intimate connection with the public purse, cannot fail to assist the whole movement which is taking place in favor of hygienic science and its independent and well-endowed instruction.
The whole movement is still going on, but not without resistance here and there. This resistance shields itself, sometimes, behind the pretext that there are at present not enough well-qualified teachers. Certainly the beginning has its difficulties, but everything must have its beginnings. This was the case with the first periodical in Germany for public hygiene, founded by Dr. Varrentrapp, which has achieved an entire success, in spite of all misgivings and discouraging vaticinations before it was started. Worthy representatives of the neglected science will be found for teaching it, as soon as a serious demand manifests itself. A certain species of medical men will be quite made for it, after some preparation. Hygiene is, after all, nothing but applied physiology, with particular reference to the physical well-being of mankind. According to my experience, men of science and physicians, who are specially grounded in the practical and theoretical study of physiology, chemistry, and natural philosophy, are those who can most easily fit themselves for the special work of hygienic science. It is true, physiology includes the most essential points of hygiene, and physiology is an application of natural philosophy, chemistry, and anatomy. But as the votaries of the latter sciences have never done the work of pure physiologists, so these would never have done, and never will do, the work of pure hygienists. England has preceded other countries in the creation of professorships for hygiene, I confidently believe that the proper men, in sufficient number, will also be met with in Germany in a short time.
Should my lectures in Dresden have had the effect, in some degree, of turning your hearts and minds toward the most pressing tasks of hygiene, so that every one of you may do his best for them in his own sphere, then I am sure I have done something practically useful, and have not spoken in vain.
| A BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH OF DISCOVERY OF THE CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD. |
By GEORGE JACKSON FISHER, M. D.
AMONG the great discoveries which the genius and patient research of man have developed, none lay us under more grateful obligations, in view of its practical value and admirable simplicity, than that of the circulation of the blood. Historians record the rise, progress, and decline of nations, the discovery of new countries, and
