THEOBALD SMITH 1 19 



aration or improvement of antitoxin, as it will be difficult 

 to obtain self-respecting, conscientious experts who will 

 work under the conditions imposed by the bill. Many 

 teachers and investigators have chosen their life work, with 

 its many self-denials, with the expectation of being re- 

 lieved of the many harassing conditions of business life. 

 It can hardly be supposed that they will submit to the 

 espionage proposed by this bill and the notoriety and 

 publicity likely to follow such espionage --since there is 

 nothing in the bill which would prevent the inspectors and 

 their superiors from making use of the daily press to inter- 

 pret in whatever manner they please the result of their 

 raids upon the laboratories. 



I doubt that the people of this State are prepared to 

 stultify themselves by restricting and suppressing research 

 at home, while freely utilizing the beneficial results and 

 products of such work done in other States and other 

 countries. The State which repudiates biological research 

 should, to be consistent, forbid its officials to apply the 

 most advanced methods for the suppression of disease. 



In conclusion, I firmly believe that the human race of 

 the future will need all the knowledge concerning health 

 and disease which we can gather together, and that any 

 discouragement placed upon the study of biology will 

 prove a step backward. Wherever advancing civilization 

 has made the domestication of plants and animals neces- 

 sary to its progress, there diseases have multiplied. With 

 the more intensive agriculture of the near future, and the 

 denser herding together of human beings and of the ani- 

 mals with which they nourish themselves, it will require all 

 the knowledge and foresight of the race to keep the present 

 diseases in check, and to keep others from springing up 

 out of the more favorable surroundings. Our civilization 

 from one point of view and for the present is a great dike 

 which protects us from an external sea of disease. There 



