16 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 601. 



witli hearty enthusiasm and loyalty, and 

 the generous ones among them also main- 

 tain a stimulating comradeship with con- 

 temporaries in the same fields. Their num- 

 ber is very small in all the contemporane- 

 ous fields of inquiry put together ; but it is 

 on this small number that the real prog- 

 ress of any nation in the arts and sciences, 

 and, therefore, in civilization and happi- 

 ness, ultimately depends. Their Herculean 

 labors are self-imposed, and they must set 

 their own standards of excellence; for so- 

 ciety can not supply men capable of super- 

 vising, regulating or stimulating them. 

 The ordinary grades of public instruction 

 can be supervised and disciplined; but the 

 scientific investigator must be a law unto 

 himself. The utmost that governments or 

 universities can do for him is to provide 

 suitable facilities and conditions for his 

 work, and to watch for results. 



Among the numerous varieties of scientific 

 research such as chemical, physical, physio- 

 graphical, astronomical and biological, 

 medical research occupies a peculiar place. 

 While it avails itself to the utmost of all 

 the exact weighings and measurings of the 

 other natural sciences, it is forced to deal 

 with innumerable materials and conditions 

 which are complicated and made obscure 

 by vital forces. It has to deal with objects 

 which are alive and with processes of or- 

 ganic growth or change. Its evidence can 

 not always be exact; its experiments must 

 often be complicated and obscured by vital 

 reactions; and its results of highest value 

 are often incapable of complete demonstra- 

 tion in the mathematical, physical or chem- 

 ical sense; because dense shades of igno- 

 rance darken the environs of the practical 

 result. Thus, preventive measures against 

 a familiar and definite disease may succeed, 

 while the promoting cause of the disease 

 remains unknown, and the method of its 

 transmission from one victim to another is 

 but imperfectly understood. Vaccination 



succeeded when the cause or promoting 

 condition of smallpox was unknown. The 

 microbe of rabies is unknown, and yet pro- 

 tective inoculation against rabies has been 

 invented and successfully applied. The 

 mere mention of some of the contributory 

 inventions and discoveries of the past fifty 

 years, such as the principles of fermenta- 

 tion, artificial culture solutions, gelatine 

 plate cultures, selective cultivation, the 

 variety of sterilization conditions for dif- 

 ferent organic substances, staining tech- 

 nique, immunity through the use of a toxic 

 organism that can be cultivated, increasing 

 or diminishing at pleasure the virulence 

 of a toxic organism, and testing toxins and 

 vaccines on living animals, will readily 

 satisfy even a sceptical mind that medical 

 research has great difficulties of its own to 

 encounter in addition to the usual diffi!- 

 culty of scientific inquiry in general. Bio- 

 logical research is, therefore, more arduous 

 than physical, chemical or other inorganic 

 research, because vital processes are diffi- 

 cult to observe accurately, and all the con- 

 ditions of experimentation are harder to 

 control. The medical investigator must 

 often fish in troubled waters; and some- 

 times he can not find again the promising 

 fishing ground he has once visited, because 

 unexpected fog prevents him from seeing 

 the intersecting bearings of his desired 

 ground. 



Again, medical research habitually strives 

 to arrive at something beyond abstract 

 truth. It seeks to promote public and pri- 

 vate safety and happiness, and the material 

 welfare of society. Its devotees have in 

 mind the discovery of means of remedy- 

 ing misery or warding off calamity; and 

 they also know that whatever contributes 

 to health and longevity in any community 

 or nation contributes to its industrial pros- 

 perity; so that they are justified in hoping 

 for results from their work which will pro- 

 mote human welfare. In short, medical 



