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Clinical science has evolved since the days of Sir Thomas Lewis, who gave the St Cyres lecture in 1931 and whose eponymous chair I occupy. It involves still the penetration of astute clinical observation, but has come increasingly to embrace the elucidation of underlying mechanisms in the more con- trolled conditions of the laboratory. Its com- pass is being stretched by the reductionism of molecular and cell biology, but these exciting developments do not exonerate us from the ever daunting task of seeking to understand the coordinated behaviour of the whole. Per- haps biomathematics will give new impetus to our efforts to discern form in the noise. Never was there greater need for cross-talk between the different scientific disciplines and between scientists and clinicians.
A.H. Henderson (Fri,) studied this question.