Januabt 2S, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



131 



nortliern Africa fell into ashes under the 

 withering curse of disease. In Spain the 

 Moors reached a high degree of civilization. 

 They built the wonderful city of Cordova 

 and filled its great library with the most 

 advanced science of the day. This people 

 supplied the most skilful physicians of the 

 time. Returned to Africa, their descend- 

 ents degenerated into the barbarians whom 

 to-day we know as the Riffs of Morocco. 



Civilized people have come to a realiza- 

 tion of the fact that disease constitutes the 

 greatest bar to human progress, and that 

 nation which first frees itself from the 

 bondage of disease will dominate all others. 

 In that land the superman will first be 

 born. Two conditions are essential before 

 any nation can free itself from disease. 

 In the first place it must possess an edu- 

 cated, scientific medical profession. In the 

 second place, the nation as a whole must be 

 guided by the advice of its best medical 

 men. With either of these conditions 

 wanting no people will be able to advance. 



Are we, the people of the United States, 

 held in the bondage of disease? One out 

 of every seven of us die of tuberculosis; 

 fifty thousand of us perish annually of 

 typhoid fever, and ten times this number 

 lie stricken for weeks each year with this 

 disease, but ultimately recover. Pneumonia 

 disputes with tuberculosis the right to be 

 called the captain of death. Some 50,000 

 of us die annually of cancer and other 

 malignant growths, more than 25 per cent, 

 of our children die before they reach five 

 years of age. In short, more than 80 per 

 cent, of us die from causes that are pre- 

 ventable, and which the enlightened nation 

 of the future will prevent. 



I am not sure that our nation will be 

 able to fully comply with either of the 

 conditions mentioned. I do know that 

 the better medical schools in this country 

 are doing their best to prepare the profes- 



sion of the future for this work. Encour- 

 agement in regard to the second condition 

 comes from the general interest shown in 

 the recently developed campaign against 

 tuberculosis, the large and small contribu- 

 tions in aid of this work and the ready 

 response made by many of our state legis- 

 latures in the enactment of laws tending 

 to restrict this and other infectious dis- 

 eases ; also from the generous contributions 

 that have recently been made for the study 

 and abatement of uncinariasis and pel- 

 lagra. "We, of the profession, have fre- 

 quent cause for impatience with the laity 

 for their indifference towards matters of 

 public health, but we should remember that 

 the attitude of the world towards the causa- 

 tion of disease can not be suddenly and 

 completely changed. Disease has for count- 

 less generations been regarded as of divine 

 or mystic origin, as an infliction from 

 heaven, sent either in love or in anger. 

 This old superstition still casts its shadow 

 over us and consciously or unconsciously 

 influences the conduct of many. It is diffi- 

 cult for a nation within a generation to 

 cast off the superstitions of the fathers. 

 This can be done, however, by instructing 

 the children in sanitary matters. Leibnitz 

 said: "Give me control of education for a 

 generation and I will change the world." 

 What will be some of the functions of 

 the medical man of the future? In my 

 opinion, the most important of these may 

 be grouped in certain classes, and it is of 

 the greatest importance that these should 

 be fully appreciated, especially by those 

 interested in medical education. In the 

 first place, that nation will be most favor- 

 ably situated which does the most for the 

 prosecution of medical research. Every 

 scientific medical discovery so far made has 

 been a blessing to mankind. Medicine has 

 not been advanced by philosophical dogma ; 

 it has grown and has yielded its rich and 



