Dec, 1901.] Meeting of the Biological Club. 149 



that we count them among the triumphs of our modern science. 

 Indeed the discovery of such a relationship may be considered as 

 having been impossible until the methods of modern research and 

 the basis of knowledge as to life conditions were acquired, and 

 which made it possible to put the disjointed fragments together. 

 With the fragments thus related the riddle seems so simple that 

 we wonder it was not solved before, but we must remember that 

 it is knowledge which makes knowledge possible. 



These direct advantages in medical science are however but 

 part of the great gift to modern methods of disease control, for 

 the possibilities in the control of disease by sanitation, quaran- 

 tine, vaccination, etc., and other methods are all based on 

 biological data. 



In speaking of these recent acquisitions I would not disparage 

 those important, in fact essential subjects of longer growth. 

 Modern medicine would be a fragile structure without its basis of 

 comparative anatomy, physiology, materia medica and therapeu- 

 tics, which have for long years furnished a basis for rational 

 methods in surgery and medication. 



With all this knowledge at hand it is grievous to observe how 

 general the delusion that disease may be eradicated by some much 

 emblazoned nostrum, that some vile ' Indian compound' will be 

 thought to have more virtue than the most accurately propor- 

 tioned prescription which represents the best that modern science 

 can do in the adaptation of a particular remedy to a particular 

 ailment. That the patent medicine business is a most gigantic 

 fraud and curse will I believe be granted by every scientific man 

 who has made himself acquainted with the subject. Its immense 

 profits are attested by the square miles of advertisements that 

 disgrace the modern newspaper and magazine. Fortunes made 

 from the fortunes spent in such advertising, along with the com- 

 missions to the lesser dealers, are drawn from a credulous people 

 who not only receive no value in return, but in most cases doubt- 

 less are actually injured as a result. 



That no student of biology can be deluded by such prepos- 

 terous claims as characterize these compounds, in fact by any 

 system of cure not based on sound biological principles, seems 

 only a logical result of his training. I do not recall ever seeing 

 the name of a biologist among the host of those who sing the 

 praises of some of these rotten compounds. Mayors, congress- 

 men, professors, clergymen and other presumably educated parties, 

 appear along with the host of those who fill this guilt}' list, a list 

 that should be branded as a roll of dishonor. I believe that 

 educated men owe some measure of effort toward the abatement 

 of this plague. Naturally the medical profession is thought to 

 be the rightful source for action, but among the uninformed any 

 effort there is attributed to selfish motive. Certainlv some 



