44 TUBERCULOSIS, HEREDITY 



must be. I have no hesitation in asserting that every 

 one of them was wholly wrong morally — that is, socially. 

 And for this simple reason, that they were propounded 

 and widely taught without adequate investigation of the 

 facts. Being right is no excuse whatever for holding an 

 opinion which has not been based on any adequate 

 consideration of the facts involved in it. Admit that 

 sanatorium treatment is purely experimental, admit 

 that dispensaries are another experiment, and that 

 tuberculin is still another and perhaps more hazardous 

 one, and there is nothing more to be said than the 

 words : * Experiment, but record your observations in 

 such manner that the trained mind can ultimately 

 measure their bearing on human welfare.' 



But experiment on human beings is held in itself to 

 be reprehensible. That does not mean that it is not 

 being made day by day; it means simply that it is 

 screened, and the experimental treatment is described 

 as the most efficient and certain cure for human ills. 

 Such description not only disguises its experimental 

 character, but often hides its true nature from the actual 

 experimenter, who forgets the necessity for adequate 

 records to test the value of his work. That has been 

 largely the case in the modern treatment of phthisis. I 

 feel certain that the best medical minds of to-day would 

 admit and regret it ; they have growing doubts as to 

 whether, after all, infection is everything and heredi- 

 tary constitution of no account. They stand, however, 

 within the ranks, and find it difficult to criticize their 

 leaders. But now that those leaders are appealing to 

 the public for vast funds to carry on on definite lines 

 the fight against consumption, may we not ask for 

 the grounds of the faith that is in them : namely, that 



