Febsuakt 6, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



133 



or specific pathological condition, but more 

 with the point of view of contributing in- 

 formation as to fundamental functioning. 

 The immediate proposition looms the larger 

 because it is the more pressing. But who 

 will say which is the more important? 

 Logical planning will result in such an 

 intimate dove-tailing of both the immediate 

 and the basic lines of effort that the per- 

 spective of time will afFord a well founded 

 understanding of the causes contributing to 

 disease, which understanding will lay the 

 path for cvire and prevention. 



This can not be done nor can full develop- 

 ment be obtained without a close cooperation 

 of the other members of the hospital staff 

 with the biochemist. And it almost goes 

 without saying that this cooperation can not 

 be effected unless the biochemist is equipped 

 to understand the point of view of the 

 clinician and is capable of giving to the 

 clinician assistance in the working out of his 

 problems. Progress can not be expected when 

 the biochemist either by preference, or lack 

 of opportunity to do otherwise, remains 

 cooped up with his test-tubes and beakers 

 knowing nothing of the patients save as 

 numbered bottles of urine on which he makes 

 his little tests. Consultations should be held 

 at which the general outlines and progress of 

 investigation should be discussed and oppor- 

 tunity afforded for the examination of any 

 particular case necessitating a biochemical 

 interpretation or study. 



Complete independence should be allowed 

 the biochemist in the outlining of his meth- 

 ods of procedure and the problems for in- 

 vestigation, always, however, seeking assist- 

 ance and ready to give help when his special- 

 ized training fits him to be of service. His 

 administrative duties should be confined to 

 his own lines of activity and general labora- 

 tory supervision or directorship since it is in 

 that field his capabilities have been developed. 

 The instruction of nurses in the principles of 

 physiological chemistry by the biochemist 

 should be encouraged since the proper collec- 

 tion of specimens depends upon their intelli- 

 gence. They can not be expected to have an 

 appreciation of the precautions necessary in 



collecting the material if they are set to do 

 it as automatons and with no knowledge of 

 the purposes involved. 



In these days of ours the question of 

 compensation is extraordinarily vital. The 

 scientific specialist is such because he can not 

 help it. His mental make-up forces him to 

 spend his life in giving, not in getting. He 

 is rarely a success in self-directed commercial 

 enterprise. He has no inclination to enter 

 such work unless driven by necessity, and 

 then it is with repugnance, that he competes 

 with his fellow-men in the accumulation of 

 dollars. Rather does he live a life largely 

 deprived of the creature comforts accorded 

 those mentalities whose urge is acquisitional. 

 But whose is the greater service is obvious. 

 Why should not such workers be given com- 

 pensation sufficient to allow them to have 

 homes and more than bare necessities? Why 

 should they be forced to derive their major 

 joie de vivre in intellectual introspection? Is 

 it because the work is of low value or is it 

 because of sluggish appreciation and lack of 

 self-advertising? Whatever the causes it is 

 not right, but no matter how wrong it is we 

 have men, and will continue to have men who 

 will gladly devote themselves to science what- 

 ever the compensation. Nevertheless meas- 

 ures should be taken by properly organized 

 associations, to so educate those necessary of 

 education that future generations of sci- 

 entists, if not this one, may receive an ade- 

 quate income in recognition of their con- 

 tinued contributions to human welfare. 



Frederick S. Hammett 



Pennsylvania Hospital, 

 Philadelphia 



CHARLES BUCKMAN GORING 



Few of the readers of Science will be 

 familiar with even the name of Charles 

 Goring.^ His time was largely spent as a 



1 Goring was born in 1870 and died in 1919. He 

 was a student and later a fellow of University 

 College, London. He served on a hospital sliip 

 during the Boer War. At the time of his death — 

 met at his post combating the influenza epidemic — 

 he was Medical Officer in Chief at Strangeways 



