612 
attributable, in general terms, to the in- 
creasing application of scientific method 
to health problems. It may now be added 
that many of the very most striking ex- 
amples of successful application of scien- 
tifie method are to be found precisely in 
this domain. Here, therefore, is to be 
found one of the richest fields in which to 
exemplify and illustrate scientific method. 
To a student entirely innocent of science 
such a course would, in this way, be of 
superlative value as an introduction to 
scientific method, and this apart altogether 
from any utilitarian value inherent in the 
facts presented. Laboratory work, al- 
though we often make a fetish of it, is by 
nO Means a sine qua non in the teaching 
of scientific method; and the teaching of 
a substantial though non-technical course 
in hygiene would, from the very variety of 
the contributing sciences, offer exceptional 
opportunities for utilizing the whole bat- 
tery of modern methods of class-room 
demonstration. 
Some one has truly said that, as a nation, 
we are prodigal of nothing in so great a 
degree as of our health. It is the chief of 
the wastes of our national resources, our 
largest preventable waste. To be effective, 
a knowledge of preventive medicine must 
be in the hands of the many, whereas a 
Ikmowledge of merely remedial medicine 
may be effective in the hands of the few. 
To conserve our health resources, there- 
fore, the logical policy is plainly to teach 
prevention to many and cure toafew. To 
the medical student, who is a specialist, 
teach cure; but to the general student 
teach prevention. If prevention can not 
be taught more widely still in the com- 
munity, its teaching in colleges makes it 
at least possible that, in this matter, the 
college graduates may become the little 
leaven that shall leaven the whole lump. 
If it be true that the last few decades 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 903 
have witnessed abnormally swift progress 
in the science of preventive medicine, and 
if it also be true that the development of 
a social conscience has been unusually 
rapid in recent years, then it may well be 
the case that the time for requiring the 
teaching of general hygiene in our colleges 
is now at hand. 
Aan W. C. Menzizs 
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 
ELIZABETH THOMPSON SCIENCE FUND 
THe thirty-seventh meeting of the board 
of trustees was held on February 9 last at 
Cambridge, Mass. The records of the last 
meeting were read and approved. The fol- 
lowing officers were elected: 
President—Edward C. Pickering. 
Treasurer—Charles S. Rackemann. 
Secretary—Charles S. Minot. 
The secretary reported that a pamphlet, 
giving the record of the Fund for the twenty- 
five years of its existence, had been prepared 
and printed in accordance with the vote of 
last year. This carries the record of the fund 
to April, 1911. In compiling the matter for 
this record valuable assistance had been re- 
ceived from Dr. F. T. Lewis. Copies of the 
report have been sent to each of the trustees, 
to all living recipients of previous grants, and 
to a small number of libraries and institu- 
tions. Any one desiring a copy of the report 
should address the secretary. 
The secretary reported that additional pub- 
lications had been received connected with 
grants, the record of which had been closed, 
as follows: 
139. Joh. Konigsberger. 
153. W. Doberck. 
159. B. M. Davis. 
It was voted to close the record of grants 
117, E. Salkowski, and 146, M. Nussbaum. 
—No reports had been received from the hold- 
ers of grants Nos. 22 and 27, 109, 112, 124 
and 147. The trustees much regret that the 
recipients of these grants have failed to ful- 
