MEDICAL RESEARCH. 5*7 



In the meantime the optimism of the world which unknowingly 

 assumes that medical science can rise above natural law and correct 

 any and all excesses of individuals and communities must be met by a 

 better education in natural science rather than abandoned to the 

 manipulations of the charlatans of physical and mental healing. 



Passing now to the more obvious external conditions which have 

 tended to stimulate medical research, we may single out a few which 

 have been of special importance. Perhaps the most ancient and 

 strongest of all is the desire in the human breast to maintain health 

 and prolong life. From its very beginnings the healing art has been 

 weighed down with the greatest of problems, to save life and to cure 

 disease, often in those of lofty estate, and its status for the time being 

 frequently depended on its success or failure in accomplishing ap- 

 parently the impossible. In our own day the crumbling of the formal 

 religious belief that this life is but a preparation for that beyond the 

 grave and the centering of our efforts to make it as much of a success 

 as possible, the growth of wealth and leisure and the pursuit of sensual 

 pleasure, these various motives, high and low, combine to exert a 

 pressure upon medicine which is scarcely equaled in other professions. 

 To save life, and to cure disease are imperative demands which grow 

 more urgent, more impatient each year, and which suffice to quicken 

 the efforts of the scientist and the true physician as well as the char- 

 latan, and shape almost every problem which is considered worthy of 

 attack to-day. 



As a most important and timely contributory force to the ad- 

 vancement of medical research in recent years are the princely gifts 

 of benefactors, with whom we especially associate the names of Johns 

 Hopkins, Garrett, Fabyan, Rockefeller, McCormack, Payne, Morgan, 

 Huntingdon, Sears, Stillman, and many others without whose aid 

 medical research could hardly have commanded a corporal's squad to- 

 day. 



A factor not to be neglected in the advancement of medical science 

 is the feeling of national pride. Most of the medical science of the 

 past and much of the current knowledge has on it the mark ' made 

 in Europe.' To-day this mark is occasionally being replaced by the 

 label ' made in America/ and without doubt the home market will 

 soon be well supplied. Fortunately, tariff barriers and trusts do not 

 interrupt the currents of knowledge. Without hindrance we have filled 

 cur storehouses from the old world and I trust that we may repay in 

 due time some of our huge indebtedness. Our national pride once 

 awakened will see to it that our country, the wealthiest in material 

 things, shall continue to give as well as to receive the fruits of the 

 intellect. 



These are forces acting chiefly from without. Perhaps the most 



