54 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



science and will be able to make of your state a better place 

 for yourselves and for your children." 



Is there anything in all this that is antagonistic to investi- 

 gative science? To use an illustration borrowed from the labo- 

 ratory, if we wish to get the pure crystals of blue vitriol out of 

 the dirty, unpromising lump of bluestone, we dissolve it in 

 v/ater and manipulate the solution so that crystallization be- 

 gins. But when the beautiful crystal appears, shall it say to 

 the turbid mother liquor, "I have no need of you?" The solu- 

 tion is old-time "popular science" ; the beautiful crystals are the 

 fruits of investigation. As I see matters, the scientific prog- 

 ress of our democracy must ever be dependent upon an under- 

 standing on the part of the people of what its experts are about 

 and upon the willingness of the people to trust these experts 

 in the fields into which the people as a whole cannot enter. In 

 other words, science and confidence must be the real food of 

 our national life. 



THE HOSPITAL AND ITS FIELD OF WORK FOR 

 THE GENERAL SCIENTIST 



Walter G. Bain, A.B., M.D., St. John's Hospital 

 Springfield 



As late as 1890 the preparation for the practice of medicine 

 was limited to two years of college lectures. The medical stu- 

 dent made during these two years a careful study of anatomy. 

 He studied chemistry a very little, physiology a very little, 

 physics, bacteriology and biology not at all. The greater part 

 of the student's time was devoted to listening to lectures on 

 medicine and practice, wherein the experienced practitioner 

 described as great a variety of diseases as his experience had 

 enabled him to observe. With the information acquired in 

 these two years the doctor went out to begin his practice. In 

 those days the old physician was the most reliable because ex- 

 perience had taught him at the expense of his patients. 



It was about this time that the science of chemistry, bac- 

 teriology, physics and physiology began to play a part in the 

 education of the doctor. By the application of these sciences, 



