JuiT 2, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



problems. It is largely in the universities 

 that the problems which come under the 

 cognizance of this section of the congress — 

 problems of hygiene and sanitation, of eco- 

 nomics and sociology — are being solved, 

 and it is here that students of the subject 

 are trained in special methods of research. 

 As examples of various lines of investiga- 

 tion carried on in the higher schools, I may 

 mention the advanced courses in social eco- 

 nomics under Dr. E. T. Devine, at Colum- 

 bia University, where in 1908 an entire term 

 was devoted to seminar work on the social 

 aspects and control of this disease; the in- 

 vestigations of Professors Fisher, Baily 

 and Farnham, of Yale, in diet and housing 

 in sanatoria, and in the relation of tubercu- 

 losis to labor and tenement conditions; the 

 sociological work at the University of 

 Chicago where students accompany pa- 

 tients of the college dispensary to their 

 homes, together with the regular visiting 

 nurses and physicians and study local con- 

 ditions and surroundings and the methods 

 employed in improving the environment; 

 and the work of the University of "Wiscon- 

 sin whose classes from the departments of 

 political economy and sociology visit Mil- 

 waukee to study the social and industrial 

 aspects of the disease. In not a few col- 

 leges students are securing valuable data 

 as to some of the simpler problems of the 

 local fields of the college or of their home 

 towns and counties, such as the number 

 and proportion of deaths from tubercu- 

 losis, the recurrence of the disease in in- 

 fected houses, the average length of the 

 disease, and its economic losses. From 

 answers to a questionnaire sent to two hun- 

 dred representative higher schools of the 

 United States, it is found that about one 

 fifth are engaged in investigative work in 

 tuberculosis. 



The higher schools are also furnishing 

 from their faculties not a few men of 



knowledge and conviction as leaders in the 

 propaganda. The lists of officers of this 

 congress, of the National Association and 

 of the state leagues and state boards of 

 health show that the colleges are supplying 

 at least their full quota for this purpose. 



A most effective help which the colleges 

 are giving in the fight is along educational 

 lines. In states where the commonwealth 

 does not furnish lecturers for the educa- 

 tional campaign, the work of arousing and 

 teaching the people from the platform falls 

 largely on the schools. University exten- 

 sion courses, summer chautauquas and 

 more incidental occasions furnish a means 

 of reaching the people which Phillips and 

 Garrison might have coveted in their cam- 

 paign against slavery. The subject of 

 public health receives an interested hear- 

 ing everywhere, and on this theme the col- 

 lege man speaks with an authority and 

 influence enhanced by his institutional re- 

 lations. And to college men the educa- 

 tional campaign makes a specially strong 

 appeal. "We can not see the people perish 

 for want of knowledge, knowledge which 

 it happens to be our good fortune to pos- 

 sess, and not be stirred by some missionary 

 zeal to go forth and preach the gospel of 

 sanitation and the salvation which it offers 

 from disease. University extension lec- 

 tures on tuberculosis are now offered by at 

 least fifteen colleges and universities. 



A still more fruitful field lies within the 

 college walls. In our students we find an 

 exceptional receptivity to new truth. The 

 stolidity of ignorance, unable to apprehend 

 fundamental principles, the inertia of long- 

 fixed habits of thought and will, the preju- 

 dice of financial interests imperiled— none 

 of these obstacles are present in the college. 

 Surely that warm-hearted enthusiasm of 

 youth, easily stirred to noble ends, which 

 in our civil war sent forth to battle the 

 boys of the colleges of North and South 



