180 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 1075 



The war has demonstrated, however, one 

 encouraging fact, namely, that among all the 

 sciences and professions, the medical sciences 

 and medical practise occupy an almost unique 

 relationship to warfare, and that, among all 

 the citizens of a country at war, medical men 

 and women occupy a peculiar and distinctive 

 position. 



No discovery in medical science has been 

 utilized for the purpose of destroying or harm- 

 ing the enemy. Medical men in each of the 

 warring countries are as courageous, as patri- 

 otic, as any other citizens, and are as ready to 

 die or to be crippled for life in the service of 

 their country as any other class of their fellow 

 countrymen. But their services, however, con- 

 sist in ministering to the sick and to the in- 

 jured and in attending to the sanitary needs. 

 Furthermore, they often risk their lives by 

 venturing into the firing line to bring the in- 

 jured to places of safety and to attend to their 



-immediate needs. In these heroic and humani- 

 tarian acts friend and foe are treated aWke. 

 Finally, the majority of the members of the 

 medical profession and of the medical journals 

 of the neutral as well as of the warring coun- 

 tries, abstain from public utterances that 

 might be grossly offensive to any of the belli- 

 gerent nations. 



These facts — this advanced moral position 

 in international relations which medicine and 

 its followers are permitted to occupy in all 

 civilized nations ought to be brought to the 

 full consciousness of the men and women en- 

 gaged in the medical sciences or in medical 

 practise. Such a realization could not fail to 

 have an elevating influence upon the medical 

 profession itself, and would probably exert a 

 favorable influence upon the development of 

 international morality in general. 



At the dawn of history, medical men were 

 frequently also the exponents of philosophy and 



' morals. In the middle ages, when knowledge 

 became specialized, medical men more and 

 more devoted their activity exclusively to med- 

 ical practise. Because of its inefiiciency at 

 that time, medicine lost its prestige. In re- 

 cent times, however, medicine is becoming an 

 effective science; one marvelous discovery has 



followed another, and the efficiency of medical 

 practise has been rapidly increasing. Medicine 

 makes habitable to man hitherto uninhabitable 

 parts of the world. It prevents disease; and, 

 with increasing theoretical and practical effi- 

 ciency, medicine is learning to alleviate and 

 cure disease and injuries. Medical science 

 and medical men have steadily risen in the 

 esteem of civilized mankind. May not the 

 medical sciences and medical men hecome 

 again the standard hearers of morality, espe- 

 cially of international morals? 



To accomplish these objects, it is proposed 

 to organize as large and effective an associa- 

 tion as may be possible, of men and women 

 engaged in the medical sciences or in medical 

 practise under the name of 



THE MEDICAL BROTHERHOOD FOR THE 

 FURTHERANCE OF INTERNATIONAL MORALITY 



It is obvious that such a brotherhood could 

 not exercise an important influence at once. 

 But our modest expectation for prompt results 

 should not prevent us from attempting now 

 to take the first step in the right direction. 

 Many important results have often had small 

 beginnings. 



A committee of physicians and medical in- 

 vestigators requekt you herewith to enroll as a 

 memher, and to declare your willingness to en- 

 dorse and support the moral standard which the 

 medical profession • generally upholds when 

 called upon to perform its patriotic duties in 

 an international strife. 



It should be expressly understood that it is 

 not the object of the proposed brotherhood to 

 influence the feelings and views of any one 

 regarding the problems involved in the present 

 war. It is desired merely to bring to the full 

 consciousness of the members of the medical 

 profession the exceptional moral position which 

 all civilized nations, even while at war, permit 

 and expect medical men to occupy, at least as 

 long as they remain in the medical profession 

 and act in this capacity. This consciousness 

 can not fail to elevate the moral standards of 

 physicians. Furthermore, after the close of the 

 present war, the brotherhood could without 

 doubt facilitate the reunion of the members of 



