The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1917-04-06

totle, styled as the greatest thinker
of antiquity, the son of a physician,
especially educated in the physical
science, and for the time we'll &c.
Quainted with the dissection of ami
mails, described the brain as being a
cold lump of substance, functionating
in the capacity of furnishing a lubri-
cant for the eyes and by far NRtt to
lie the organ of the "sensus comunis"
But the marked contrast between
the knowledge of Aristotle of that
time and our knowledge of today
with regard to this great nervous
mechanism serves to indicate the
steady progress which has been
made in the solution of scientific
medical facilities.
Let me briefly recapitulate a few
of our physiological acquisitions, due
in large measure to our new instru-
ments and methods of research, and
at the same time indicate the limits
Which form the permanent or tempo
rary boundaries of our knowledge.
The microscope which has made a
new science of the intimate structure
of the organs. has at the same time
cleared up many uncertainties with
regards to the mechanism OF special
function. Up to the time of the liv-
ing generation of observers, nature
had kept over all her inner work
shops the forbidding inscription, "No
admittance." If any prying observer
yentured to spy through his magnify
ing tubes into the mysteries of her
glands, canals and fluids, she cover.
ed up her work in binding mists
and bewildering "halos" as the deitIes
OF old concealed their favored heroes
in the moment of danger. But sci
ence has lifted the turbid light of
her lenses and blanched their delu.
sive rainbows Anatomy studies the
organism in space. Physiology also
studies 1t in time. After the study
of form and composition follows
close that of action, and this leads
US along back to the first moment of
the germ, and forward to the resohl.
ton of the living frame into its life
| less element
In this way that branch Of Anatomy
which we call histology has become
inseparably blended with the study
of function. AS we have seen nature
anticipating the plasterer in the
mechanism of her fibre-cartrige. so
we see her with the glass-blower in
her dealing with the cell. The artisan
blows his vitreous bubbles large or
small to be used as they are wanted.
So does nature shape her hyaline
/
the parts where they are found. The
artisan whirls his rod and his glass
DuDples become flattened discs. So
are these lips of ours all glazed with
microscopic tiles formed of fattened
cells to serve the needs of their loca-
ton All through the human anatomy
cells are found modified or unchang-
J ed. They roll in inconceivable multi
tudes as bi-concaved non-nucleated
blood discs through our vessels. Cells
again preside over those chemical pro-
cesses which elaborate the living
diu1ds, they change their form to be-
come the agents Of voluntary and in
voluntary motion.
Even the soul itself sits upon
throne of indicated cells and flashes
It's mandates through the skeins of
CLASSY filaments which were once
but a simple chain of visccles. And
as If to reduce the problem of living
force to its simplest expression, we
see the yolk of transparent egg as
it divides itself in whole or in part
and again dividing and sub-dividing
until 1t has become great mass of
cells out of which the harmonious d.
Verslty of organs arranges itself
worm or man as God has willed from
the beginning.
Science is descriptive and not ex.
planatory. We see the workman and
the tools, but the skill that guides the
work and the power that performs it
are as invisible as ever. But we have
discovered the working bee in this
great hive of physiological organiza.
ton. We have detected the cell in
the very act Of forming itself from
nucleus of Transforming itself into
various tissues of selecting the ele-
ments of various secretions. But why
one cell becomes nerve and another
muscle, while one selects bile and an.
other fat, we can no more pretend to
tell than why a goose picks grass and
grows feathers and sheep picks the
same grass and grows wool
4 will only call your attention to the
TACT that the exceptional phoenome-
non of the laboratory is the prevailing
laws of organism. Nutrition itself is
but one great catalytic process. As
the blood goes gushing through our
arteries, capillaries and veins, each
portion of the human anatomy selects
It's appropriate element and trans.
forms it to its own likeness. Whether
the appropriating agent be cell or
nucleus or structureless solid line the
substance of cartilage
the very fact of its presence determ-
ines the separation of its proper con-
stltuents from the circulating fluid.
SO that when We are wounded, hone is
replaced by bone, skin by skin and
nerve by nerve.
President Hubbard this occasion
which has called us together reminds
us not a little of that other ceremony
which unites a man and woman for
life. Those bonds of merit have al
ready been pronounced which have
welded the members of the gradual.
Ing classes to their chosen profess
'ions. 1t remains only then, dear
president for you to address to them
few friendly words of cheering
council and few days hence to be-
stow upon them the parting benedic- |,
lion. With you and the members of
he faculty this is an occasion. but
with the members of the various i.
graduating classes it is an epoch. Our ,,
other hearers are as the spectators =
1t the wedding, who look curiously .
Ind the bride and bridegroom, the
bridal veil and the orange-Hower- q
garland, the giving and receiving of ,
he ring and wonder what are those q