JAMES J. PUTNAM 



PROFESSOR OF NEUROLOGY, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL 



As a practitioner of medicine and a teacher in the medical 

 school, I object to these bills for the same reason that 

 the petitioners advocate them, namely, in the interests of 

 the relief of suffering. I believe that if either of them 

 should become a law the progress of medical discovery 

 would be impeded and the standards of medical education 

 lowered. Progress in medicine is not possible without 

 some suffering. The only question is, How may the best 

 results be secured at the least cost of suffering? The 

 suffering which practising physicians see is of a character 

 and intensity which is almost unknown to the animal king- 

 dom. Physical pain is the smallest part of it, the much 

 greater part being the anxiety, overwhelming sorrow, and 

 the various troubles incidental to sickness. For the relief 

 of this sort of suffering no conceivable medical education 

 is too good, and the second-rate doctor is the cause of 

 infinitely more pain than the physiologist. 



It is often felt that medicine is a finished art and science. 

 But this is not the case. The medical practice of the 

 present day is not far removed from the superstitions of 

 more primitive times and it is under a constant tendency 

 to relapse. It is only by strenuous effort that men can be 

 trained as first-rate physicians. The standards of the Har- 

 vard Medical School have been constantly advanced, until 

 now only students from the most intelligent class of the 

 community are admitted. But in order that such students 

 should be attracted, they must be given the opportunity to 

 meet instructors of the best scientific training and instincts, 



