EDITOR'S TABLE. 



845 



hibit. Whatever his advice, it has in- 

 calculably more value ia preventing a 

 crisis than in dealing with it after it has 

 come to pass. Just as the best services 

 of the lawyer are not in advocacy so 

 much as in steering his client clear of 

 the courts, so the doctor finds his 

 worthiest skill to be in keeping his 

 patient free from the need of cure or 

 healing. 



In the task of maintaining health- 

 ful conditions, general and special, a 

 science has grown up in which not only 

 the physician but the architect, the sani- 

 tary engineer, the purveyor of food and 

 drink, the manufacturer of clothing, have 

 deep interests. This great science of 

 hygiene is now worthily represented in 

 the University of Pennsylvania by a 

 special laboratory devoted to it, which 

 was formally opened on February 22d. 

 It has been planned by Dr. John S. Bil- 

 lings, who is its director. The means 

 for carrying it on are to be credited to 

 the liberality of citizens of Philadelphia. 

 The laboratory contains research rooms 

 for investigations upon air, water, food, 

 soil, and clothing; v.'ork-shops and pho- 

 tomicrographic rooms, and special ar- 

 rangements for demonstrating the prin- 

 ciples and practice of heating and ven- 

 tilation, and of house drainage. In 

 addition there are ample lai)oratories for 

 chemical and bacteriological research. 

 The course of instruction embraces the 

 whole range of sanitary science — the 

 disposal of refuse, the management of 

 contagious diseases, the offensive and 

 dangerous trades, methods of vital sta- 

 tistics, and sanitary jurisprudence. In 

 directing this important work Dr. Bil- 

 lings is assisted by Dr. A. 0. Abbott, 

 recently Assistant in Bacteriology and 

 Hygiene at Johns Hopkins Univer- 

 sity. 



All honor to the men and women 

 who have made this noble gift to their 

 kind I It will mean joy and life to 

 many thousands who else were doomed 

 to hopeless suffering and premature 

 death. 



BOGY-nvNTmo. 



The British mind seems prone to 

 conjure up terrors. The proposed tun- 

 nel under the Strait of Dover, whose 

 importance to English commerce would 

 probably equal that of all the docks of 

 London, is made impossible by the af- 

 frighted query, What if the French 

 should send an invading army against us 

 under the sea? A display of this ludi- 

 crous apprehensiveness, of more special 

 interest to cultivators of science, was 

 given by The Spectator in an article on 

 the celebration of Prof. Virchow's seven- 

 tieth birthday. Is such public homage 

 as Prof. Virchow received on this occa- 

 sion, The Spectator asks, "good for sci- 

 ence or good for the world in gener- 

 al ? " Its fear is that unworthy persons 

 will be drawn into the pursuit of science 

 for the sake of the applause to be won 

 therein, and it therefore looks askance 

 at the dawning tendency to bestow mer- 

 ited praise upon the achievements of 

 scientiflc men. The Spectator's ideal 

 man of science — devoted to knowledge 

 for its own sake, or rather for his own 

 gratification, and wholly indifferent to 

 the good opinion of others — is a rare 

 and regretable phenomenon. The real 

 man of science is a human being having 

 the same warm sympathy with his fel- 

 low-men and the same need of their 

 sympathy and appreciation that is found 

 in the normally constituted man of any 

 other calling. Shall a due measure of 

 public esteem be denied to these men 

 lest a few undeserving persons may try 

 to share it? The services of scientif- 

 ic investigators have too long been re- 

 paid with proscription or neglect. Men 

 whose occupation is the pursuit of truth 

 know full well what justice is; and, if 

 they are made to feel the smart of per- 

 sistent injustice and the chill of unvary- 

 ing loneliness, their capacity for work 

 will be sure to suffer from these repress- 

 ing influences. 



But The Spectator has another appre- 

 hension, that rises to the dignity of a 

 well-developed bogy. The aforesaid un- 



