196 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 711 



heavens. Ilenee tliey spoke of mau as the 

 microcosm, standing over against, yet re- 

 producing, as it were, the rest of the uni- 

 verse or the macrocosm. It is the giorv of 

 the medical profession that it has always 

 had scientific curiosity, that it has insisted 

 upon actually dissecting the human body, 

 mapping out laboriously its real anatomy, 

 puzzling out slowly and painfully its true 

 physiology. It has often been mistaken, 

 but it has seldom refused to observe or to 

 reason. Hippocrates is still admired as 

 the father of medicine, not for his the- 

 ories, which are now merely historical curi- 

 osities; nor for his practise, which was 

 doubtless poor enough ; but for his method, 

 which was sound and scientific as well as 

 new; for his insistence on observation and 

 study, especially of the patient ; but above 

 all, for his conception of disease as a nat- 

 Tiral rather than a supernatural phenom- 

 enon. Sydenham is still called the English 

 Hippocrates, because he, too, looked upon 

 disease as a natural disturbance of a ma- 

 terial mechanism. And that this mechan- 

 ism possesses— must possess, in order to 

 exist at all— some power of resistance to 

 external conditions is obvious. That some 

 human bodies possess more and some less 

 of this power of resistance is perfectly 

 plain. That the same body may, and actu- 

 ally does, vary in its powers of coping M-ith 

 its siirroundings, is also a fact of common 

 human experience. That this "vital re- 

 sistance'" or "vitality" can, within narrow 

 limits, be increased or diminished, is also 

 commonly understood, though seldom pop- 

 ularly formulated— for every one knows 

 the refreshment and reinvigoration of rest, 

 of sleep and of food; the depression and 

 danger of overwork, loss of sleep, starvation, 

 debauchery or poisonings. But the idea 

 that we can artificially and at M'ill secure 

 inununity from virulent diseases, from 

 which there was formerly no escape, dates 

 back less than two centuries: nanielv, to 



1717, and to the letters of Lady Maiy 

 Wortley Montagu from Constantinople, 

 telling about inoculation against the small- 

 pox as practised there. 



Both conceptions— control of environ- 

 ment and control of the bodies of the 

 people— are indispensable to scientific ef- 

 forts for public health. The terms "en- 

 vironment," "organism," "vital resist- 

 ance," "imnninity" and the like, are easy 

 to pronounce, easy to repeat. But to the 

 biologist each has had a history and each 

 is full of deep significance. He who would 

 really master the philosophy of life and 

 disease and health must first become a biol- 

 ogist, for the great fact which biology 

 teaches, that man has arisen from the lower 

 animals, helps us to comprehend manj^ hu- 

 man habits and proclivities which would 

 otherwise be hard to undei^stand. Anthro- 

 pology, especially, and archeology, by show- 

 ing how mau probably first hunted, then 

 tamed, and finally domesticated and dwelt 

 with lower animals, helps lis to realize, as 

 our ancestors never dreamed, our lowly 

 origin and our filthy habits. If we are care- 

 less of excrements, neglectfiil of parasites, 

 heedless of food and drink, guided by ap- 

 petites rather than reason, we do not to- 

 day lay all the blame upon an hypothetical 

 Adam for a natural if not praiseworthy 

 curiosity. We look rather to those long 

 ages of essentially animal behavior, under 

 animal conditions and with animal associa- 

 tions, and marvel not so much at our pres- 

 ent carelessness as that we have ever 

 climbed so high. If our dietary of to-day 

 is too rich in protein, and especially in 

 meat, we have perhaps to thank for it those 

 long ages before agriculture had arisen, 

 when meat was the staple food; when the 

 kid or the fatted calf was killed for the 

 guest bidden to meat, as well as for the 

 returning prodigal; when meat and drink 

 went together, and when grace before meat 

 becan to be said as it often is to-day— 



