308 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1291 



help for his deformed foot and Lang for his 

 injured knee. Duchenne walks the streets of 

 Boulogne, his Faradio battery under his arm, 

 and declaims against his critics. Lucas-Cham- 

 ponniere, the ankylophobe protests eloquently 

 against splints. Sayre captures his little pa- 

 tient in the 'New York slums still incased in 

 his plaster jacket and triumphantly carries 

 him oS to his lecture theater. 



" To assist myself," said "Watts, the painter. 

 " I converse with the sitter, note his train of 

 thought, his disposition, his character and so 

 forth, and having made myself master of these 

 details, I set myself to place them on the can- 

 vas, and iSO reproduce not only his face, but 

 his character and nature." So in this volume 

 the author has absorbed something of the 

 spirit of each pioneer and interprets that. 



The general plan of the book is not a simple 

 one with successive chapters following in 

 orderly sequence for, as in a play, characters 

 come and go and, whereas some cross the stage 

 but once, others return again and again. 



For instance the first chapters are biograph- 

 ical studies of Hunter, Hilton and Thomas. 



Then follows the history not of a man but 

 of a movement — that movement which led 

 surgeons to practise tenotomy. The natural 

 sequence to this, namely, the consideration of 

 tendon transplantation and kinoplastic sur- 

 gery is postponed until the atory of the nerves 

 and the control of muscles has been unravelled 

 by Marshall Hall and those who followed him. 

 The reason for this postponement is not far 

 to seek. Scientific discovery and the applica- 

 tion of principles are in history a discon- 

 neoted sequence. Tendon transplantation has 

 to be postponed in the book because the book 

 is the interpretation of history and not a mere 

 recital of events. 



Later in the book when movement as a 

 method of treatment finds its champion in 

 Lucas-Champonniere it turns out that the first 

 three situdies which appeared biographical are 

 really historical phases of the contrasting doc- 

 trine of rest. Thus, being led to look at the 

 subject from different viewpoints, we find the 

 book full of surprises which arouse and renew 

 our interest. 



Only toward the end when dealing with bone 

 and cartilage do we find a certain order, pre- 

 scribed indeed by history but none the less 

 stimulating because unexpected. 



Valuable also is the last chapter on the his- 

 tory of bone-setting with a well-judged warn- 

 ing against the type of practitioner who, un- 

 .sound in his fundamental knowledge, plays 

 into the hands of charlatans. 



In the rush of modem scientific life we are 

 apt to ignore those who laid the foundations 

 of our knowledge and even a discovery is often, 

 as history shows, a rediscovery. " Our opin- 

 ions," said Montaigne, " are grafted one upon 

 another. "Whence it followeth that the high- 

 est mounted hath often more honor than 

 merit. For he is got-up but one inch above 

 the shoulders of the last save one." 



ISTo student, seeking to know the history of 

 investigation in the structure and function of 

 the locomotor and nervous systems can aSord 

 to neglect this book and the story of " the 

 last save one." 



T. "WiNGATE Todd 



Western Reserve Medical School, 

 Cleveland, Ohio 



THE PROGRESS OF UNDERGRADUATE 

 RESEARCH IN MEDICAL SCHOOLS 



Modern medicine is a scientific subject, and, 

 in order to understand it completely, students 

 must understand the methods by which the 

 facts and theories of medicine have been ac- 

 quired. The best way to learn the scientific 

 method is by undertaking some research prob- 

 lem and so learning it first-hand. This is 

 required for the degree of Ph.D. in a scientific 

 subject, but students of medicine in some 

 schools find it difScult or impossible to obtain 

 the opportunity to do any research at all. 



The faculty of the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania are almost without exception believers 

 in the educational value of undergraduate re- 

 search, but the question of how properly to 

 combine the time required for research and 

 the exactions of the regular course remains 

 an open one. Therefore, during the past ses- 

 sion (1918-19) the "William Pepper Medical 



