1915] William J. des 301 



individual nations, we are still very far from having a civilized 

 humanity — there is an abyss betvveen mfranational and international 

 morality ; that, no matter how cultured and enlightened nations may 

 be, they still settle their international differences by brüte force, by 

 maiming and killing their adversaries ; and, finally, that the present 

 high development of science and invention in individual nations 

 only serves to make the results of this war more destructive than 

 any other in history. 



The war has demonstrated, however, one encouraging fact; 

 namely, that among all the sciences and professions, the medical 

 Sciences and medical practice occupy an almost unique relationship 

 to warfare, and that among all the Citizens of a country at war, 

 medical men and women occupy a peculiar and distinctive position. 



No discovery in medical science has been utilized for the pur- 

 pose of destroying or harming the enemy. Medical men in each of 

 the warring countries are as courageous, as patriotic, as any other 

 Citizens, and are as ready to die or to be crippled for life in the 

 Service of their country as any other class of their fellow country- 

 men. Their Services, however, consist in ministering to the sick ancl 

 to the injured, and in attending to the sanitary needs. Further- 

 more, they often risk their lives by venturing into the firing line to 

 bring the injured to places of safety and to attend to their immedi- 

 ate needs. hi these heroic and humanitarian acts friend and foe are 

 treated alike. Finally, the majority of the members of the medical 

 profession and of the medical Journals of the neutral as well as of 

 the warring countries, abstain from public utterances that might be 

 grossly offensive to any of the belligerent nations. 



These facts — this advanced moral position in international rela- 

 tions which medicine and its followers are permitted to occupy in 

 all civilized nations — ought to be brought to the füll consciousness 

 of the men and women engaged in the medical sciences or in medical 

 practice. Such a realization could not fail to have an elevating in- 

 fluence upon the medical profession itself, and would probably exert 

 a favorable influence upon the development of international morality 

 in general. 



At the dawn of history, medical men were frequently also the 

 exponents of philosophy and morals. In the middle ages, when 



