8 THE GROWTH OF TRUTH 



ledge of syphilis; centuries of acquisition added one 

 fact to another, until we had a body of clinical and 

 pathological knowledge of remarkable fullness. For 

 the last quarter of a century we have had latent posses- 

 sion of the cause of the disease, as no one could doubt 

 the legitimate inference from discoveries in other acute 

 infections. The conscious possession has just been 

 given to us. After scores of investigators had struggled 

 in vain with the problem, came Schaudinn with an 

 instinct for truth, with a capacity to pass beyond the 

 routine of his day, and with a vision for the whole 

 where others had seen but in part. It is one of the 

 tragedies of science that this brilliant investigator, with 

 capabilities for work so phenomenal, should have been 

 cut off at the very threshold of his career. The cancer 

 problem, still in the stage of latent possession, awaits 

 the advent of a man of the same type. In a hundred 

 other less important problems, acquisition has by slow 

 stages become latent possession ; and there needs but 

 the final touch the crystal in the saturated solution 

 to give us conscious possession of the truth. But when 

 these stages are ended, there remains the final struggle 

 for general acceptance. Locke's remark that 'Truth 

 scarce ever yet carried it by vote anywhere at its first 

 appearance ' is borne out by the history of all discoveries 

 of the first rank. The times, however, are changing ; 

 and it is interesting to compare the cordial welcome of 

 the pallid spirochaete with the chilly reception of the 

 tubercle bacillus. Villemin had done his great work, 

 Cohnheim and Salmonson had finally solved the prob- 

 lem of infectivity, when Koch published his memorable 

 studies. Others before him had seen the bacillus, but 

 the conscious possession of the truth only came with 

 his marvellous technique. Think of the struggle to 



