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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 694 



their Eelations to Medical Practise and to 

 Medical Discovery," is of such great im- 

 portance that I wish I felt myself more 

 competent adequately to discuss it. The 

 topic has the advantage, however, that no 

 skill on my part is necessary to excite your 

 interest in it, for the current of your 

 thought is, by the occasion, set in its direc- 

 tion. The completion of this building in- 

 dicates the lively sympathy of members of 

 your university with laboratory medicine; 

 the substantial aid which an enlightened 

 legislature has given you is proof that there 

 is already some appreciation of the fact 

 that the benefit of such laboratories is not 

 to individuals alone, but also to the people 

 at large and that the appropriation of pub- 

 lic funds for their construction and main- 

 tenance is justifiable. Without occupying 

 a great deal of your time or dissipating too 

 much of your energy I shall try to make 

 plain to the less medical portion of this 

 audience how it is that medical laboratories 

 such as have been built here have become 

 a necessity, how indispensable they are for 

 the training of doctors who are to care for 

 the sick, of what use they may be in help- 

 ing physicians actually to utilize, in cases 

 of serious illness, the fruits of the more 

 recent medical discoveries, and finally how, 

 if provision be made in them, as should be 

 and doubtless will be, for the undertaking 

 of original investigations directed toward 

 the solution of some of the medical prob- 

 lems now pressing, we may hope that here 

 In Kingston new knowledge may be ac- 

 quired which will make medical men able, 

 better than now, accurately to predict, and 

 give them greater power than they yet pos- 

 sess to cure and to control. And while I 

 congratulate you heartily on the position 

 to which you have now attained in the mat- 

 ter of laboratories, I intend to point out 

 (what those among you best informed as 

 to medical progress fully realize) that the 

 policy of laboratory expansion upon which 



you have entered is in reality but a be- 

 ginning and will lead irresistibly later on 

 to still further, and perhaps fully as im- 

 portant, developments in your medical 

 school. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OP SCIENTIFIC MEDICINE 

 AND OF MEDICAL LABORATORIES 



Every one knows nowadays what is 

 meant by the scientific method. It con- 

 sists in gathering facts carefully, arranging 

 them according to their similarities and 

 sequences and finally epitomizing them in 

 the form of brief formulas or so-called 

 general laws. As a result thought is econ- 

 omized and suitable action follows most 

 surely and quickly upon impressions of 

 sense. 



Medical science, like all natural science, 

 began with simple observation. The physi- 

 cian first by means of his unaided sense _^ 

 organs collected sense impressions. This 

 simple observation could not, however, take 

 him very far, for it was too inexact. It 

 became necessary to invent artificial aids 

 for extending the powers of the sense 

 organs and for rendering their measure- 

 ments more precise. Medical men learned 

 how to experiment so that their observa- 

 tions could be made under peculiarly favor- 

 able circumstances. They have found out 

 how to interrogate nature and to compel 

 her to answer; on inquiry they see to it 

 that their attention is specially prepared; 

 their interest in observation is sharpened 

 by the particular question asked. 



Hippocrates, the most accurate of ancient 

 medical observers, realized the importance 

 of contact with natural objects; it was his 

 opinion that this must be the basis of all 

 medical knowledge. "The student must 

 rub and grind at nature, using his reason 

 at the same time; but his reason must be 

 a perceptive and interpretative, not a pro- 

 ductive, faculty, for he who lends himself 

 to plausible ratiocination will find himself 



