662 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



lapse of a quarter of a century we can point, not certainly to perfec- 

 tion, but to such an improvement as might fairly at one time have 

 been looked upon as chimerical. The death-rate of the army at home 

 is only two fifths of what it was before the Crimean War ; the death- 

 rate in India is only one third ; and the death-rate in the West Indies 

 one tenth. 



In civil life it has recently been shown that the improvements of 

 later times have resulted in a diminution of two per thousand in the 

 general death-rate, and with the knowledge we now have of the causes 

 of disease we may be sure that a general death-rate of not more than 

 fifteen per thousand may be confidently looked for. We have not yet 

 got rid of the fatal endemics in our midst, but they are in some direc- 

 tion's diminishing, and we have good hope for the future ; while it 

 seems probable that neither cholera nor any other introduced pesti- 

 lence could establish a foothold in our land. The remarkable immu- 

 nity of soldiers and prisoners in the last epidemic shows what can be 

 done when people can be compelled to lead fairly hygienic lives. 



I might extend this lecture by reference to the various theories of 

 disease propagation, but time will not permit of it, even if it were 

 otherwise desirable. I may, however, say that no one theory yet pro- 

 mulgated completely satisfies the requirements of the case, and that 

 there may be some basis of truth even in the most conflicting views. 

 So much has been done hitherto, and so much activity is being shown 

 in investigation, that w r e can not fail ere long to find the key to many 

 of the mysteries that now baffle and perplex us. It is quite clear 

 that it is only by a knowledge of the causes of disease that hygiene 

 can be advanced, and that it can never be in any way perfected with- 

 out a complete system of etiology ; and we are at present in this 

 position, that practical hygiene has to some extent outstripped the 

 knowledge of disease causes. We look, therefore, anxiously toward 

 the pathological investigations of the time, and we deeply deplore the 

 well-meaning but misguided zeal which is at present placing such 

 grave obstacles in the way of the only means by which true science 

 can advance namely, direct experiment. 



Although there are many names I might refer to as great writers 

 in hygiene, abroad as well as at home, there is one which we can not 

 omit in a lecture like this, more especially as it is the first delivered 

 in this museum which has been founded to his memory. Edmund 

 Alexander Parkes did more than any other one man in this or any age 

 to make hygiene a positive fact, a practical science, based upon not 

 only philosophical conceptions but actual experiment. Starting in life 

 as an army medical officer, he was able to produce, during his short 

 service in India and Burmah, works upon dysentery and cholera which 

 will always be of the greatest value. Retiring into civil life, he be- 

 came eminent as a physician and teacher, and in 1855 he undertook 

 the organization of the hospital at Renkioi, in the Dardanelles, which 



