140 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LV, No. 1415 



the United States, has defined as the "science 

 of the natural history of diseases, theii- physi- 

 ology and the pharmacology." Contributions 

 to this phase of medicine until quite recently 

 had been made almost solely by clinicians in 

 such time as they could snatch from teaching 

 and practice. Through the organization of 

 clinical departments, in some schools, upon 

 the same basis as the preclinical departments 

 there is now an opportunity open to men so 

 inclined to devote themselves wholly to the 

 advancement of the science of clinical medi- 

 cine. Other recent developments have con- 

 sisted in the establishment of research labora- 

 tories in connection with a few of the better 

 hospitals and in the foundation of medical 

 research institutions both in connection with 

 and independent of universities. 



This tremendous growth in the number of 

 full time laboratories of medical science has 

 necessitated a corresponding increase in the 

 number of men devoting themselves to the 

 subject. I am sure that something of interest 

 would come of a careful study of the rate with 

 which this increase has occurred; but the 

 information necessary to accomplish it satis- 

 factorily is not at hand, and even if it were, 

 far more time would be required to make it 

 than I have had at my disposal. But I do 

 happen to have some data bearing on the rate 

 of increase in the membership of the American 

 Physiological Society. Starting in 1887 with 

 a charter membership of 28, the membership 

 in 1896 amounted to only 68, but by 1921 had 

 increased to 292. If to this be added the 

 membership of the societies that have grown 

 out of the Physiological Society, namely the 

 societies for biochemistry, foimed in 1906, for 

 pharmacology in 1908, and for experimental 

 pathology in 1913, the total membership ex- 

 cluding duplicates now amounts to 469. These 

 figures give some idea of the rapidity of the 

 development during the present century. In 

 order to gain some idea of the number of men 

 now devoting themselves to the science of medi- 

 cine, I have had an estimate made of the medical 

 scientists exclusive of those following "medi- 

 cine" and "surgery" listed in American Men 

 of Science; conservatively the total is in the 

 vicinity of 1,200. And in order to gain some 



notion of the number of these connected with 

 medical schools supporting full time labora- 

 tory departments it has been assumed, again 

 conservatively, that in each of the 68 Class A 

 schools there are 10 full time men devoting 

 themselves to medical science, or a total of 680. 



The first journal to be published in America 

 to serve primarily as an outlet for research 

 in the medical sciences was the Journal of 

 Morphology, which began its career in 1887; 

 and the first journal devoted to experimental 

 medical science, the Journal of Experimental 

 Medicine, appeared in 1896. Then to care for 

 the increase in the volume of research con- 

 ducted by the greatly augmented personnel 

 came in fairly rapid succession special jour- 

 nals devoted to physiology, 1898, to anatomy, 

 1900, to biochemistry, 1905, to pharmacology, 

 1907, etc., etc., so that now there are some 17 

 titles devoted practically exclusively to the 

 medical sciences. In the same period there 

 has also been an increase in the number of 

 journals devoted to clinical science. Owing, 

 however, to the difficulty of distinguishing 

 between those maintaining a high scientific 

 standard and those less particular in the 

 quality of the papers accepted for publication, 

 it is difficult to estimate accurately the devel- 

 opment in this direction. 



The increase in journal titles does not ex- 

 actly parallel the increase in the volume of 

 published work; for there has been in some 

 cases an increase in the number of volumes 

 issued per year and often also an increase in 

 the size of the volume. Furthermore, prior to 

 the publication of American science journals 

 a certain number of scientific papers which 

 would have found a place in them appeared 

 in the clinical journals, a certain number also 

 were sent to foreign periodicals for publica- 

 tion. However this may be, a rough estimate 

 of the volume of work now published may be 

 formed merely by counting the number of 

 volumes issued by the American journal, exclu- 

 sive of the clinical journals, during the year 

 1920. This totalled 35. 



Viewed in the abstract, the tremendous 

 increase in the number of work shops of the 

 medical sciences, in the band of workers and 

 in the volume of their published work that has 



