FEBKU.VRT 10, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



141 



occurred in the United States during the 

 course of the fifty years that have elapsed 

 since cognizance was first taken on this side of 

 the water of the existence of a science of 

 medicine, might be regarded by some as suffi- 

 eient grounds for a feeling of complacency 

 on our part. But after all, such matters are 

 largely relative; accomplishment in these 

 directions can be gauged only by comparison 

 with what has been and is being done else- 

 where. Before assuming a self-satisfied atti- 

 tude it would be well to make a few inquiries : 

 "Are we doing as much work in medical 

 science as the number of men engaged ought 

 to accomplish?" "Does the United States 

 occupy in the realm of medical science the 

 position it now holds in the political and com- 

 mercial world?" "Are we doing as much 

 as a country should which stands first in point 

 of wealth and first amongst the western na- 

 tions, with the exception of disorganized 

 Russia, in point of population?" But above 

 all, "How does the quality of the work we are 

 doing measure up with that which is being 

 done elsewhere?" In a material way the 

 United States is one of the first countries in 

 the world; what is her position in the realm 

 of medical science? 



Satisfactory answers to these questions can 

 be obtained only by providing some standard 

 for comparison. Without making any apolo- 

 gies, and for reasons which will become clear 

 as we proceed, we propose to compare our 

 accomplishment with that of Germany. It has 

 been stated that there are in the United States 

 at the present time at least twelve hundred 

 men devoting themselves to preclinical science. 

 Comparable data relative to Germany are not 

 available. We do know, however, that in 1921 

 in her 22 medical schools there was a total of 

 312 full time men in the departments of the 

 preclinical sciences, to which for our purposes 

 might be added the number of full time pre- 

 clinical instructors in the three medical schools 

 of German Austria, bringing the total to 387 

 (compiled from Minerva). It was stated above 

 that 35 volumes of medical research are now 

 published annually in the United States in 17 

 journals. This is the product of the labor of 

 approximately 1,200 men, some 680 of whom 



are connected with medical schools. Germany 

 publishes 44 journals of similar scope and 

 comparable as regards standards with the 17 

 of the United States, the total of volumes 

 amounting to 72. There is no convenient way 

 of ascertaining the number of professional 

 men of science contributing to the German 

 journals for the reason that they eater not 

 alone to Germany and to Austria but also, to 

 a certain extent, to some of the other Euro- 

 pean states that have no media for their own 

 papers. It seems rather unlikely, though, in 

 view of the ratio of the number of university 

 instructors in Germany to the number of uni- 

 versity instructors in the United States as 

 computed above, that the number of profes- 

 sional contributors to German periodicals 

 exceeds the number of professional scientists 

 in the United States. 



But even if it were true that the volume of 

 scientific work in the United States has 

 increased to the point of equaling that pro- 

 duced by Germans, it is not the amount of 

 productive scholarship that counts, Imt its 

 quality. It is just here that judgment be- 

 comes difficult. Individual opinion on a ques- 

 tion of comparative merit is worth but little. 

 Of somewhat greater value is the judgment of 

 world courts, but even these are not infallible 

 judges. Bearing this in mind, let us review 

 the findings of foreign academies and of the 

 Nobel Prize Commission. In 1909 Pickering 

 found that of the 87 scientific men who were 

 members of at least two foreign academies 

 only 6 were American as compared with 17 

 from Prussia, 13 from England and 12 from 

 France. To be sure this exhibit is of the fruit 

 of a generation ago; it is possible, further- 

 more, that this disproportion no longer obtains. 

 Indeed, news reports would seem to indicate 

 that during the past two or three years a con- 

 siderable number of Americans have been the 

 recipients of foreign honors. While to a cer- 

 tain degree this new movement may be the 

 result of a tardy recognition of scientific 

 achievement, there is no doubt but that diplo- 

 macy also enters as a factor. So even if 

 present figures should be found to be less dis- 

 proportionate, it might be safer to accept the 

 decision of the earlier ratio than that which .a. 



