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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVII. No. 1211 



conception of how such a practical sub- 

 ject is to be acquired. In his views there 

 was one road only to that goal. The stu- 

 dent must teach himself in order to learn. 

 Hence there were provided the objects to 

 be dissected, text-books, atlases, models, 

 and time, with a sufficiency but no excess 

 of instructors or guides. He saw no virtue 

 in exhibiting and describing a predis- 

 sected part, provided the students were 

 given opportunity to dissect for themselves. 

 That this principle is sound no one will, 

 I think, now deny. That its operation 

 has produced a remarkably large number 

 of superior, independent, and broad ana- 

 tomists, the history of his department 

 amply shows. 



But a confusion of method and man is 

 often made with disastrous consequences. 

 It is easy to imagine this mode of teach- 

 ing anatomy adopted widely without yield- 

 ing the results which Mall obtained. To 

 put the method into effect would doubtless 

 represent a great advance over the old sys- 

 tem, but without a strong, able teacher 

 and guide, such as Mall was, the phe- 

 nomenal results which he achieved would 

 not be attained. In other words, he was 

 a sound innovator because he was a strong 

 man. He was a successful leader in anat- 

 omy because he was learned and original. 

 He has left a rich heritage to science 

 through his own labors and those of his 

 pupils, because to all his other qualities 

 he added the rare ones of wisdom, kind- 

 ness and generosity. 



. Our proximity in the pathological build- 

 ing brought us into frequent association. 

 In the early days of the medical school. 

 Mall often attended the autopsies, many 

 of which I performed. His active interest 

 in the pathological phenomena continued 

 throughout his life, in part possibly as the 

 result of the year spent as fellow in pathol- 

 ogy under Doctor Welch. But in fact he 



did not disassociate, as is often erroneously 

 done, facts of pathology from those of 

 anatomy. Being naturally inquisitive in 

 regard to the relation of cause and effect 

 in respect to the unit forms of organs, he 

 was also prone to inquire into the effects 

 of causes in their nature pathological. 



At about the period when Mall was 

 studying the lobular unit of the liver I 

 was induced to attempt the application of 

 some of the methods he worked out to 

 cirrhosis of that organ — a mere illustration 

 of the way in which two related depart- 

 ments through him were made to react on 

 each other. 



I imagine that few who knew Mall even 

 quite well realize with what intensity of 

 absorption and application he would work 

 at a problem once he had gripped it, as 

 one might say. In temperament he was 

 naturally reflective. Hence there occurred 

 periods during which he appeared to be 

 doing little in his laboratory. At such 

 times he would become possessed with the 

 impulse to roam about the building or out 

 into the city or into the adjacent country. 

 It was remarkable that when under the in- 

 fluence of those moods he did not seek 

 solitude so much as another form of 

 activity. I was not infrequently taken 

 aiway by him for a stroll through East 

 Baltimore, and on these expeditions I ac- 

 quired quite a knowledge of that part of 

 the city. They were in many ways ex- 

 tremely interesting occasions, for during 

 them he often talked his best and sketched 

 advanced ideas on educational and other 

 reforms, as well as on problems of research. 

 I think Mall never dreamt idly. He was 

 possessed of a romantic imagination, but it 

 was both controlled and constructive. To 

 not a few who did not understand him well 

 his ideas sometimes sounded extreme, but 

 they invariably rested on real foundations, 



