January 28, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



135 



for the next generation a profession made 

 up of men of broad culture and of special 

 scientific skill. This is the explanation of 

 mergers in medical colleges, of the rapid 

 advance in the requirements for admission 

 to medical schools, and for the extension of 

 the course. The medical man of the future 

 must be a leader in all that pertains to the 

 highest welfare of his country. His help 

 is necessary in order to relieve the people 

 from the bondage of disease. 



Permit me to briefly point out some of 

 the specific ways in which the medical pro- 

 fession can be of benefit to the people. 

 The civilized world is awakening to the 

 knowledge that the infectious diseases are 

 preventable, the most enlightened of the 

 nations are adopting measures to prevent 

 them, and there is to be a healthy rivalry 

 among the countries to see which can do 

 this first and in the most effective manner. 

 This is demonstrated by the crusade now 

 being inaugurated against tuberculosis. 

 We may reasonably expect improved meth- 

 ods in the treatment of this disease, and 

 such knowledge as will give this to us must 

 come as a result of the labors of scientific 

 medical men. But the great effort must be 

 made in its prevention, and this is, and will 

 continue to be, a community problem, into 

 which the nation, the state and the locality 

 must throw their best and wisest efforts. 

 Knowledge of the nature of the disease, its 

 avenues of dissemination, and the means 

 necessary for its restriction, must come 

 into the possession of all classes and condi- 

 tions, and the medical profession must be 

 the source of this information. The prac- 

 tical application of this knowledge must be 

 directed by the same body of men. The 

 practitioner must recognize the disease in 

 its incipient stages, before the infected in- 

 dividual becomes a possible center for the 

 infection of others, and while the process in 

 himself can be arrested. This will be de- 



manded of every physician in the future, 

 and the people must learn vnsdom enough 

 to go to the doctor before it is too late. 

 Sanitoria and hospitals for the education 

 and treatment of the infected must be pro- 

 vided by the public. This attempt to re- 

 strict and eradicate so grave and wide- 

 spi'ead a disease is the greatest and most 

 beneficent undertaking that man has ever 

 assumed, but it is not a visionary dream. 

 It is a herculean task, but one not beyond 

 .the accomplishment of intelligence and 

 effort. 



Typhoid fever and other diseases, dis- 

 seminated so frequently by contaminated 

 water and milk, need not exist, and the 

 heavy tribute that we pay annually to these 

 infections is not complimentary to either 

 our intelligence or our brotherly love, one 

 for the other. The millions that we lose 

 every year in deaths from these diseases 

 would, if properly expended, soon place a 

 safe water supply in every city and village. 



It is time for us to stop attempting to 

 control the venereal diseases by moral sua- 

 sion. A false modesty has prevented us 

 from talking about these distempers, and 

 they should be added to the list of danger- 

 ous and communicable diseases, and every 

 person found infected with one of them 

 should be put in custody until he or she is 

 free from the infection. 



The time will come, if the world is to 

 progress in intelligence, when every person 

 will undergo a thorough examination at 

 the hand of a skilful physician twice or 

 oftener, each year. An official record of 

 each such examination will be made, and 

 no two consecutive examinations will be 

 made by the same physician; and after 

 death an autopsy will be made. Then the 

 careless and unskilled physician will soon 

 find himself without a vocation. 



The world has never been in greater need 

 of the enlightened medical man than it is 



