THEOBALD SMITH 



PROFESSOR OF COMPARATIVE PATHOLOGY, HARVARD 



MEDICAL SCHOOL 



IN 1896 Harvard University established a department or 

 chair through the agency of which the study of disease in 

 its various manifestations was to be extended to animal life. 

 Disease wherever it might appear in the animal world was 

 to be studied for two purposes : 



1. To extend any knowledge obtained in this way to 

 the study of human disease and its amelioration and 

 prevention. 



2. To apply such knowledge to the suppression and 

 eradication of the plagues of animal life. 



Like physiology, this department of general or com- 

 parative pathology must apply its inquiries to animal life 

 because, like physiology, it must experiment rather than 

 merely observe. As a representative of that department 

 of medical inquiry I must therefore take cognizance of this 

 bill, because, if enacted into law, it would seriously hamper 

 by its restrictions that progress in the study of disease 

 which we all expect from properly conducted laboratory 

 research. 



Even the most careful scrutiny of the beginnings, course, 

 and termination of spontaneous animal diseases does not 

 enable us to penetrate much below the surface. Such 

 study must be followed by a minute analysis, which is only 

 made possible by carefully planned experiments which en- 

 able us to estimate the value of the various factors which 

 lead to and induce disease. Here it is where animal ex- 

 perimentation must enter. By properly planned experi- 



