EMERGENCE OP MODERN MEDICINE— ALVAREZ 429 



Later there came much progress in the difFerentiation of diseases by- 

 careful study of the symptoms and the physical findings, until physi- 

 cians were able to distinguish malaria from typhoid fever, measles 

 from German measles, diphtheria from croup, and appendicitis from 

 ordinary stomach ache. Around 1877 Pasteur discovered the role that 

 germs play in the causation of disease; protective vaccines and sera 

 began to be made, and Lister showed how to banish suppuration from 

 surgical wounds. In 1846, Morton and others discovered anesthesia, 

 and surgery came into its own. Finally, with the development of 

 bacteriology, there came wonderful triumphs in the prevention and 

 cure of many of the infectious diseases that have plagued mankind. 



THE LATEST PHASE OF MEDICAL PROGRESS 



Today we are entering on a marvelous phase of medical develop- 

 ment, and many seeming miracles are already being performed. The 

 physiological chemist is having his inning, and every few months, 

 someone discovers a new substance wliich has uncanny powers in the 

 way of controlling growth and development. One of these substances 

 makes giants, another makes midgets, another produces goiter, another 

 makes the breasts of a virgin animal fill with milk, and other substances 

 produce cancer at the will of the investigator. I feel sure that we are 

 but on the threshold from which we shall soon glimpse great wonders. 



As yet we do not know how to use curatively all these gifts of the 

 chemist, and many are not yet even on the market, but with time and 

 experience, there must surely come from some of them great benefits 

 to the human race. 



THE NEED FOR PROTECTING RESEARCH WORKERS FROM 

 MISGUIDED PEOPLE 



All of these great gifts of science are for you and your children. 

 No one knows on what day some disease, as yet incurable, is going to 

 strike down someone dear to you ; and when that day comes the only 

 hope your physician may be able to give you will be that in several 

 laboratories in this country, or abroad, devoted men and women are 

 working late into the night, hot on the trail of a cure for this very 

 disease which now interests you so much. Under those circumstances 

 the one thing left for you to do will be to pray that the discovery will 

 not come too late. 



Surely when such days of sorrow and anxiety come you do not want 

 to have the door of hope slammed shut in your face with the announce- 

 ment that certain people who care for animals more than they care for 

 men and women and little children have succeeded in stopping work 

 in those very laboratories in which this most promising research was 

 going on. I am sure that most of you would never consent to such a 

 thing if only 3^ou understood the problem, and if only you believed 



