WILLIAM T. COUNCILMAN IOQ 



disease, can only be understood by producing the same 

 lesions in animals and studying the various stages in their 

 evolution. At the post-mortem examination in most cases 

 we see the completed product, we cannot explain how the 

 changes have arisen. 



The greatest triumphs of the experimental method have 

 been the discovery of the causes of disease. In the 

 changes produced by bacteria we are able to ward off the 

 causes in many instances, in others to destroy them, and 

 in still others to neutralize their effects when in spite of 

 our efforts they have acted on the individual. As for para- 

 sites of a higher order than the bacteria, the knowledge of 

 their life history, which could only come from animal ex- 

 perimentation, has enabled us to take hygienic measures 

 which ward off their results. One of the best examples 

 of what may come from such application of our knowledge 

 is given in trichinosis, which is almost eradicated as a 

 disease of man. The same is true of another parasitic 

 disease produced by the echinococcus. 



The importance which comes in the treatment of dis- 

 ease from knowing has been recognized by those in charge 

 of hospitals. The trustees of large hospitals would not be 

 influenced by mere theoretical considerations. They are 

 men of influence in the community, men of affairs, who 

 give their time to the business management of hospitals as 

 the physicians and surgeons give theirs to the treatment of 

 the sick in them. These men in charge of the two great 

 hospitals in Boston, hospitals of which every citizen of the 

 Commonwealth is proud, have said that in the treatment of 

 the sick every means by which knowledge can be gained 

 shall be availed of. More than this, they say that these 

 hospitals shall not be in the position of paupers, merely 

 utilizing the knowledge gained by others, but their in- 

 fluence and reputation shall be widespread, they shall 

 contribute to knowledge. To this end they have created 



