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induction the world has ever seen—to the knowledge of the remotest stars of the solar system—to the discovery of Voltaic electricity—to that of the atomic theory of Dr. Dalton —to the wondrous inventions in the mechanical arts that have in recent times all but realised the fervent appeal of the lover in Martinus Scriblerus, “ Ye Gods, annihilate both space and time ”—to the names of Ferguson, of Hallé, of Priestley, of Herschell, and of Davy, and feel that in the limited circle of our own profession, we may boast names and discoveries, not inferior in greatness or utility, and which, if they display themselves in a less degree as the result of the highest order of inductive reasoning, than on that of experimental science, greatly exceed them in their intrinsic value, if guaged by their subserviency to the well-bemg and happiness of mankind.
Famiharised by daily imtimacy with any recognised fact or phenomena, however grand its discovery, the mind ceases to wonder. We lose the power, or rather the habit of appre- ciating it in its early grandeur, forgetful of the mtellect that has been employed in developing it, and it takes its place in a prominent position in the great temple of science, to support the superstructure of yet more recent discoveries.
In our own profession, I may allude not unworthily to Mr. Hunter’s inductive reasoning on the subject of arterial disease,—to the yet older discovery of the circulation—to that of the recent investigations of Dr. Marshall Hall, which have established the important doctrine of the independence of the true spinal cord,—to the introduction of the vaccine virus as an antidote to smallpox, a disease more destructive than the plague ;—to the identity of the cellular formation
