SCIENCE 



Friday, September 2, 1921 



The Spirit of Investigation in Medicine : Dr. 

 Leonard G. Rowntree 179 



Otservastions of the Aurora at the Lowell Ob- 

 servatory May 14, 1921 : Professor Henry 

 NoRBis Russell, Dr. V. M. Slipher, Dr. 

 0. O. Lampland 183 



Scientific Events: 



The Production of Fixed Nitrogen; For- 

 estry Legislation; The Harvard School of 

 Public Health 187 



Scientific Notes and News 1 89 



University and Educational News 192 



Dismission and Correspondence : 



An important hut unnamed Badioactive 

 Quantity: Dr. N. Ernest Doesey. The 

 Value of Tilth in Agriculture: L. S. Frier- 

 son. Baipteria in the American Permian: 

 Dr. Roy L. Moodie 193 



Quotations: 

 Scientific Papers 195 



Special Articles: 



Oil the Law of Surface Area in Energy 

 Metabolism: Dr. John R. Murlin. On 

 ths Significance of an Experimental Differ- 

 ence with a Probability Table for Large De- 

 viations: Percy W. Cobb. Polarization of 

 Sound: Anders Bull 196 



The American Chemical Society: Dr. Charles 

 L. Parsons 203 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 

 reriew should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrieon-on- 

 HudeoB, N. Y. 



THE SPIRIT OF INVESTIGATION IN 

 MEDICINE 1 



The first Greek poet of whose personality 

 we are certain, Arctinus of Lesbos (b.c. 770), 

 sharply differentiated medicine and surgery, 

 and held medicine responsible for the advance- 

 ment of medical science. He relates how Escu- 

 lapius " endowed one of his sons with nobler 

 gifts than the other; for while to the one, 

 Machaon, he gave skilled hands to draw out 

 darts, make incisions and heal sores and 

 wounds, he placed in the heart of the other, 

 Podilarius, all cunning to find out things in- 

 visible and cure that which healed not." How 

 can we, disciples of Podilarius, best proceed 

 in this day and generation to " find out things 

 invisible and cure that which heals not " ? 



The problem is as old as medicine itself 

 The story of medical investigation unfolds 

 itself in the history of medicine. Progress 

 comes through ideas. Great investigators have 

 appeared from time to time in medicine. They 

 have contributed new ideas, in the elaboration 

 of which they recorded new observations, recog- 

 nized new facts, established laws, advanced 

 the art of practise, and thus developed the 

 science of medicine. As time passed the so- 

 called underlying or fundamental sciences 

 evolved, and in turn made fresh opportunities 

 for the medical investigator, but they have 

 taken a large proportion of medical investi- 

 gators from the field of active practise. Some 

 are still left who are attempting to " find out 

 things invisible " and to solve the ever-present 

 problems of treatment of the sick. 



Recently, to further such ends, a national 

 Society for Clinical Investigation was cre- 

 ated (1909). According to the constitution 

 the objects of this society are " the cultivation 



1 From The Mayo Foundation, Rochester, Minne- 

 sota. President's address before The American 

 Society for Clinical Investigation. May 9, 1921. 



