Jtjlt 19, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



67 



mental growth is made conterminous with 

 life. 



Capacity for such continued growth is 

 conspicuous in the masters and a hall mark 

 of the eminent. Indeed, as you proceed in 

 the investigation of your fellows, you will 

 be surprised to find how early growth may 

 cease and how significant the event can be. 

 In far-distant communities mental growth 

 has been known to stop on commencement 

 day. It is consoling, however, to be as- 

 sured — as I can assure you — ^that we ob- 

 serve this woeful arrest more clearly and 

 sooner in our fellows than in ourselves — a 

 suggestive fact which needs only to be men- 

 tioned in order to be appreciated. 



As you see, the reason for this preface 

 touching the nature of our mental posses- 

 sions is my wish to emphasize the need for 

 the full recognition of the unsolved or 

 partly solved problems in medicine and the 

 necessity for holding in mind the facts on 

 which all such tentative solutions as we use 

 are based. When this need has been recog- 

 nized, it is possible to take the point of view 

 from which research foundations can be 

 discussed with greatest benefit, for pri- 

 marily it is their purpose to replace less 

 certain by more certain facts. Indeed, dis- 

 cussion of these foundations can be signifi- 

 cant only for those who, like yourselves, 

 know that the students' career is for life, 

 never to be commuted— not even for good 

 behavior — and in no wise limited by any 

 formal function, such as graduation or a 

 state board test. 



Turning now to the research foundations 

 themselves, it may be well, by way of intro- 

 duction, to give a word of explanation 

 touching the coming treatment of them. 

 I desire to speak as an inquirer, not as an 

 advocate, but as these inquiries have led 

 me to some definite conclusions, I shall ven- 

 ture to express them briefly. Beyond this, 

 all things rest with you. 



While we are specially interested in re- 

 search foundations in their relation to 

 medicine, yet those with such relations are 

 but a fraction of the number in existence 

 and for the most part have come late. 



A research foundation may be defined as 

 one especially intended to produce new and 

 better knowledge. Thus the main purpose 

 and aim serves broadly to differentiate such 

 a foundation from the universities and 

 other educational establishments in which 

 a greater emphasis is put on the conserva- 

 tion, distribution or application of knowl- 

 edge, while at the same time both sorts of 

 institutions have been and are producers 

 also. The new foundations are then by no 

 means essentially novel, but in one sense 

 outgrowths or specialized extensions of the 

 older educational establishments. This im- 

 plies of course that what they are devised 

 to do has already been included in the 

 existing scheme of things. 



Such being the case, our discussion must 

 be framed so as to comprise these facts. 



In the civilization from which we are 

 descended there has always been some en- 

 deavor to add to the sum of human knowl- 

 edge. 



The acute minds belonging to the end of 

 the medieval period often overstepped the 

 theological and philosophical bounds within 

 which they had their greatest activity, and 

 gave to the study of the physical world 

 more or less attention. Speculating, com- 

 piling, teaching and even experimenting, 

 these men grouped here and there formed 

 the centers from which the earliest univer- 

 sities of our era sprang. 



Later appeared the learned academies, 

 also sometimes the patrons of investigation. 

 As objects of study, the physical problems 

 came first, aided by the fact that observa- 

 tional and experimental work could be 

 there begun without the preliminary labors 

 of collection and classification which have 



