RESEARCH IN DEVELOPMENT OF HEALTH 365 



cent date argued at length as to whether tubercles were to be classed as 

 "adenomata" or were something sui generis. 



There is a gleam of sunlight for the future in this retrospect at the 

 ignorance of the past, for, if men were as ignorant regarding tubercu- 

 losis thirty-eight years ago as to-day they are about cancer, then it may 

 be argued that a generation hence as much may be known about cancer 

 as is known now about tuberculosis. 



It is particularly important at the present moment, when so much 

 interest is being taken in national health, to point out the urgent neces- 

 sity of allowing as little lagging behind as possible to ensue between 

 the making of discoveries and the practical application of the results 

 by organized national effort for the well-being of the whole community. 



It must sadly be admitted that it is craftsmanship in imaginary 

 danger fighting hard for the old methods unchanged which were in 

 vogue fifty years ago, that stands most prominently in the way of ad- 

 vance. As great a harvest as that which followed the application of 

 the principle of antisepsis in surgery awaits the application of the 

 self-same principle in national sanitation to-day, but the very profes- 

 sion which ought to be urging forward the new era apparently stands 

 in dread of it, and seems to prefer to reap its harvest from disease 

 rather than to seize the noble heritage won for it by the research of 

 pioneers and so stand forth to the world as the ministry of health. For- 

 tunately it can not be, the bourne has been passed, and there is no going 

 backward. The advances that have already been made have awakened 

 statesmen and people alike to the needs of the situation, and all have 

 resolved to be disease-ridden no longer. The laws of health must be 

 made known to the people at large, and schemes laid before them for a 

 national organization for the elimination of disease. Disease is no 

 longer an affair of the medical profession, it is a national concern of 

 vital importance. The problem is not a class question, all humanity 

 stands face to face with it now in the light of modern research as it 

 never has faced it before. It has been realized that disease never can be 

 conquered by private bargains for fees between individual patient and 

 individual doctor. Eesearch into diseases of unknown causation can not 

 be subsidized upon such individualistic lines, and in the case of diseases 

 of known etiology and modes of propagation the passage of disease from 

 individual to individual can not be controlled by such private methods as 

 that of the afflicted individual subsidizing the doctor for his own protec- 

 tion. Cost what it may, a healthy environment must be produced for the 

 whole mass of the population, and the laws of physiology and hygiene 

 must be taught not only to medical students, but to every child in every 

 school in the country. People can not live healthy lives in ignorance of 

 the fundamental laws of health merely by paying casual visits to physi- 

 cians, and no one class in the community can be healthy until all classes 

 are healthy. 



