374 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the things which are most deeply significant in these closing years 

 of the century are not the newly gained skill in diagnosis, not the 

 marvelous strides which surgery has made, beneficent as these* 

 may be, not the more exact and purposeful and moderate use of 

 drugs, not the insight which has been gained regarding the com- 

 plex nature of the nervous system, nor even in the high achieve- 

 ments, too numerous and varied to be even mentioned here, which 

 the new science of bacteriology has made possible. 



Beyond all these accomplishments, notable enough though 

 they be for any age, the things which more than all else, it seems 

 to me, will signalize this time, are that we have now definitely 

 freed medicine, in all its borders, from the thralldom of mystery 

 and superstition, have finally and clearly recognized that its 

 problems are the problems of biology, and are to be solved only 

 by such patient research and guarded inference as all science has 

 learned to trust ; that the doctor is in command of no mysterious 

 forces, and that the only chance for the full and speedy fruition 

 of our hope in the prevention of disease lies in general education, 

 and in the enlistment of the interests of the people, of whom the 

 medical profession should be the teacher and the guide. 



Of course, the shadows here and there will linger on ; of course, 

 one and another for some time to come will still invest his calling 

 with the puerile mysteries which were fostered in ignorance, and 

 which should have been put aside with the scarlet cloak and the 

 wig and the ponderous walking stick. Of course, so long as the 

 people are largely ignorant of elementary facts regarding the hu- 

 man frame, quacks will flourish and more or less well-meaning 

 advocates will be found of water, of electricity, of faith, of exor- 

 cism, of infinitesimal dosage, and of every sort of named and un- 

 named folly, as panaceas and as substitutes for science. But, after 

 all, when medicine is once placed where it belongs, close to its sister 

 disciplines, from which it gathers light and in its turn inspires, 

 the shadows are certain soon to fade and the truth to prevail. 



You will observe, ladies and gentlemen, that the current of my 

 thought has led again and again to the outlooks which command 

 the field of preventive medicine. This is not only because here 

 the new light shines brightest, and gives clearest glimpses of 

 definite achievement, but also because upon this field success is 

 possible only if we can secure general and earnest co-operation in 

 the spread of the new ideals of cleanliness. 



In truth, the exactions of our modern sanitary codes, so far as 

 they affect the performances of the individual and the routine of 

 the household, are neither complex nor burdensome ; and a very 

 moderate amount of care, if happily joined to informed intelli- 

 gence, will suffice, under almost all conditions, for the maintenance 

 of a safe regime. 



