220 president's address — section i. 



While undouLtedly inuch may be claimed in these directions, 

 it is also true that there are large unexplored tracts in the 

 territory of m.edical science, in which, as yet, the seeker after 

 medical truth wanders as blindly as a Baffin Land Eskimo, 

 who, having learned no inethod of accurate geographical mea- 

 surement, depends for his movements ujDon topographical know- 

 ledge gained by exjDerience; for his food, upon natural cycles of 

 change, upon chance, and upon empirical knowledge of the habits 

 of other animals ; and for his mental and spiritual food upon 

 tradition and superstition handed down from his equally ignorant 

 ancestors. 



In the practice of medicine there are certain phases in respect 

 of which it is accarate to state that the profession is assisted 

 by experience, dependent upon natural cycles, grateful for the 

 availability of empirical knowledge, confused in forecasts by the 

 vagaries of char.ce, and to a certain extent actuated by tradition. 



That superstition has ceased to be a factor, that the branches 

 cf medical art, in which these uncertain quantities function ap- 

 preciably, are becoming more and more restricted, is greatly to, 

 the credit of those seekers after truth who' have chosen to' work 

 in a mtclium which offers greater complexity than any other with 

 which scientific workers have to' deal. The human body — this 

 multi-cellular organism — this most infinitely complex of all bioi- 

 logical entities — offers problems compared with which the theory 

 of relativity is child's play. 



Practical medicifxe has tO' deal not only with the three dimen- 

 sions — physiology, pathology, and pharmacology, which, in 

 themselves, include the M^hole range of tlie sciences — but is con- 

 stantly being led astray by that fascinating fourth dimension — 

 psychology. 



This complexity of the problem makes medicine the least exact 

 of the exact sciences. In claiming for medicine a place amoiigsfc 

 the exact sciences, there is no' presumptio'n, even thoaigh it has 

 perhaps grown no farther than the infant chemistlry ol the 

 " philosopher's stcne " age; but in spite of all the inaccuracies, of 

 all the intrinsic difficulties, there are many definitely establisheid 

 truths. In bacteriology, in pathology, in the chemistry and 

 physics of enviroaiment as affecting the, human organism, in 

 therapeutics, and even in epidemiology, there have been de- 

 termined facts and principles which stand against the most rigid 

 of scientific tests. 



These facts and j^rinciples stand as monuments to those earnest 

 and devoted workers whoi " follow knowledge like a sinking star " 

 beyond even the love of life itself. 



