Januabt 3, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



19 



University Medical School, set forth with 

 admirable force and clearness the changes 

 which advancing medicine has brought in 

 the vocation of the physician, his greatly 

 increased capacity of service to the com- 

 munity and his still higher mission in the 

 future. 



The discoveries which have transformed 

 the face of modern medicine have been in 

 the field of infectious diseases, and in no 

 other department of medicine could new 

 knowledge have meant so much to man- 

 kind, for the infectious diseases have a 

 significance to the race possessed by no 

 other class of disease and problems relating 

 to their restraint are scarcely less social 

 and economic than medical. The public is 

 awakening to this aspect in the case of 

 tuberculosis, and I need only cite as a 

 further example the necessity of keeping 

 in cheek the malarial diseases and yellow 

 fever for success in digging the Isthmian 

 Canal, an undertaking in which the tri- 

 umphs of the sanitarian. Colonel Gorgas, 

 are not outrivaled by those of the engi- 

 neer. Such victories over disease as those 

 of the prevention of hydrophobia by the 

 inoculation of Pasteur's vaccine and the 

 antitoxic treatment of diphtheria have 

 made an especially strong impression on the 

 public mind. 



More than all that had gone before in 

 the history of medicine the results achieved 

 during the last quarter of a century in ex- 

 ploration of the fields of infection and 

 immunity opened by the discoveries of 

 Pasteur and of Koch have stirred men's 

 minds to the importance of advancement 

 of medical knowledge, and medical science 

 at last has entered into its long awaited 

 heritage as a worthy and rewarding object 

 of public and private endowment. But it 

 is to be noted that it is not so much the 

 education of doctors as this advancement 

 of knowledge which makes the strong ap- 

 peal, as may be illustrated by the splendid 



foundation of the Rockefeller Institute for 

 Medical Research through the enlightened 

 generosity of the founder of this univer- 

 sity, the Phipps Institute for the Study and 

 Prevention of Tuberculosis, and the Me- 

 morial Institute for the Study of In- 

 fectious Diseases, established in this city by 

 Mr. and Mrs. Harold McCormick, which 

 under the efficient direction of Dr. Hektoen 

 has become a most active and important 

 contributor to our knowledge of infection 

 and immunity. 



These magnificent additions to the re- 

 sources of this country for the promotion 

 of medical investigations are of inestimable 

 value, but not one of them could have 

 justified its existence by results if it had 

 been established in America thirty years 

 ago, when medical education was so de- 

 fective. The dependence of research on 

 education is of fundamental importance. 

 The prime factor influencing the develop- 

 ment of scientific research in any country 

 is the condition of its higher education. 

 Scientific investigation is the fruit of a tree 

 which has its roots in the educational sys- 

 tem, and if the roots are neglected and 

 unhealthy there will be no fruit. Trained 

 investigators are bred in educational insti- 

 tutions. Independent laboratories are de- 

 pendent on a supply from this source, and 

 without it they can not justify their exist- 

 ence, but where proper standards of educa- 

 tion exist such laboratories have a distinc- 

 tive and important field of usefulness. I 

 contend, therefore, that those interested in 

 the advancement of medical knowledge 

 should not be indifferent to the condition 

 of education in our better medical schools 

 and should not rest on the assumption that 

 the educational side can be safely left to 

 take care of itself. 



Moreover, those who are to apply the 

 new knowledge are physicians and sani- 

 tarians. The public is vitally interested in 

 the supply of good physicians, never so 



