LABORATORIES AND PROBLEMS 



which is far more than can be said of most of the lect- 

 ures in a German university. 



Needless to say, there are other departments to the 

 Institute of Pathology. There are collections of beau- 

 tifully preserved specimens for examination ; rooms for 

 practical experimentation in all phases of the subject, 

 the chemical side included; but these are not very 

 different from the similar departments of similar in- 

 stitutions everywhere. What was unique and charac- 

 teristic about this institution was the personality of the 

 director. Now he is gone, but his influence will not 

 soon be forgotten. The pupils of a great teacher are 

 sure to carry forward the work somewhat in the spirit 

 of the master for at least a generation. 



THE BERLIN INSTITUTE OF HYGIENE 



I purposely refrain from entering into any details as 

 to the character of the technical work done at the 

 Virchow Institute, because the subject of pathology, 

 despite its directly practical bearings, is in itself neces- 

 sarily somewhat removed from the knowledge of the 

 general reader. One cannot well understand the de- 

 tails of changes in tissues under abnormal conditions 

 unless one first understands the normal conditions of 

 the tissues themselves, and such knowledge is reserved 

 for the special students of anatomy. For the non- 

 professional observer the interest of the Virchow In- 

 stitute must lie in its general scope rather than in the 

 details of the subjects there brought under investiga- 

 tion, which latter have, indeed, of necessity, a some- 

 what grewsome character despite the beneficent re- 

 sults that spring from them. It is quite otherwise, 



VOL. V. 13 193 



