898 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 598. 



which we might expect and without which 

 great movements for the welfare of hu- 

 manity can not be carried on. A lack of 

 unity has prevented a realization of our 

 hopes and if we are to gain and maintain 

 the preeminent position to which we are 

 entitled, we must unite for the common 

 good. 



The present organization of the Amer- 

 ican Medical Association is but a begin- 

 ning ; we must further the interests of this 

 body unselfishly, not for ourselves alone, 

 but that we may better fufiU oiir sacred 

 obligations to mankind. The people must 

 be educated up to a point where they can 

 understand the broad humanitarianism of 

 modern medicine. Society appreciates the 

 saving of a sick person's life by the skilled 

 physician, but fails to see the priceless gifts 

 to the human race made by preventive 

 medicine and sanitary science. It views 

 €verything in detail and misses the per- 

 spective. We have failed to secure the 

 support of the mass of the people to much 

 needed sanitary reforms because we have 

 appealed to them as one individual to an- 

 other without the weight of an authorita- 

 -tive organization. 



That the people are ignorant of medical 

 •affairs is due to bad education rather than 

 prejudice. They are more than two de- 

 cades behind advanced medical thought; it 

 is our duty to keep them better informed. 

 The theory of medicine did not contain the 

 essential principles of a science until with- 

 in the last quarter of a century. Orig- 

 inally a part of priestcraft, the profession 

 has its beginnings in a time of mysticism 

 and superstition. Anatomy, gross pathol- 

 ogy and chemistry were among the early 

 foundation stones which made progress pos- 

 sible. Clinical treatment was based iipon 

 a very few specific remedies and a con- 

 siderable number of drugs of proved value 

 in the cure or alleviation of disease. But 

 lacking a sound theory of causation, the re- 



sults were not much better in the average 

 self-limited malady than those claimed by 

 the various 'systems' based upon the giv- 

 ing of inert or useless remedies which, like 

 the incantation of the Indian medicine 

 man, kept the patient and friends inter- 

 ested until cure came about through nat- 

 ural processes. The laity found that the 

 large majority of sick persons got well 

 under any, all or no treatment, and not 

 rightly understanding the reason have 

 never been able to comprehend why one 

 method or form of treatment, as long as it 

 apparently yielded about the same average 

 of results, was not as good as another. 



The germ theory promulgated by Pasteur 

 and given surgical significance by Lister, 

 strengthened our foundation by adding to 

 it the long-sought-for causation of the ma- 

 jority of diseases and this, with the aid 

 of experimental research, has led the prac- 

 tise of medicine out of the wilderness and 

 established it as one of the exact sciences. 



New and fundamental truths have fol- 

 lowed each other so rapidly that we have 

 scarcely been able to digest them and 

 much less can we expect the public to have 

 kept pace. The layman's view is that of 

 twenty-five years ago. He accepts with 

 avidity new dogmas and 'pathys' based 

 upon theories incredibly foolish in the light 

 of modern investigation, and we have al- 

 lowed him to become fixed in these beliefs. 

 We have permitted the public to be edu- 

 cated by patent medicine advertisements 

 and the voluble charlatanism of the com- 

 mercially interested. In return we are 

 classed with these schemers, and efforts for 

 the general good are believed to be selfishly 

 inspired. 



The Utopianism of our profession is too 

 idealistic for ready comprehension in this 

 commercial age. The time has come for 

 the public to be taken into our confidence ; 

 if we wish better results we must enlighten 



