July 6, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



17 



researcli is research in science which is both 

 pure and applied. Some genuine scientists 

 affect to despise applied science; and cer- 

 tainly it is not discreditable to men of sci- 

 ence that they are apt to value discoveries 

 which have no popular quality or commer- 

 cial utility more highly than those which 

 immediately attract the favor of the multi- 

 tude by their industrial effects, or by their 

 striking novelty combined with intelligibil- 

 ity; but all scientists recognize the fact 

 that medical research is directly related to 

 the largest material interests of the com- 

 munity, such as manufacturing, transpor- 

 tation, sanitation and the methods of pro- 

 viding light, heat and shelter, and of de- 

 fending the community against frauds in 

 foods, drinks and drugs. Many of its prob- 

 lems are economic as well as medical, and 

 require in those who study them sound 

 judgment in money matters as well as 

 knowledge of natural law and skill in sci- 

 entific methods of inquiry. Medical re- 

 search, therefore, requires in its devotees a 

 combination of theoretical power with prac- 

 tical power — a capacity for both abstract 

 science and applied science. This combina- 

 tion is rare but by no means unattainable. 

 Indeed, abstruse speculation is almost al- 

 ways attractive to masters of the experi- 

 mental method. The investigator abso- 

 lutely needs a powerful imagination; but 

 this imagination must be checked by the 

 most rigorous experimentation. 



In spite of the fact that medical re- 

 search involves the suffering and death of 

 many of the lower animals used for pur- 

 poses of study, the work of medical re- 

 search is in reality the most humane work 

 now done in the world; for its secondary 

 objects are to prevent disease in men and 

 animals, to defeat the foes of life, to pre- 

 vent the industrial losses due to sickness 

 and untimely death among men and do- 

 mestic animals, and to lessen the anxieties, 

 terrors and actual calamities which impair 



or crush out human happiness. The pri- 

 mary object in medical research, as indeed 

 in all research, is the ascertaining of truth ; 

 but these secondary objects are ever before 

 the mind of the investigator, and through 

 them come his greatest satisfactions. These 

 satisfactions ought to be shared by men 

 who, like the founder of this institute, pro- 

 mote medical research by the exercise of 

 their sound judgment and good will and 

 by their money. 



The achievements of medical research 

 since Jenner have been marvelous. See- 

 ing what has been done within a cen- 

 tury to diminish the mental and bodily 

 sufferings of mankind from smallpox, 

 diphtheria, rabies, tuberculosis, malaria, 

 yellow fever, puerperal fever and typhoid 

 fever, and to give surgery safe access 

 to every part of the body, we may 

 reasonably believe that equal triumphs, 

 and even greater, await it in the future. 

 May we not hope that America will con- 

 tribute her full share to the progress of 

 scientific research, finding no obstacle, but 

 rather means of furtherance, in her demo- 

 cratic institutions? May not we democrats 

 find encouragement in the humble origin 

 of Franklin, Faraday and Pasteur, and in 

 the contributions democratic America has 

 already made to anesthesia, surgery, the 

 improvement of public water supplies and 

 the control of Texas fever, malaria, puer- 

 peral fever and yellow fever? May we not 

 reasonably expect our country to produce 

 many men like Louis Pasteur's father, a 

 private soldier of the first empire and a 

 hard-working tanner? In the dedication 

 of his best book the great son said to his 

 father: "The efforts I have devoted to 

 these investigations and their predecessors 

 are the fruit of thy example and thy 

 counsel. ' ' Let American parents take that 

 sentence to heart! And let all Americans 

 reflect on another utterance of this greatest 

 of contributors to medical science, this ar- 



