ceexii Proceedings of the Asiaiic Soc. of Bengal. |N.S., XV4i, 
ing to it. Medical research is not an end in itself, it is only 
a means to an end. It is only of value in so far as it leads 
© an improvement in the health and prosperity of the people, 
and it follows that the practical application of the results 
of research is of more immediate importance to the community 
than research itself. When we consider this aspect of the sub- 
ject and look at the vast amount of knowledge of the great 
fatal diseases that has been accumulated by scientists, and 
then look at the degree to which this knowledge has been made 
use of in practice we have small grounds for self-congratula- 
tion 
It is well known to all who have thought about the matter 
that if every one were to put into practice what is known of 
the prevention of such diseases as cholera, plague, malaria. 
dysentery, tuberculosis, and other fatal diseases the average 
what it is. A few years ago such a statement might have been 
received with scepticism as being the sanguine estimate of an 
enthusiast but now that the claims of the sanitarian have been 
put to the most severe test, especially in the great war, there is 
no longer any reason for questioning their validity. ‘This being 
the case we are called on to give a straight answer to the plain 
question, ‘‘ Why do we not make more practical use of this life- 
saving knowledge that is in our possession? ”’ 
I know of only one excuse that would satisfy any reason- 
able person and that excuse is seldom or never made use of 
is that if we were to prevent all the preventable deaths in India 
the stress of population would inevitably become so great that 
India to endure their miseries. But while we must recognise 
with the balance that has been arrived at in India by the working 
of natural laws through the ages, we have not exhausted the 
resources of civilization and there is no need for us to sit with 
folded hands. In other countries the death rate has been very 
