April 12, 1894] 



NA TURE 



ooo 



THE INTERNATIONAL 

 CONGRESS. 



MEDICAL 



'T'HE International Medical Congres-^, held at Rome, came 

 -*■ to an end last week. In point of numbers it was a 

 great success, as many as seven thousand members and recog- 

 nised guests being in attendance, without mentioning the large 

 number of visitors not connected with the Congress. 



The Congress was formally closed on April 5, the final pro- 

 ceedings being very enthusiastic. 



Prof. Baccelii, the president, in bidding the delegates farewell, 

 said that in attending ihe Congress they bore testimony to the 

 fact that for enlightened minds the claims of science were 

 paramount. lie proposed that the next Congress, which would 

 be the twelfth, should be held in Russia, leaving it to the 

 Government of that country to determine the place of meeting. 



M. Danileff^ky, in the name of the Russian Government, 

 accepted Signor Baccelli's proposal, the announcement being 

 received with applause. The representatives of all the foreign 

 committees then spoke in turn, and referred in warm terms to 

 the hospitality shown to them by the King and c^ueen of Italy 

 and the Italian Government. 



We hope to give in our ne.xt issue an account of the proceed- 

 ings of some of the sections. In the meantime, however, we 

 reprint from the Britiih Alecf ica/ yoia'iial ihe abslincls oi iwo 

 addresses of great interest. 



Prof. Michael Foster on the Organisation of Science. 



One of the most salient features of animals is a division of 

 parts whereby each part does its best to fultil the work required 

 of it. On the other hand, all the parts of the body are so 

 united that every part works for the common good. Just as in 

 tlie body politic there are laws and unwritten customs which 

 regulate the nctions of the members, so also with the workers 

 in science. D fferentiation had 'proceeded to a great degree 

 amongst scientific workers; each inquirer has now to limit his 

 inquiries not only to one science, hut to one part of that science, 

 and there is no doubt that in the future division of labour will 

 have to proceed still further. 



So much for division ; but what about integration ? Is it 

 po-sible for anything to be done to unite the different scientific 

 workers together? I think that there is, and it seems to me 

 that this International Congress of Medicine — of medicine which 

 is the mother of all sciences — is a suitable opportunity, and 

 Rome is a fitting place to propo;e the doctrine that human wit 

 may well devise some tie that will bind all the workers of the 

 world together by one indissoluble knot. What is wanted in 

 science is organisation ; by this the labours of the iiidiviilual 

 will be lightened and the progress of science will be furthered. 

 Let me now ask whether organisation can be applied and in- 

 qu'ries carried out by single investigators ? 



There is, however, a danger which I do not want to under- 

 rate, for we must bear in mind that an investigator is like a 

 poet, nasii/ttr non fit, and there is a danger that by organisa- 

 tion we may tend to nurse the unfit and hamper the fit. There 

 are two main incitements to investigation — one is love of fame 

 and the other love of truth, that curiosity to know the truth 

 which drove Adam and Eve from the garden, and which has 

 €ver since stimulated mankind. Amiiilion will be hampered 

 by organisation, the lover of truth for its own sake will be aided, 

 and the latter is undoubtedly the more important of the two. As 

 I look around me, I see everywhere waste of effort. Every in- 

 quirer kno^vs that when he commences an inquiry he is sure to 

 •come upon side issues which have to be investigated, and he is 

 obliged either to devote much time to them and partly to solve 

 them, or he has to leave them alone. Every inquirer g >es to his 

 rc'^t leaving many of his problems unsolved. There are plenty 

 of young men capable and anxious to solve them, but, owing to 

 the want of cirganisa'ion, they do not know what to undertake, 

 ■or they dig wells where there is no water. In all this energy 

 is wasted, and in addition a great deal of work is thrust upon 

 ithe world which the world were much better without — work 

 'Whioh is crude, unfinished, unmatured, a veritable sewage 

 'thrown into the pure stream of science, which has to be got rid 

 •of before the stream can again become free from impurity. Is 

 ithere any way by which this waste of energy may he diminished 

 and this inc easing flow of useless matter lessened ? It is on this 

 point that I wish to make a suggestion to the Congress. In the 

 old times there were guilds by which the woiker.s in any one 



NO. 1276, VOL. 49] 



branch were united together. Now in science many men have 

 laboratories and no men to work in them, or no men that are 

 fitted to work in them ; others, again, have men and no 

 laiioratories. Would it not be possible to form a guild, and so 

 unite these workers, so that by the guild the work done might be 

 polished and completed before it is given to the world ? 



There are many kinds of inquiry which would be much 

 benefited by concerted action. Two of these which merge 

 into each other are statistical inquiry and what we may call 

 skilled inquiry. The chief feature of the former is that the data 

 which are gathered should be homogeneous. There should be 

 no exercise of individual judgment by the inquirer. It is evident 

 that the value of statistics largely depends upon the width i.f 

 the field covered, and the collection of statistics by many nations 

 at the same time would be of the greatest value. I can 

 especially aver that this is the case in the biological science-^. 

 By this means we might avoid the collection of statistics based 

 on insufficient cases or over so limited an area as to be worth- 

 less, couched in percentages, so that they have an apparent 

 value which is most misleading and dangerous. The secon<t 

 kind of inquiry is the skilled inquiry, that kind of inquiry which 

 should only be undertaken by skilled men. As an example, I 

 may mention a solar eclipse. How valuable the knowledge 

 that has resulted from several skilled men observing and dis- 

 covering the same thing at the same time ! The favourable 

 opportunity for an investigation may be a short one, and the 

 advantage gained by concerted action would be in such a case 

 very great. Again, the number of skilled observers livin'.^ at 

 any one lime is not great, and they are spread over many 

 lands. The problems of the future must be faced by the best 

 men, and why should not these men work together? Why 

 should not the best men be selected — now an Italian, nmv a 

 German, now a Frenchman — because they are best to do the 

 work for which they are best fitted? It is only in this way that 

 we can get the best work done in the future. 



Expense is another reason why scientific work should lie taken 

 up by nations in common, for every day the pursuit of scientific 

 investigations becomes more costly, and may in any given case bi 

 too expensive even for the richest nation. 



If such a proposal be a good one, then there must be some 

 international organisation if it is to be possible. No nation 

 waits to prepare for war until the drum heats to arm^, so in 

 science we should be ready with our organisation for whatever 

 work may present itself. The chief difficulty of starting such 

 an organisation is the expense at the commencement ; when that 

 is once gi t over, the cost of fuel to keep it going is not great. 

 If once in working order, a permanent organi>ati > 1 could at 

 any time start the machinery which was necessary for any special 

 work. Scientific work is the properly of the whole worhl, and 

 as such the whole world should combine to fight the powers of 

 darkness and ignorance. 



The dangers which apply to the individual in such an organisa- 

 tion also apply to the nation. Ambition when applie-d 10 a 

 nation is called patriotism ; but surely the love of truth i> higher 

 even than patriotism. Leaving generalities, every worker knows 

 how much difficulty small things create in his work. For in- 

 stance, nomenclature. How great a help it would be if there 

 were only an international tribunal bef ire whom ever* new name 

 had to go, and who would, as it were, stamp the coin of science 

 before it was allowed to pass into circulation. Again, ii m.iy 

 happen that some inquiry has to be carried on under special 

 conditions. An example of this is the work done at the 

 zoological station at Naples. This is in reality an international 

 institution, although it has been chiefly originated by one mati ; 

 such an institution ought to be international, and ought not to 

 depend for its existence upon the energy of one man. 



One more instance. The condition of scientific literature cnn 

 only be described as one of chaos. Think of the literature th.at 

 a scientific woiker has to read through before he can know what 

 has been done by others — ^journals, weekly, monthly, yearly, in 

 all languages, journals upon all subjects ! Whereas, if all the 

 papers on one subject could be collected under 01. e cover, think 

 of the saving of time ! Even if this cannot be doi.e, at least it 

 might be possible to have a universal index which should appear 

 at frequent intervals, and which should be re-classified every 

 five, and again in ten years, and so on. Such a list of titles 

 would enorinouTy lessen our labours. I would suggest that this 

 Congress should initiate the work, should set in motion the 

 formation of such an index. If this be done it will be a com- 

 mencement in organisation, and if this be done successfully we 



