Page:The Harveian oration 1903.djvu/64

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58 THE HARVEIAN ORATION, 1903

For the complete understanding of the electrical and chemical changes which are associated with the passage of the nervous stimulus and the muscular response we should require to know what are the underlying molecular rearrangements and alteration in chemical constitution crudely represented by the formation of certain waste products. At this point I say precise knowledge fails us, and we turn for assistance to theories which have been so helpful in the explanation of the properties of non-living matter, consistent therein with the principle laid down by Mayer half a century ago “to refer both vital and physical phenomena to a common measure.”

Whilst I have endeavoured to illustrate with such completeness as my brief time permits the relationship of physiology to anatomy, whether normal or morbid, the general tenour of my remarks will have indicated that when the limits of visibility even with our most perfect instruments have been reached the separate investigation of structure and of function no _ longer becomes possible. The molecular constitution, chemical or electrical, of living matter becomes conceivable only in terms of action, and function and structure are but aspects of each other.

No deeper secrets of nature exist to be searched out by observation and experiment than

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