August 17, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



255 



are great surgeons from almost all nations, 

 men who not only hold the highest pro- 

 fessional position in their respective coun- 

 tries, but whose public record has made 

 their name familiar to us all, while many 

 of them are dear personal friends. 



We have guests, too, our own country- 

 men, whom we delight to honor, dignitaries 

 of the Church and of the Law, and heads 

 of our ancient seats of learning. Although 

 I cannot enumerate all, I can and do ex- 

 tend to each and every one the most cor- 

 dial welcome, and would wish to express 

 our grateful appreciation of their presence 

 amongst us. 



An occasion like this possesses historic 

 interest. We contrast our present position 

 with that of our predecessors, and rightly 

 congratulate ourselves on our greater knowl- 

 edge and opportunities, on the facilities we 

 enjoy for investigating the mystery of dis- 

 ease, and for its more effective treatment. 



The comparison enables us to realize, as 

 only such a comparison can, the extent of our 

 gains and our increased opportunities for 

 doing good. It leads us at the same time to 

 recognize, as we ought, how large a debt we 

 owe to the workers who have preceded us 

 for so many of those happy results which 

 are now matters of daily accomplishment. 



The progress of surgery has been greater 

 during the present century, more especially 

 in the latter portion of it, than in all the 

 preceding centuries combined, and it is of 

 especial interest to us to note that this 

 period of rapid advancepient exactly cor- 

 responds with the life-history of our Col- 

 lege, whose Centenary we are assembled to 

 commemorate. 



If we look back — and it is well to look 

 back sometimes — we find in the labors of 

 the old masters of surgery much to en- 

 lighten, to widen, and to confirm our views. 

 A knowledge of the history of our art and 

 science tends to make us juster judges both 

 of our own work and that of others. 



When we search the history of the de- 

 velopment of scientific truth we learn that 

 no new fact or achievement ever stands by 

 itself, no new discovery ever leaps forth in 

 perfect panoply, as Minerva did from the 

 brow of Jove. 



Absolute originality does not exist, and 

 a new discovery is largely the product of 

 what has gone before. 



We may be confident that each forward step is not 

 ordered by one individual alone, but is also the out- 

 come in a large measure of the labors of others. The 

 history of scientific effort tells us that the past is not 

 something to look back upon with regret — something 

 lost, never to be recalled^but rather as an abiding 

 influence helping us to accomplish yet greater suc- 

 cesses. 



Again and again we may read in the 

 words of some half-forgotten worthy the 

 outlines of an idea which has shone forth 

 in later days as an acknowledged truth. 



We see numerous instances of this in the 

 history of surgery. Some fellow- worker in 

 years long past has discovered a new fact 

 or indicated the path leading to a fresh 

 truth. It is forgotten, and a century later 

 something nearly the same, or mayhap a 

 little better, is discovered afresh. The 

 psychological moment has arrived, and the 

 discoverer reaps the reward, not only of his 

 own labors, but of those of his predecessors 

 as well. 



The countless trials and experiments 

 which ended in the general use of ether 

 and chloroform in surgery, that trebly- 

 blessed discovery of a sure relief from pain, 

 were guided by the experience of previous 

 trials, half successful, half failures. 



The patient labor of our distinguished 

 Fellow, Lord Lister, now President of the 

 Royal Society, has been rewarded by a suc- 

 cess to which all the world does homage, 

 and which will crown his head with im- 

 perishable laurels. Yet none will be readier 

 than Lord Lister to acknowledge how much 

 the antiseptic methods of wound treatment 



