452 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 615. 



work will be endless; for civilization in- 

 volves constant changes in the environment 

 of the human race; and it is on medical 

 science that the race must depend for pro- 

 tecting it from the new dangers which ac- 

 company each novel environment. The 

 medical scientists being provided and fur- 

 thered, medical education must also train 

 large bodies of men to clear and cultivate 

 the regions through which the pioneers have 

 made trails, or, in plainer words, to apply 

 to millions of men and women in all sorts 

 of climate and environment the discoveries 

 of the scientists. Thus thousands of physi- 

 cians all over our southern states must for 

 years be teaching the people how to pro- 

 tect themselves from yellow fever. Major 

 Walter Reed and his colleagues proved how 

 yellow fever is communicated, and — what 

 was equally important — how it is not com- 

 municated; but thousands of medical men 

 must see to it that intelligent application 

 is made of that precious knowledge. 



Recent events have brought into strong 

 light a new function of the medical pro- 

 fession which is sure to be amplified and 

 made more effective in the near future. 

 I mean the function of teaching the whole 

 population how diseases are caused and 

 communicated, and what are the corre- 

 sponding means of prevention. The recent 

 campaign against tuberculosis is a good 

 illustration of this new function of the pro- 

 fession. To discharge it well requires in 

 medical men the power of interesting ex- 

 position, with telling illustration and mov- 

 ing exhortation. Obviously the function 

 calls for disinterestedness and public spirit 

 on the part of the profession; but to this 

 call it is certain that the profession will 

 respond. It also calls for some new adjust- 

 ments and new functions in medical schools, 

 which should hereafter be careful to pro- 

 vide means of popular exposition concern- 

 ing water supplies, foods, drinks, drugs, the 



parasitic causes or consequences of disease 

 in men, plants and animals, and the modes 

 of communication of all communicable dis- 

 eases. Medical museums should be ar- 

 ranged in part for the instruction of the 

 public, and with some' suitable reservations 

 should be statedly open to the public. The 

 medical schools should also habitually pro- 

 vide popular lectures on medical subjects, 

 and these lectures should be given without 

 charge on days and at hours when working 

 people can attend. In other words, se- 

 lected physicians should become public 

 teachers, as well as private practitioners. 

 America has much to learn from Europe in 

 regard to this public-spirited service on the 

 part of the profession. 



In another respect the teaching of medi- 

 cine must be broadened in the century we 

 have now entered on. Medical study has 

 been in time past far too exclusively the 

 study of man's body by itself. Hereafter 

 the study of medicine must be largely com- 

 parative, or in other words, must include 

 man's relations to the animal and vegetable 

 kingdoms. The Harvard Medical School 

 enters into possession of its new buildings 

 with three professorships of comparative 

 medicine already established, the professor- 

 ships of comparative anatomy, comparative 

 physiology and comparative pathology. 

 This tendency to comparative study has 

 been already well developed in other sub- 

 jects, as for example, in comparative psy- 

 chology, legislation and religion. Wherever 

 this study by comparison wins adequate 

 place, it makes the study of the subject 

 broader and more liberalizing, and the re- 

 sults obtained more comprehensive and 

 juster. Medical students should, therefore, 

 have studied zoology and botany before be- 

 ginning the study of medicine, and should 

 have acquired some skill in the use of the 

 scalpel and the microscope. It is absurd 

 that anybody should begin with the human 



