MEDICINE VERSUS ART 27 



In science as in art, there is always a fundamental need of selec- 

 tion. Just as an artist cannot paint every landscape, or a lover love 

 every woman, just so the scientist cannot investigate every prob- 

 lem. None of them has a ghost of a chance unless he restricts his 

 goal. The immense success of science is due largely to the selec- 

 tion of problems, one at a time, the simplest and easiest first, and 

 so on. Genius in science as well as in art is essentially the ability 

 to select properly. 



Then, too, there is technical progress in art. The history of 

 music, like the history of science, can be written partly in terms of 

 instruments. The modern symphony is as much an instrumental 

 triumph as the transatlantic flights. Scientific knowledge is not 

 simply rational, a good part of it is manual and intuitive. What a 

 gulf there is between the born diagnostician and the physician 

 who has learning enough but lacks insight! There is uncanny wis- 

 dom in the hands of a surgeon as well as in those of a pianist. 



Science and art have both their collectivist aspects, as well as 

 their individualist ones. The former are seen at their best in re- 

 ligious art and in social medicine, and that rapprochement is sug- 

 gestive. For what is religious art, but the highest form of the social 

 art? And what else is social medicine but the finest realization of 

 the second commandment: 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as 

 thyself"? Neither religious art nor social medicine can succeed 

 unless they be sustained by a living faith. 



Science, every science and of course medicine above all, is an 

 art as soon as it is applied. It becomes part and parcel of a man's 

 religion as soon as he is thoroughly conscious of his own in- 

 significance and of his solidarity with the rest of the universe. We 

 cannot understand the history of medicine, unless we see in it not 

 only discoveries and scientific achievements, but also personal de- 

 feats and victories, the timeless fruits of men's love and faith. On 

 the other hand, as Canon Streeter has remarked: "Science is the 

 great cleanser of the human spirit, it makes impossible any religion 

 but the highest." The well-tempered historian will keep this in 

 mind always, and think of men's art and religion, as well as of 



