Scientific Research and Public Health 21 



at any time from serious investigations in any of the biological or phy- 

 sical sciences, but they are to be expected mainly from work in the 

 physiological sciences. In all schools of Hygiene and Public Health 

 there should be physiological departments organized with this point 

 in view. In recent years the triumphs of bacteriology in gaining an 

 understanding of the infectious diseases have been so striking and their 

 practical application has been so important that, for a while, the phy- 

 siological opportunities have been overlooked. Schools of Hygiene 

 have been chiefly schools of bacteriology and its related branches. In 

 our new school at Baltimore recently established I am glad to say that 

 we have borne in mind that work in public health has in the last analysis 

 two great objectives, the control of communicable diseases on the 

 one hand and the preservation of normal health on the other, and 

 provision has been made for instruction and research along both lines. 



The few thoughts that I have presented so briefly and imperfectly 

 have been intended as a plea for the importance of scientific research, 

 particularly in its applications to public health. For many years the 

 practical bearings of science upon our daily lives have been obtaining 

 more and more recognition. The late war has served to demonstrate 

 this relation and has even forced a sort of official acknowledgment of the 

 necessity of governmental support of scientific research. 



We may anticipate therefore an increased demand for trained investi- 

 gators, but in order to meet this demand it will certainly be necessary 

 to improve the outlook for a scientific career. The work of investigation, 

 of scientific discovery if you will, is the most difficult task offered to the 

 human intellect. We can not afford to rely simply upon chance for the 

 selection of men suitable for such work. Nor should we assume that 

 impulses of idealism and altruism will drive into this career the minds 

 most capable of penetrating the dark secrets of nature. High ideals 

 unfortunately are no guaranty of high intellect. We should make a 

 deliberate effort to discover scientific aptitudes and to hold out induce- 

 ments that will attract the best minds. In some of our scientific societies 

 we have discussed this matter with reference to the ways and means 

 most likely to bring together the career and the mind adapted to it. 

 Among the projects proposed one that seems to me to be most 

 hopeful is to establish a popular scientific journal for the young, rich in 

 illustrations and written for and edited by our most gifted men and 

 women. We know perfectly well that the material we have to present 

 is thrillingly interesting. This is a bold statement to make, for Heaven 

 knows that much popular scientific literature is bone-dry, and what goes 

 under that name in many of our journals is a disgrace to the writers and 

 a sore affliction to the Scientist. But it can be done differently. Huxley 



