Mat 5, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



641 



the University of California medical school. 

 For the year ending June 30, 1917, the Uni- 

 versity of California will expend $321,200 on 

 its medical work, the principal items being as 

 follows: salaries, $87,450; budgets, $49,750; 

 for the maintenance of the University of Cali- 

 fornia Hospital (the new 216-bed teaching 

 hospital, under the complete ownership and 

 management of the university), $134,000, of 

 which $35,000 will come from receipts from 

 patients and the balance from the income on 

 endowment and from the general fund of the 

 university; for the maintenance of the George 

 Williams Hooper Foundation for Medical Ee- 

 search, $50,000. 



A NEW separate department of biochemistry 

 and pharmacology has been established in the 

 University of California Medical School. It 

 will be headed by Dr. T. Brailsford Eobertson 

 as professor of biochemistry. 



Percy E. Carpenter, of Amherst College, 

 has resigned his position as associate professor 

 of hygiene and physical education to accept 

 the post of professor in the Worcester Poly- 

 technic Institute. 



William J. Eobbins, Ph.D. (Cornell, '15), 

 has been appointed professor of botany in the 

 Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Auburn, Ala. 



Dr. H. L. Hollingworth has been promoted 

 to be associate professor of psychology in Bar- 

 nard College, Columbia University. 



The executive committee of the City and 

 Guilds of London Institute has appointed 

 Professor G. T. Morgan, F.E.S., of the Eoyal 

 College of Science, Dublin, to the chair of 

 chemistry at the Institute's Technical Col- 

 lege, Finsbury, vacant by the death of Pro- 

 fessor Meldola. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



PUBLIC HEALTH WORK 



To THE Editor op Science: I have previ- 

 ously^ called attention to what, for a lack for 

 a better designation, may be termed a type of 

 medical fallacy in public health. In Dr. C. 

 E. Bardeeu's article, "Aims, Methods and Ee- 

 sults in Medical Education," there again ap- 



1 Science, August 20, 1915, p. 243. 



pears in your columns another type of medical 

 fallacy in public health. On page 377 of your 

 issue of March 17, he states: 



No sharp line can be drawn between preventive 

 medicine, on the one hand, and curative medicine, 

 on the other hand. Public health officers can not 

 do thoroughly effective work if they can not apply 

 remedies to diseased individuals as well as to other 

 sources of danger to the public health. By far the 

 most effective public service in this country to-day 

 is the United States Public Health Service and 

 here treatment of individuals and treatment of 

 environment are carried on hand in hand. 



These sentences define a fallacy which is 

 the outgrowth of medical training and view- 

 point, in which emphasis is placed on treat- 

 ment and not on prevention. Medical educa- 

 tion is a training to enable a man to derive 

 an income through the practise of a profes- 

 sion. In our present organization of society, 

 the members of the medical profession obtain 

 their income by the cure of diseases that ex- 

 ist, and do not receive compensation for dis- 

 ease which is prevented. The matter having 

 a financial basis, the emphasis must be placed 

 on cure, not on prevention. 



He speaks of " treatment of individuals and 

 treatment of environment" in the same 

 breath, as if they are, or could be, in any way 

 similar. Apparently the vast diflierences in 

 personal rights and property rights before the 

 law are completely ignored. 



With reference to his first sentence, a line 

 of demarcation can, and must be, drawn be- 

 tween preventive medicine and curative medi- 

 cine in public health work. Under our form 

 of government, it is not possible for public 

 health officers to apply by compulsion reme- 

 dies to diseased citizens. Such would be 

 totally repugnant to our institutions and our 

 ideals of government. 



Dr. Bardeen states that in the United 

 States Public Health Service " treatment of 

 individuals and treatment of environment are 

 carried on hand in hand." A high-school boy 

 would at once recognize this as an error of 

 statement. The constitution, neither directly 

 nor by implication, gives to the federal gov- 

 ernment, or to any of its bureaus or depart- 



