RESEARCH IN MEDICINE 515 



phenomenal development of pathology, under Eokitansky and Virchow, 

 was Morgagni's publication in 1761 of his " Seats and Causes of Dis- 

 ease," the first systematic effort to correlate clinical manifestations with 

 pathological anatomy. Likewise, the introduction by Jenner (1796) 

 of the systematic practise of vaccination against small-pox, presaged 

 those methods of prophylaxis which within the next century were to 

 revolutionize the methods of controlling many of the infectious dis- 

 eases. We will return in later lectures to both Morgagni and Jenner 

 and their influence on the development of pathology and immunology, 

 but here they serve with Hunter and Haller to illustrate how a few 

 individuals with a genius for accurate observation, sound thinking and 

 exact experimentation may by their contributions foreshadow the activi- 

 ties of a succeeding century, and be the forerunners of new schools of 

 thought. Their labors with those of Vesalius, Pare and Harvey are 

 examples of that effort which, isolated though it was, during the three 

 or four centuries preceding the year 1800 and proceeding as it did from 

 individuals living and working in widely separated places,. nevertheless, 

 constituted in the sum a sound body of knowledge readily available to 

 future investigators, equipped with new methods. With the exception 

 of Pare no one of these men was' thoroughly appreciated by his contem- 

 poraries. Vesalius was reviled and forced to leave Padua, Hunter's 

 ligation of a vessel in continuity was at first ridiculed and Harvey's 

 discovery, like others in various fields, because not possible at once of 

 practical application, did not appeal to medical men -who still clung 

 to the traditional teachings of Galen. It was the period of genius 

 working alone without the approval of the profession, without the sup- 

 port of universities and laboratories, and without the means of publica- 

 tions and the means of travel that to-day render almost immediately 

 available new advances, achievements and theories. One had to journey 

 to the city or country of this or that authority or investigator to get his 

 views. Merz, in his " History of European Thought in the Nineteenth 

 Century," gives, as examples of such voyages of discovery Voltaire's 

 visit "to England in 1728, where he found the philosophy of Newton 

 and Locke, at that time not known and therefore not properly appre- 

 ciated in France; the journey of Adam Smith in 1765 to France, where 

 he became acquainted with the economic system of Quesnay " ; and the 

 visit of "Wordsworth and Coleridge to Germany, whence the latter 

 brought to England the new philosophy of Kant and Schelling." It is 

 not surprising that under such circumstances advances in medicine, as 

 in science generally, were few and far between. 



How the change from individual to organized effort came about, 

 and how medicine became the subject of investigation by scientific 

 methods in laboratories established for that purpose will be shown in 

 the next lecture. 



