Relation of the University to Medicine 



The governments of the world are about the poorest tools we 

 know for the achievement of good deeds. They are controlled 

 by tradition, by prejudice, by the noise of fife and drum. They 

 are ruled by the influence of caste and privilege. They are 

 bigoted and wasteful, and when they deal with the individual 

 life they are likely to be careless and unjust. 



But in dealing with the great plagues of the world, the black, 

 the yellow, the red, and all the poisonous array of health-break- 

 ing parasites, the government is the only tool we have. The 

 individual is helpless, the community is all. The acts of the 

 community cannot rise much above its knowledge. All effective 

 government is by public opinion. The people must learn the 

 facts of pathology and sanitation. There is no school of medicine 

 which can honorably come between them and the truth. 



And that the Lane Library of Stanford University, the Medi- 

 cal Department of Stanford University, and the University itself 

 may do their part in the great work of bringing health to the 

 people, that they may cooperate with the sister schools and 

 with all other good agencies to good ends, is the motive behind 

 the functions of today. 



H793 



