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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1296 



master surgeon finally won his way to tlie 

 front in France and, altliough. suffering from 

 the results of a grievous fall which brought 

 great pain at every foot-step, he trudged for 

 miles with our advancing armies. This por- 

 trays the spirit of courage and sacrifice which 

 should be a fundamental principle in the 

 practise of your profession. 



To those who remained at home the mental 

 hardship of so doing was often very great. 

 One of our professors, when asked to enter the 

 service, was bluntly told by Dean Polk, "If 

 you wish to close this school you can accept 

 this offer." So the man stayed at home and 

 nearly lost his life later in gas experiments 

 for the government. 



The war brought its special scientific prob- 

 lems. In this school 429 men were trained 

 in roentgenology, and the first portable x-ray 

 apparatus for use in the field was here con- 

 structed. 



Through a special knowledge acquired in 

 BeUevue Hospital, another professor so per- 

 fected the ventilation system in the sub- 

 marine that one of our United States boats 

 remained submerged for four days, a world 

 record. 



From this school went one who had the 

 scientific supervision over the nutrition of 

 the United States Army. Another distrib- 

 uted a million dollars' worth of food among 

 the Serbians and recently left that country 

 with its fields 90 per cent, planted and its 

 people blessing the American officers for their 

 kindly generosity. 



Some of our students entered the regular 

 fighting forces, one leaving the college during 

 his second year in medicine and returning as 

 a major. We welcome those men back to 

 their work with us. 



Many other services, heroic and intellectual, 

 were rendered by and through this institution 

 during the great crisis. I have mentioned 

 only a few instances which have come to me. 

 It has been said that no man should be vain 

 of personal accomplishment. Davenport says 

 that if an individual has been given great 

 powers of heart and mind which have been 

 properly developed by education, his intelli- 

 gent reaction to circumstances is a question 



of innate mental endowment and, therefore, 

 not a matter for personal conceit. It is per- 

 missible, however, to say that you, who are 

 now placed in an environment suggestive of 

 moral and mental capacity, may profitably 

 develop your own capacities each according 

 to his individual endowment. 



I have briefly sketched the war activities of 

 some of your teachers. They are in this work 

 of teaching, not for fijiancial reward, but in 

 spite of the lack of it. Professors' salaries 

 have not risen during the war but the pro- 

 fessors have not gone on strike. 



In Ludwig's physiological laboratory in 

 Leipzig there was an old servant named 

 Salvenmoser who had helped the professor for 

 thirty-five years. When Salvenmoser wished 

 his pay raised be became ill and retired to 

 his quarters in the upper part of the physio- 

 logical laboratory. During this time the 

 celebrated Professor Ludwig could perform 

 none of his celebrated experiments, and as 

 much as a week might pass before the pay 

 was raised; then Salvenmoser recovered from 

 his illness and the experiments were resumed. 

 In thinking over this little story it seems to 

 me to have been prophetic of the workers of 

 the present day, for many of them have 

 been converted into Salvenmosers — ^willing to 

 thwart the great experiments of world en- 

 deavor by feigning illness. But university 

 professors, however tmderpaid and hard 

 pressed, have not gone on strike, but stand 

 prepared to serve you for the common good. 



I do not know how many of you have read 

 an opening paragraph which has for several 

 years been in the catalogue of the Cornell 

 University Medical School : 

 The objects of this school are: 



1. To develop physicians of the best type and 



2. To conduct researches into the cause and cure 

 of disease. 



As a matter of fact, these two objects are 

 not separable, for in order to produce a 

 modern physician of the best type he must be 

 educated in the atmosphere of developing 

 knowledge which we call research. A cynic 

 of another generation has remarked that the 

 ancients tried to make medicine a science 



