extension
is of the utmost importance.   For it is not the mere
extension for  a term of years, of a miserable old
age: it is   the  extension   of  every part  of  our
remaining existence—of our youth and our middle
life, no less then of life's later period.  Nay,  more;
conforming from this time forth to nature's laAvs, we
should  not  be likely to know much about old age.
Like the lamp, Avhich goes  out quietly Avhen  the
oil is spent, and  not before, so we should pass
quietly on till  our vitality Avas gone, when, like the
noble patriarchs of old, Ave should simply lie doAvn 
16
and expire.  The science of human life, faithfully
taught and everyAvhere obeyed, Avould remove—in
no small degree—the common form of death, by
violence.  For  may it not be  safely affirmed, that
seven  eighths,  if not ninety-nine  hundredths  of
what Ave call the  agonies of death are,  philosophi-
cally  speaking,  nothing less  than  indications  of
violence—often,  too,  of violence  from our  OAvn
hands?  I  will not call it suicide,  but it is next
door neighbor  to  it.   The  God  of  nature  never
created a necessity of such  agonies,  at the  disso-
lution of soul and body.   " Man makes " not only a
life, but a death, Avhich  " nature never made," and
which, properly or at least philosophically speaking,
she never contemplated.  Old age should be merely
a quiet evening, and death a tranquil sleep, prepara-
tory to a glorious and  happy morning.  And  such,
physiology, as the handmaid of religion, would tend
to render it.
  Let me now suggest some of the means by which
we  may hope  to accomplish  our purposes as an
association; as  well as specify more particularly a
few of the evils Ave wish to remove.
  We  must resolve to  become hard students.  No
depth of present knowledge or  height of  attainment,
whether acquired in one way or another, will super-
sede the necessity of further inquiry.  It is, indeed,
the duty of every  human being to be a student,
from the cradle to the grave.  Life is thus a great
school—an infant school, if you please  to call it so
—and life's scenes the lessons of  instruction.  I
say it is  our general duty as the creatures of God,
but more especially as the disciples of Christ, or at
least  as  bearing  his  nanie—that of christian—to, 
17
study hard; but  as members  of  a physiological
society, our obligations seem  to be, if possible, in-
creased.   I  care  not if the knoAV ledge  of  each
member of this association  Avere  as  profound as
that of the most  distinguished  citizen of this  me-
tropolis.  I care not, did  I say?  I recall the expres-
sion.   Would  to  Heaven it  were  so.  Still  hard
study Avould be required.  I  "go   the Avhole " for
science in everything.
   There are, however, other sources of information
accessible to us besides books.  There are  students
of the volume of nature,  as Avell as of the written
volume.   Nature's  pages are  ever  open for our
inspection.   Every day and every hour, if we arc
in earnest, may be made to shed light on our path.
We  are not compelled to descend into the deep to
bring up knowledge of this sort,  nor ascend into the
heavens to bring it down from thence.   " It is nigh
to thee, even in thy mouth," to use, reverently, the
language of holy Avrit, as  applied to another  sub-
ject.  It is in every part  of our systems.  We  may
learn much  by observing  and studying ourselves.
We may learn by observing others.   We may learn
by conversation. We may learn from books,  even the
most  common  newspaper or miscellaneous volume.
He Avhose physiological eyes are truly opened,  may
learn from almost every occurrence  and object.
  Let me not be  understood as  objecting to the
study  of books on  physiology.  I Avish  we  had
more  of them, provided they Avere better than those
we hoav have.   But herein is one of the great diffi-
culties Avith which, as an  association,  we shall be
obliged  to  contend.   I believe there is  not to be
found in the  English language, at least on this  side
             2* 
18
of  the  water,  a single  physiological  treatise—1
mean one Avhich is complete—that is Avell adapted
to popular use; to the Avants, for example, of this
association.   What, then, is  to be  done?  In the
absence of those books which are better, we shall
simply be obliged to use such as are already within
our reach.  We prefer the use of tools of an inferior
quality and character to none at all.
  31 r. George Combe's Constitution of Man, reject-
ing, if you choose, what he says upon phrenology, is,
in my vieAV, the  best work among us for adults  to
begin Avith.   But Dr. Combe's physiology is com-
paratively an inferior  work;  nor  are the compen-
diums  of Hayward,  Smith  and  Comstock, in my
view, much better.  The last mentioned is perhaps
the best.  The  more scientific and more  correct
works of Drs. Dunglison and Oliver are rather bet-
ter, but require a wider range in general science, and
more time for profound research, than some among
us  appear to possess.   It is but justice to express
the opinion, in passing, that some of our children
might be initiated into  the science of physiology,
and our OAvn labors  with  them  in  the family
somewhat lightened, by the  little  work called the
" House I live in."
  Here  suffer me to remark, that there  is probably
no  way in   which you  will make  so  much pro-
gress in this  science, or indeed in any other,  as  in
teaching it to your children, if you have any ; if not,
to your  brothers, or sisters, or wives, or husbands.
" Teaching we give, and giving we  retain."  And
there are feAv of you, I  suspect,  who  cannot find
time—at least half an hour a  day—for reading
with  and instructing others. It is surprising  to 
19
observe with  how  much  eagerness children, and
indeed persons  of  every description,  drink  down
physiological knoAvledge.   Let us avail ourselves of
this fact in our daily lives.
  A  popular  Avork  on  physiology,  divested  of
technicalities, brought  doAvn to  common apprehen-
sion, and rendered sufficiently practical, is at present
a desideratum; and perhaps it ought to  be one of the
first objects  of this association, to authorise, or at
least to encourage  the preparation of such a work.
No book Avould be more useful;  few, it is believed,
more acceptable.
  But whether we have the right  books or not, one
thing is certain; namely,  that we must study.  We
have committed ourselves to the Avorld as a physi-
ological society.  We have done this Avith our eyes
open, and in Boston.
  We must become  acquainted with each  other.
This,  indeed, is the first step.  Such a result  we
may hope to accomplish, at least in some measure,
by our monthly meetings.   But these meetings are,
for this  purpose,  insufficient.  We must seek  an
acquaintance by other means.  Let  not  this sug-
gestion be overlooked.  Many a  noble association
has failed, and many more have had  their useful-
ness greatly lessened, by the mutual ignorance and
consequent Avant of sympathy of the members.
  We shall next need a library.  Such books as
are to be found, Avell calculated  to enlighten  us on
subjects  connected with  physiology,  health  and
disease, should be carefully sought out  on both sides
of  the Atlantic, and  collected  together and made
accessible  to  every  member of  the  association.
Next  to becoming acquainted  with each other, I 
20
regard this as the most important measure we can
take.  Certain portions of those  works, embracing
neAv facts, or suggestions, or principles, might be
read and commented upon at our monthly meetings,
at least in the absence of more important or interest-
ing business.
   Whether  or not  we need  a periodical just noAV
I am uncertain.   Of one thing,  however,  I am
sure, Avhich is, that  if the society progresses, as it
ought to do, a period cannot be very far  distant
when it will possess ample and useful materials for
filling at least a monthly, perhaps a weekly paper,
Avith just such information, if well selected and
judiciously presented, as  the popular feeling no less
than the public good most imperiously demands.
  Having become acquainted with each other, and
thoroughly imbued  Avith the spirit of physiological
inquiry, and having secured a  good library for the
use of the society,  we must not be backward to
communicate  the knowledge we possess or may be
able to acquire.   There is not  a  member of the
association, old or young, male or female, who may
not, in this  Avay, do something, or communicate
some fact, either verbally or in writing, Avhich  will
both interest  and instruct the  association.   Let
every one, then, consider this as a part of  his duty.
Facts,  Avhether elicited by his own experience or
by that of others, Avhich have a manifest  bearing
on the  subject, will  always be useful, and should
not only  be treasured up by the members of the
association, but preserved.
  In all our  efforts, both to acquire  and diffuse
knowledge,  Ave should be  governed by a desire to
know the  truth.  Truth, pure  or perfect  truth, in 
21
 any pursuit, should be the standard.   Not that we
 shall be able to attain it, in every science; but the
 higher our aim, in everything, the more we shall
 be likely to accomplish;  and by the contrary rule,
 in proportion to the loAvness of our  aim will  our
 progress be sIoav and embarrassed.
   We should also love the truth.   No matter Avhere
 Ave find it, whether in our ovni family, or neighbor-
 hood,  or party, or  sect, or country; no  matter
 whether in this book, or that, or the other; no mat-
 ter whether it  be  uttered  by this or  that  learned
 lecturer, or by a  plain unlettered man;  no matter
 Avhether it stands  out on this or that page of the
 great book of nature.  No matter, I say, about any
 or all these  circumstances, provided  it  have  the
 certain stamp of truth.   For if it be  truth, that is
 sufficient.  Truth  is a diamond.  Who would not
 prize a precious jewel,  even though he should find
 it on a dunghill ?
   We  should not only seek to know and love truth
 of every kind, especially physiological truth, but the
 truth should make  us free.  It should  bring us into
 complete  liberty,  physical and  moral.  We say
 much  and hear much  said  of the slavery of two
 or three millions of people in these  United Stales.
 And much that is said on this subject is well said.
 I have surveyed, to a very considerable extent, the
 practical enormity of this great national evil.  I
 have not received  my information at second  hand;
my own  eyes have Avitnessed it.    Yet 1  have
witnessed other forms of slavery among us, Avhose
effects  are to  me  still more shocking;  forms of
slavery,  too, in Avhose horrors twelve or  fifteen,
instead of two or three millions of my countrymen 
22
are involved.  I allude of course  to the slavery of
bad physical habits; the slavery  of a being  made
originally in the image of God, but now very gen-
erally subjected to his appetites, lusts and passions.
In this view, I feel justified in saying that some
of the  Avorst forms of  slavery Avith which  I  am
acquainted exist around us in our OAvn goodly New
England, as Avell as elseAvhere; yes, in the proud
city of Boston itself.
  I have barely alluded  to the existence of an intel-
lectual and moral slavery among the rest; and to
that freedom to which  physiological truth invites
us.   Half the error  in the world, even in theory,
results,  directly  and indirectly,  from  the use  of
various forms of animal excitement, Avhich the God
of nature never designed for us.  I think it would
be easy to sustain this position by Avell knoAvn and
well attested facts.  My  present  limits, however,
do not  permit it.
  The late excellent and philanthropic Dr. Keagy,
of Philadelphia, once made the following remark—
" Three fourths of the vice that  entails Avretched-
ness on  the  human family, is,  if I may  use the
expression, physiological vice;  that is, vice consist-
ing in the  depraved  indulgence of the three  appe-
tites, or in the moral feelings brought immediately
into action by their means.  I  knoAV scores of pious
persons, who, for the Avant of physiological know-
ledge, cannot be  the perfect men  and women they
desire  to be."
  This statement is one of great  importance, and it
comes  from good authority.   Dr. Keagy was none
of  your visionaries.   He was  a plain,  practical,
common-sense lover of God and man.   But is it 
23
true, then, that three fourths of the vice among us
is physiological vice?  If so, at what a disadvan-
tage have  our moral and  intellectual teachers  la-
bored, Avho have so long endeavored to reform men
Avithout teaching them physiology, and even Avith-
out understanding it themsehres !   If so, too, Avhat
an amazing work  remains for  us  and for others to
do!   Will there longer  remain a  question in the
mind of any individual,  Avhether or not physiologi-
cal societies are  necessary ?
  We must  labor, as a society, to free the commu-
nity from  superstition.  It is  a curious historical
fact that Eliot, the Indian  apostle,  about two hun-
dred years ago,  endeavored to  teach anatomy and
physiology to the Indian tribes of this very region,
as a means of freeing them from a blind and super-
stitious obedience to  their powaAvs or sorcerers,
Avho held  them in  awe, and  almost or  quite in
adoration, by their pretensions to the art of curing
diseases, foretelling events, &c.  Eliot actually  at-
tempted the work of instruction himself; and Avhen
he found he Avas unable to do everything alone, he
sought with  long and patient effort to procure aid,
both in lecturers and funds, not only at home but
in Mngland;  and only gave up the project  Avhen he
Avas actually compelled to  do so, by the iron hand
of necessity.
  This is  a striking  lesson to us.   For the lapse of
two  centuries has not diminished  the necessity of
liberating   people'from a  blind and unreasonable
superstition.  We, too, have our poAvaAvs.  At least,
Ave  have our quacks—our cure-alls, by some nos-
trum or other—at  every  corner; and  the multitude
are deluded by their  vain and arrogant pretensions. 
Is it  then  too  much to say,  that by the mass of
mankind, they are adored or worshipped?  Is it
not strictly true that we bow down to them ?  Yes,
many millions of our race—quite into the dust.
  Our object is to prevent evil in the world, rather
than attempt to do much in the way of cure.  Pre-
vention  is  our motto.  We would be the humble
disciples, in one respect, at  least, of him who came
down from heaven, not to destroy men, but to save
them.  There are associations enough in the world,
already, whose objects,  or  at least whose  results,
are to spread destruction; but there are compara-
tively few whose  objects and Avhose results  are to
promote human enjoyment and happiness.
  We would save  men  by preventing  a  flood of
intemperance from sweeping  over the earth, as it
constantly does.   We are not willing that nearly a
million of our race should die in these United States
every thirty years, from the direct effects of intem-
perance  in  the  use of spirituous and  fermented
liquors.  Nor are we willing that the expense which
it involves, in time  and money, to say  nothing of
the suffering and  avo, should  be  incurred.   The
amount of $100,000,000 a year wasted in the use of
alcoholic drinks, besides $10,000,000 for coffee and
tea, is in thirty years, no less than $3,300,000,000.
I have  confidence in the intentions of  Tempe-
rance Societies.   They certainly have done some-
thing to arrest the ravages of the destroying angel;
but I fear they have done nearly all they can do,
till physiology comes to their aid, and shows them,
and  through them, the community, the why and
the wherefore, in this matter.   The advocates for
temperance  have trusted, for  the most part, thus 
25
far, in appeals to the feelings of the people, and  in
statements of facts.  They have done very little  to
show them the causes which lead to  intemperate
habits,  and  the consequent  means  of preventing
them.   Their  efforts  have  been  confined to the
work of correction, rather than to the still greater
Avork of prevention.
   Nor are we willing that gluttony should continue
to SAvell the flood of human  avo, as heretofore.  It
is believed that  as much time and as many persons
have been murdered, directly  or indirectly,  at least
in these United States, during the  last thirty years,
by excess or  abuse  in eating,  as by error in regard
to drinking.   It is believed that abuses in eating
stupify and benumb  the soul even more than the
usual  abuses in drinking;  and that if they wear
out  the powers  of life and  destroy vitality  more
slowly, they do  it not less surely.  But I have no
expectation of removing the  evil  of gluttony from
among  us, till  people  cease  to SAvallow  all sorts
of improper  excitants—condiments,  gravies,  flesh
meats, &c.  I have little hope of a people who con-
tinue to destroy, by these means,  as probably the
people of  the United States do, every thirty years,
at least another million of  the race, and waste  in
medicine,   medical  aid  and loss of time,  at  least
another $3,000,000,000.
   Nor are Ave willing that  licentiousness, the  com-
panion  of drunkenness and gluttony,  should con-
tinue its  ravages,  and  not  only  sAveep from the
earth every year its millions, besides rendering the
lives of other millions miserable while they last, but
cause a waste   of time  and money—even  in  one
little United States—Avhich it would be difficult for
me to estimate.
           3 
26
  We shudder also  to see thousands, yes, tens of
thousands of our young and  middle-aged people,
cut off yearly by diseases Avhich are either caused
or aggravated  by errors in dress.  We believe that
a knoAvledge of anatomy and  physiology, Avidely
disseminated, would  gradually do something to put
a stop to this horrid evil.   If indeed it should  not
prevent those whose habits are already formed from
destroying themselves, might it not lead  them to
train properly the rising generation?  And might
not consumption, and lung  fever, and colds, and a
thousand ills which  flesh is heir to—flesh in  our
stomachs at  least—be thus gradually remo\-ed?
  In short, is there—can there be any way devised
which shall  prevent mankind from destroying them-
selves and others, " before the  time," by abuses of
body or mind, in one form or  another, except by
spreading  abroad, far and Avide,  the  science  of
human  life?  Is there—can  there be any  other
effectual way  of preventing not only  those  pains
and sufferings  Avhich are everywhere found among
us, but  those unnatural and violent deaths ?
  These considerations suggest  to my mind—and I
leave it for your consideration—Avhether this  asso-
ciation  should  not  appoint a  committee at each
annual  meeting, whose duty it should be to trace
out the causes of the diseases  Avhich  exist around
them, where it could  be done Avithout giving offence
to the sufferer.  One perhaps  would trace out the
causes of consumption, in some individuals  dying
from that disease.   Another might  ascertain Avhat
sort of a life a certain apoplectic individual has led.
Another might trace out the  causes which led to
the death of some factory or school girl, and so on.
# 
27
If such labors could be  faithfully performed and
honestly  reported,  and  especially  by  men ac-
quainted with medicine as well as physiology, they
would do much for the cause of suffering, bleeding,
dying humanity.
   I have not taken into particular consideration the
expense or rather loss of happiness Avhich ensues—
short of actual disease—from errors in regard  to
food, drink, exercise,  dress, &c.   It is, of course,
difficult to come at a  point like this;  but is it not
Avell  known that  one of  the  worst features  of all
sorts of physical  error,  especially intemperance,  is
its stupifying  tendency—the   moral  insensibility,
loss of nervous energy, destitution of cheerfulness,
moral courage, &c. ?  There  is  a point, very far
short of actual disease,  at which we may, in these
respects, suffer much.  He who is given to low or
improper indulgence, in any form, is gratifying his
appetite with husks, instead of the Avholesome, sub-
stantial things of  a father's  house.   The  truly
temperate man does not merely enjoy, but he  enjoys
in a high degree—a degree of which the slave to
indulgence has no  adequate conception.  The mere
gustatory pleasures which we secure in living ac-
cording to the simple laAvs of nature, are  as far
beyond  the  enjoyments  of  the  person  Avho  is
addicted to gluttony or intemperance,  as an  animal
existence  is superior to a merely vegetable life; or
to use a  strong comparison,  as  heaven is  higher
than  hell.   But to these should  be  added the in-
creased  intellectual and  moral enjoyment   which
follows in the train of temperance.  Who has tasted
this  without sighing for  the  emancipation  of his
fellow men ?  Think, for a moment, of the high 
28
capabilities of our race—designed, no doubt, would
they obey all the laws of God, organic and revealed,
to stand near his throne, even this side the grave,
and yet by their disobedience, through successive
generations, thrust down to a place in the  scale of
existence which some brutes need not envy.   What
a tremendous loss is here !
  In aiming to save rather than to  destroy men's
lives, Ave must study peace.   Not indeed in  every
respect; for I trust that every member of this asso-
ciation does in some respects meditate a Avar eternal.
Against bad habits, especially in ourselves, I trust
Ave have already taken  up arms, never to lay them
down—no,  never, never.  But all our principles are
otherwise  pacific.  Carried  out, they would super-
sede the necessity of  all  peace societies, technically
so called.  " From Avhence come wars and fightings
among you ?  Come  they not  hence,  even  of your
lusts that Avar in your members?"   (James iv. 1.)
The apostle was right.   He understood this matter.
Wars Avould soon be banished from the earth, were
men not only theoretically but practically obedient
to the laAvs of life.
  But the kind of peace which Ave chiefly meditate,
as preliminary to such happy results, and indicated
by the apostle himself,  is  peace in  our own  mem-
bers.  Alas, Avhat Avars and fightings exist here, in
this little  confederacy of the human body!  Hoav
we daily disturb, by our dietetic  and other errors,
the harmony of each province of this domain, and
kindle  a civil war  in  each  separate  state, and
destroy also the peace, and happiness,  and safety
of the whole confederacy.  Oh when  shall we learn
so to eat,  drink, breathe, bathe, sleep,  exercise, 
29
think,  speak  and  act,  as  shall conduce to the
highest happiness, not only of each of the provinces
or states to which I refer, but of the whole union ?
Let us, hoAvever, as members of the first society  of
the kind,  aim  at nothing short of this; and may
the God of universal peace second our exertions !
  I have  elseAvhere  quoted the  opinion of Dr.
Keagy, that three  fourths of the vice which  exists
among us, is physiological vice.  Now there is one
form of physiological  vice which is spreading far
and Avide in our community; and which threatens
to become  a  foe  to  human happiness still  more
deadly in   proportion as  society  becomes  more
refined, and people  more  and more  effeminate.
One motive to urge  forward the members of this
society, should be the  hope of diffusing among
parents,  masters,  guardians and teachers, every-
Avhere, that knowledge  which  will  alone enable
them to meet  the terrible danger Avhich  threatens
their  offspring; and against Avhose inroads  not  a
family or  school is wholly  secure.  There may  be
those  among  you  Avho  will think  I  exaggerate
Avhen Fsay this; but 1 have abundant reason for
believing  that  the  Avhole truth has  not  yet been
told.   1  have  proof positive that  this species  of
depravity has  reached our common  schools, and
that unless something is speedily done,  it will under-
mine everything dear and valuable  in human char-
acter among  us.  As individuals,  then, and as  a
society, if we can,  let us lift our voices and exert
our influence to stem  this tide of death.  Let us,  if
possible, save the  purity of the rising generation;
but this, Ave may rely upon it, can  only be done by
the diffusion of sound physiological knowledge.
            3» 
30
  One  important aim of societies like our  own
should be, to effect a reform in medical  practice.
I regret to say so, especially as I  am  liable to be
misunderstood.   I entertain  no sentiments of hos-
tility towards  medical men,  as such, nor towards
the medical  profession.   But  I tell you, as  I do
not hesitate to  tell  them, that there ought  to be a
radical reform of their profession.
  At the present time, physicians are paid in exact
proportion to the amount of disease, real or sup-
posed, which exists in the community.   The greater
the amount of disease, the greater is  the demand
for physicians,  and  the greater the expense to the
community for their support.   This,  I say, is the
general truth.   And the consequences are obvious.
Measures for  the  prevention  of disease, and the
 promotion of health  and longevity, will be so di-
rectly in opposition  to their pecuniary interests, that
 though there  may  be and are many  individuals
 among  them anxious  for reform, yet, as a body, it
 cannot  be expected  they will make  any strong
 efforts for this purpose.  Why should they?   What
 motive have  they  to  do so?  No expectations of
 this sort on our part would be encouraged by any
 known facts  in the history  of mankind.   When
 and Avhere has any profession of  men  reformed it-
 self?
   1 might here  add a curious fact in relation to
 the demand for and  employment  of physicians, as
 society is now constituted.   Not only  is  it for the
 interest of medical  men  that  disease should be in-
 creased, and thus an increase  of expense incurred,
 but it is also true that, to a certain extent, the more
 physicians  we have in  the community, the more 
31
 expense we actually have.   Not that many medical
 men, young or old, are so  hardened or so hungry
 as to cause or prolong disease by design.  Such a
 charge  is,  by some,  often preferred against them;
 but  1 regard it as unjust.  Yet who has not often
 Avitnessed  an  increase of  medical  business  in  a
 community,  in  proportion  to the increase in the
 number of physicians? What individual of this
 assembly,  Avhose opportunities for observation  have
 not  been exceedingly limited, will not be ready to
 attest the truth of this suggestion?
   Let me illustrate, more fully, my meaning.  Sup-
 pose a country town of 2000 inhabitants.  Suppose
 it contains two  physicians,  whose practice affords,
 and  has long afforded them a comfortable support,
 but  no  more.  Let a  third physician, especially a
 busy young man,  attempt  to establish himself  in
 the  place,  and what Avill  be the result?  Will he
 not  often succeed, and  that  too Avithout a corres-
 ponding increase of population or  of disease; and
 also  Avithout  any decrease of the business of the
 other physicians?   But if so, hoAV is it effected?
  The  case  is something as  folioavs.   People are
 everywhere predisposed to trust  to external efforts,
 rather  than  nature, for the  cure  of disease;  in
 other words,  they are  everywhere disposed to fa-
 vor  quackery.  When a  young physician  plants
 himself down in a neighborhood,  he usually goes
 abroad  daily,  more or less, among  the  people.
 These,  almost universally, have some  ailment  or
other, or at least imagine  they have, about which
 they are very apt to  consult him.   Did they not
see  him abroad,  the   disease might  perhaps be
 trusted to nature.  The story has been told over to 
32
 the old physicians till  they  are tired of it.   But
 the presence of a new, sprightly, young physician
 reminds them of their troubles;  and forthwith they
 apply  to  him.   And thus it  is  that,  in  fact, he
 may be said to create business,   in short, the more
 physicians  there  are in  a community, the more
 there is of disease, real or imaginary, or both,  and
 the more  of "doctoring"  and  "doctors' bills," as
 Avell as loss of health and  happiness, and  perhaps
 of life.  The contrary, also, is true,  that, to  a cer-
 tain extent, the less the  number of physicians in a
 community, the  less there is of disease,  expense,
 loss of time, &c.
   We should not overlook, here,  the loss of life in
 employing, too  early, the  young  physician.  Pres.
 Lindsley, of  the College at Nashville, Tennessee,
 says  it may be safely  calculated that, as things
 are  in  society,  every young  physician, who suc-
 ceeds  in getting a good run  of business, destroys
 from tAvelve  to twenty lives in  accomplishing  his
 purpose.   Why should not young physicians first
 serve a sort  of apprenticeship, under  the  care  of
 some old and  experienced practitioner ?
   Two things necessary to  be secured in the pro-
 gress of a medical reform are the following:__1. To
 render the compensation of physicians, surgeons, &c.
 in just proportion, always, to health,  and not  to
 the loss of  it.  Something not unlike this is said  to
 be done already in China, and a few other countries
 of the East.   But we have  examples  of the same
 sort of  wisdom  still  nearer home.  The southern
planters often employ as skilful a physician as they
can to attend their families—especially their slaves
—at a fixed  salary.  Whether the salary be  little 
33
or much, it will of course be for the attending phy-
sician's interest to earn  it  as easily as  possible.
He will, therefore, be furnished not  only with a
motive for curing those already sick, in the safest
and best manner, but also  for preventing the recur-
rence of disease  in the same individuals,  or  the
occurrence of it in others.
   This effort at prevention is the  other important
thing to which I referred, as requiring a reformation
in medical  practice.   Hoav  much  better Avould it
be to pay the physician and the dentist  for such
advice and  aid as Avould prevent  the  disorder or
decay of our organs, than  to lose days and weeks,
and months and  years of time—to say nothing of
the pain and suffering—and pay larger bills besides?
The advantage of making more use of the advice
and aid of skilful physicians in our families, in  the
Avay of prevention rather than  cure,  Avhen con-
trasted with our  usual  injudicious, short-sighted
fashion in  this matter,  Avould,  at the very first
view, strike us Avith  surprise, Avere it  not for  the
tyranny of long established and strongly confirmed
habits.  If this use, moreover, Avere to be made of
medical men, it Avould gradually compel  them to
a  more practical  acquaintance  Avith the laAvs of
health and life.
   How much we can do directly, as an association,
in furtherance of a measure of this kind, is  uncer-
tain ;  but indirectly, that is, in the carrying out of
our plans and purposes, we may probably accom-
plish a great deal.  It is, however, as individuals,
and by the force of individual example, as it seems
to me, that Ave shall be able to do most, at least for
the present.   Let  us not hesitate to seek the conn- 
34
 sel of the wisest and best medical men we can find,
 in regard to the future course of ourselves and our
 families.   Let us seek their assistance in determin-
 ing  hoAV  far  the physiological  errors of ourselves
 and  those  who preceded  us, have  deranged our
 constitutions, and  broken  in  upon  the harmony
 originally intended by the Creator.  Let us consult
 them especially in  regard to the appropriate  physi-
 cal  management of the younger members  of our
 families.   We are  not, in these cases, to turn our
 own  experience out of doors,  when it  appears  to
 conflict, on any point, Avith the opinion  or  advice
 of the physician ; nor should Ave hastily reject the
 latter.  The one may serve to correct the other.
   Let us be decided.   How much is lost to every
 good cause for want of decision of character.  We
 but half do our business  in this  Avorld, especially
 in associations, because Ave seem but half convinced
 of their importance; and  because Ave lack energy
 and  true  decision of character.  We want  not  a
 little of the spirit of Luther, Avhen cited to appear
 before the diet  of Worms.  Having  made up his
 mind that it was his duty  to go, he was not to be
 dissuaded from his purpose, though beset Avith men
 or devils thick as the tiles  on the houses.
   If there be a quality or trait in human character
 in especial demand at the present  crisis, it is moral
 courage.  The Avorld is on the eve of a  great revo-
 lution—the  probable results of Avhich are, to some
 classes and characters of  men, but too well known
 and dreaded.  Of course it cannot be expected they
 will  yield, even  to an ovenvhelming force, without
a  struggle.  Did I say we Avere  on the eve of  a
revolution?  We are even now in its very midst, 
35
The conflict is already going on; battles are hourly
fought.  They are the  battles of the great day of
the Lord Almighty.  Can the issue then be doubt-
ful?  And Avill any one in this association be found
wanting, at a day like this, in moral courage?
   One of the  great points now at issue is the right
of free discussion—the right of inculcating  verbally
and by the press, Avhatever lessons and doctrines we
please, provided we do it in a quiet, and peaceable,
and citizen-like manner. Shall it be said of republican
America, in the sixty-first year of her independence,
that we are at this moment fighting for liberty of
speech and of the press ?  And yet is  it not true ?
   Fellow citizens and members of this association;
no fears !   The battle  may rage sometime longer,
and individuals among us may even be called to
make sacrifices, not only of property but of reputa-
tion.   But I say again—let  us entertain no fears for
the final result.
   It is desirable,  hoAvever,  that as  a society,  we
labor to  make our objects  understood.  This is due
to the public and to ourselves.   These, Avhen  once
fairly known, cannot fail to commend themselves
to the wise and good of every community.   I  Avish
it might, therefore, be felt by every member of  the
association, to be  an indispensable and imperious
duty to inform those who may Avish to knoAV, that we
are a society for acquiring  and promoting physio-
logical knowledge  among ourselves, as a first  step,
before  we  hope  to be  able to communicate  it to
others.
   Lastly, let us resolve  to persevere.   We  have
begun a  good  Avork; let us determine to pursue it,
and with a strong arm.  We have seen that  there 
36
is enough for us to do;  and though we may not be
able to do everything,  we are certainly able to do
much.  And what  we  can do, we  ought to do.
The world is suffering chiefly because men will not
do  what  they knoAV they ought to  do.   Let  us
therefore,  as the first American Physiological So-
ciety, remember the injunction once inculcated on a
certain class in another nation—England expects
every man to do his duty.   We may, indeed, in our
OAvn case, slightly change the injunction, and say—
" Physiology expects every one of her disciples to
do his duty."
  But I  have done. Not  that the  subject is ex-
hausted—but the  time; and I fear, your patience.
The subject itself is almost  as boundless as the
uniA'erse Ave inhabit.  It is at least as illimitable  as
human want and human wo.  May it  be the good
fortune  of this association, aided by  hundreds—
perhaps  thousands—of  auxiliaries,  to  do some-
thing which shall, under divine guidance, contract
these limits; something  to check the  mighty flood
of  human  turpitude—something to   restore  the
divine image  to  our erring  and suffering race.
Then when that summons shall arrive, which even
physiology cannot always  avert, may the  forma-
tion of  this association for the promotion of  the
study of physiological science, be among the hap-
piest recollections of our departing moments.  May
it add one smile to our fading, dying countenances;
and may the results of our efforts—feeble as  they
may have been—impart one ray of hope, in a dying
hour, for the millions left behind. 
 
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