THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 



MONTHLY. 



SEPTEMBER, 1912 

 RESEARCH IN MEDICINE 1 



By Professor RICHARD M. PEARCB 



UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 



V. Medical Research in American Universities; Present 

 Facilities, Needs and Opportunities 2 



~I~F the preceding lectures have a special value, it is in indicating, on 

 -L the basis of past experience, the methods and mode of approach, 

 which will presumably yield the greatest measure of success in the 

 investigation of present and future problems. Looked at in this light 

 what I have cited of the past shows four important aspects : 



1. The epoch-marking labors of isolated individuals working inde- 

 pendently. 



2. The application of the exact methods of physics, chemistry and 

 biology to medicine. 



3. The development of laboratories for the organized and intensive 

 investigation of the various problems of medicine. 



4. The idea of diminishing suffering and ameliorating social con- 

 ditions. 



The first of these factors naturally suggest the names of Vesalius, 

 Pare, Harvey, Hunter, Jenner, Morgagni and Haller. Some of these 

 may have been influenced by antecedent work as Vesalius by Herophilus 

 and Erasistratus ; Harvey by his forerunners, who studied the circula- 

 tion of the blood ; and all, perhaps, by the old teachings of Hippocrates 

 or the experimental side of Galen's work, but the actual achievement 

 of each, whether the result of chance suggestion, original conception, 

 or keen observation, was the fruit of labors unassisted, prosecuted with 



1 The Hitchcock lectures, delivered at the University of California, January 

 23-26, 1912. 



2 Presented also before the Academy of Medicine, Toronto, Canada, March 

 5, 1912. 



VOL. LXXXI. — 15. 



