Febeuaby 24, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



279 



factors of human and bovine tuberculosis 

 were identical, much controversy would 

 have been avoided and numerous sacrifices 

 and hardships would have been saved. I 

 have called attention to but one of the im- 

 portant subjects in which the earlier posi- 

 tive statements have been greatly modified 

 by later discoveries, for the purpose of 

 emphasizing both the difficulties and the 

 responsibilities of the bacteriologist in de- 

 veloping a pure science and in applying it 

 in a practical manner. 



From the earliest times, life has been 

 given the highest price in the role of 

 earthly possessions. How to prolong life 

 has been the theme of many. In more 

 recent years, economists have considered at 

 length the cost to the state resulting from 

 immature death and for maintenance of its 

 sick and diseased citizens. The country is 

 spending millions of dollars annually to 

 support hospitals and asylums for the in- 

 curables. As Messenger has stated it, 

 such a work is greatly to the credit of our 

 hearts but not so much to the credit of our 

 heads. Society has been temporizing with 

 these great vital and economic questions, 

 for the aim of the future is to restrict the 

 need for hospitals by preventing disease. 

 The nation-wide conservation movement 

 has a large task to prevent the damages 

 wrought in nature's economy by microor- 

 ganisms. Again the state and society are 

 calling upon the bacteriologists to bring to 

 the pressing needs of to-day a knowledge 

 of the vital forces that will tend to purify 

 polluted streams and make the soil more 

 fertile. The prevention of infectious dis- 

 eases and the conservation of the soil are 

 two great tasks that confront practical 

 bacteriologists. The question is : How, in 

 the present demand for applied bacteriol- 

 ogy, can this science attain to its highest 

 development and at the same time render 

 the greatest service? The declaration in 



our constitution limits our field to the pro- 

 motion of the science of bacteriology, 

 while other organizations have largely for 

 their duty its utilization. It is practically 

 impossible to make this differentiation 

 complete, for as yet there are no societies 

 that seem to deal with the application of 

 important recent bacteriological findings. 

 It is clear, however, that the essential pur- 

 pose of this organization is to safeguard 

 the purity of the science and to point out 

 the way for its advancement. 



The fact has already been conceded that 

 bacteriology is the science that has much 

 to do, and in certain instances practically 

 all to do, in finding the solution and in set- 

 tling the details of many of the common 

 every-day problems in the conservation of 

 life and health of the higher forms of life. 

 Yet this science, with such possibilities, 

 possesses scarcely any interpreters of its 

 actual value to society at large, and it finds 

 little or no place in the curriculums of our 

 schools and colleges for general education. 



The true significance of a knowledge of 

 bacteriology should require no explanation. 

 Because it has grown up through technical 

 laboratory research and routine, educators 

 seem to feel that its true service is re- 

 stricted to such laboratories. For the 

 highly specialized or professional work we 

 agree, but should not the knowledge of 

 basic facts and natural laws that have 

 transformed so many practises in medicine, 

 sanitary science and agriculture become 

 common property ? Is there not a place in 

 our common schools and liberal arts colleges 

 for courses in bacteriology for the purpose 

 of imparting fundamental knowledge that 

 will enable society to come into possession 

 of an understanding of this science? It 

 can not be successfully gainsaid that in- 

 formation concerning the cause of fermen- 

 tations, the storing of nitrogen in the soil, 

 the causes for the changes in food stuffs 



