Fkbbuaey 10, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



137 



somewhat later period. It would seem, how- 

 ever, that there is no simple formula that is 

 sufficiently general to account fully for the 

 sequence in which the independence of the 

 several medical sciences became established. 



Toward the close of the first quarter of the 

 last century, this sporadic and localized 

 growth of medical science became more con- 

 sistent and eventually general, though still 

 somewhat uneven, throughout the whole of 

 western civilization. The initiative in this new 

 growth is attributed mainly to the influence of 

 two men, viz., Johannes Miiller, professor of 

 anatomy and physiology at Bonn and Berlin 

 from 1830 to 1858, and Trangois Magendie, 

 professor at the College de France from 1836 

 to 1855; and it was fostered by a recognition 

 of the fact that medicine is nothing more nor 

 less than a part of science. I do not believe, 

 however, that I am mistaken when I maintain 

 that in previous epochs of the history of sci- 

 ence there have been individuals, even groups 

 of individuals, who have employed the experi- 

 mental method, and quite as successfvilly, to 

 advance medicine, and who have regarded 

 medicine in exactly the same light. It would 

 seem, therefore, that some new and fructify- 

 ing influence must at this time have been 

 brought to bear upon such efforts as were 

 being made toward progress. Why, we might 

 ask in this connection, did the new growth 

 develop more vigorously in Germany than in 

 Trance? Certainly not because the Germany 

 of that time occupied an advanced position in 

 science or in medicine; for, as a matter of 

 fact, medically, Germany then stood at the 

 foot of the world. Nor was it due to any 

 superiority of Miiller over Magendie as an 

 exponent of the experimental method in medi- 

 cine; for it is now generally conceded, except- 

 ing, perhaps, in Germany, that the latter made 

 "the experimental method the corner stone of 

 normal and pathological physiology and 

 pharmacology" (Welch) and that "his method 

 of work and his points of view are the ones 

 that were subsequently adopted in physiology" 

 (Howell). Furthermore, the progress of sci- 

 ence up to this period proves that it was not 

 any superior qualities of the Teutonic mind 

 that determined Germany's part in the new 



growth of science. Rather it would seem that 

 the development was more rapid, more con- 

 tinuous and more even there than elsewhere, 

 unquestionably because it was an organized 

 development. The state early recognized the 

 advantages to be gained by leading the world 

 in science, and, by establishing and support- 

 ing, generously for those times, laboratories 

 of the medical sciences in the universities, 

 which it owned and controlled, by offering to 

 their medical schools the free use of their 

 state owned hospitals for teaching and investi- 

 gation, and by exercising a liberal and laissez 

 faire policy in their dealings with men of 

 science, the conditions were supplied which 

 not alone were conducive to scientific investi- 

 gation but also attracted into university 

 careers those best able to contribute by inves- 

 tigation to the advance of medicine. 



The world's history affords numerous exam- 

 ples of a comparable influence of far-seeing 

 monarchical aid upon the advance of science. 

 The first gleam of organized science in the 

 world (Wells) shone from the Lyceum at 

 Athens where a liberal endowment by Alex- 

 ander the Great put Aristotle in a position to 

 make a comprehensive collection of material 

 to serve as a basis of his natural history. 

 Again, the professors and fellows of the 

 Museum at Alexandria were appointed and 

 paid by the Ptolemys (Wells) and when their 

 patronage ceased its scientific energies became 

 extinct. And into Russia anatomy, then prac- 

 tically the comprehensive medical science, was 

 forced by the arbitrary will of Peter the Great 

 when he founded a medico-surgical school at 

 Petrograd and left plans for the establishment 

 of the Academy of Science where anatomy has 

 since been cultivated, under very satisfactory 

 conditions, by some of the greatest of its stu- 

 dents (Bardeen). 



Surrounded by the very best of working 

 conditions, with an almost virgin field to work 

 in, Germany needed only the time necessary 

 to imbue its student body with the spirit and 

 the possibilities in order to gain the ascendency 

 in medical science. Workshops for different 

 sets of problems, physiological, biochemical, 

 pathological, pharmacological, hygienic, with 

 professional workers in charge, gradually re- 



