August 20, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



233 



science, every nation's literature or art, 

 every element of "religion pure and unde- 

 filed," every element of commerce con- 

 ducted upon the dignified basis of mutual 

 respect and mutual profit of buyer and 

 seller, is a contributor to the forward move- 

 ment. It would be a pleasure to support 

 this thesis by reference to definite contri- 

 butions in many subjects, but time is avail- 

 able for only a few accomplishments of the 

 past and a few needs of the future. 



The discoveries in preventive and cura- 

 tive medicine undoubtedly rank amongst 

 the most valued contributions to civiliza- 

 tion in the entire range of scientific re- 

 search. I am disposed to place the names 

 of Louis Pasteur, Joseph Lister and Kobert 

 Koch very high on the list of the world's 

 great benefactors. Pasteur was a professor 

 of chemistry whose first investigations lay 

 in the domain of abstract chemistry, and 

 his subsequent successes, which put the^ 

 world in the way of preventing and eradi- 

 cating all infectious diseases, proceeded 

 naturally from his application of the meth- 

 ods of research in pure chemistry to the 

 problems of fermentation. He proved that 

 wine, beer and milk ferment and turn sour 

 because minute organisms, always present in 

 the atmosphere, invade these liquids, mul- 

 tiply enormously and corrupt them. Break 

 the skin of the grape, the atmospheric par- 

 asites enter the wound and fermentation 

 develops. Exclude the air, or destroy the 

 germs in the air, the wound in the veg- 

 etable structure remains clean and healthy 

 indefinitely. 



These discoveries by Pasteur attracted 

 the immediate attention of Lister, who ap- 

 plied them in surgical operations. Anti- 

 septic surgery, one of the most glorious 

 works of man, is the result. 



Pasteur proceeded upon the theory that 

 just as fermentation is the work of foreign 

 organisms, so certain diseases of animal 



life are the work of mi^obes which have 

 entered the body of the sufferer. His first 

 successes in preventive medicine related to 

 cholera in the French fowls, and anthrax 

 in the French cattle and sheep. His treat- 

 ment reduced the death rate of the fowls 

 and animals from about ten per cent, to 

 less than one per cent. The great British 

 authority, Thomas Huxley, estimated that 

 the savings in these sources of wealth to the 

 French nation in two decades were suffi- 

 cient to pay the war indemnity of 1871. 

 Proceeding further along the same lines, 

 Pasteur inaugurated the curative treat- 

 ment of hydrophobia. The fatalities from 

 this horrible malady dropped suddenly 

 from nearly one hundred per cent, to less 

 than one per cent. Do we realize that this 

 was only thirty years ago? 



In the next three decades followed the 

 preventive and curative treatments by sev- 

 eral renowned investigators for diphtheria, 

 tetanus, yellow fever, malaria, spinal men- 

 ingitis, typhoid fever and other maladies. 

 Progress has been notable in the treatment 

 of tuberculosis, bubonic plague, cholera, 

 typhus fever and sleeping sickness. There 

 are faith and hope in the future as to pre- 

 ventives and cures for tuberculosis, scarlet 

 fever, measles and cancer. The practise 

 of extreme cleanliness and the vise of an- 

 esthetics in surgery have enabled surgeons 

 to reach hitherto inaccessible parts of the 

 body, to reduce the death rate enormously, 

 to diminish the suffering of the patient, and 

 to afford health and strength after healing. 

 "Wonderful operations upon the brain, upon 

 intestines, upon severed nerves, veins and 

 arteries are now performed. The general 

 health of communities has been improved 

 by the theory and practise of cleanliness 

 and fresh air. The average length of life 

 has increased by many years since the prin- 

 ciples discovered by Pasteur have been ap- 

 plied. The increase has been greatest for 



