August 20, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



245 



the community, and paid for by the com- 

 munity. 



5. Medical practise combined with public 

 health service is an incompatibility. 



Recently it has been argued that the train- 

 ing and experience of the sanitary engineer 

 qualify him for public health work. As a 

 matter of fact much of the sanitary engineer's 

 training is exceedingly valuable in public 

 health work, but the sanitary engineer as such 

 is certainly no more qualified than the physi- 

 cian. The fact that several sanitary engineers 

 have proved successful as administrative 

 health officials by no means proves that the 

 training of the sanitary engineer is the ideal 

 foundation for public health work. The same 

 arguments that have been presented for the 

 sanitary engineer might be advanced for the 

 training and qualifications of the attorney, 

 the statistician, the chemist, the bacteriolo- 

 gist, the parasitologist, the veterinarian or the 

 sociologist. All have labored in the field of 

 public health, and all have at least some 

 qualifications of great value. 



Public health is now casting off the swad- 

 dling clothes of its infancy, and entering upon 

 a period of vigorous youth. Medicine has 

 been one of its parents, but now that the 

 child is endeavoring to travel its own path we 

 hear that parent uttering warning cries and, 

 like all good parents, prophesying immediate 

 or ultimate disaster if its rules and precepts 

 are not heeded. For example, witness Dr. V. 

 0. Vaughan's statements before the 1915 con- 

 vention of the American Medical Association 

 in San Francisco, and Dr. Ford's paragraph 

 at the top of column 1 on page 13. We have 

 heard several such utterances lately. Some 

 we may suspect of having ulterior motives be- 

 hind them; others, as the ones referred to, are 

 admittedly cries of alarm on the part of the 

 medical profession at the prospect of a fancied 

 loss of prestige and influence. 



In the last analysis the highest type of pub- 

 lic health official will be a statesman, an ad- 

 ministrator, an educator, above all an efficient 

 public executive. He will have a broad pub- 

 lic vision, partly from native qualifications, 

 but developed by a broad training in public 



health as such, which will include much that 

 is in medicine, but leave out much of medical 

 training; which will include all that is essen- 

 tial in sanitary engineering, law, sociology, 

 and the various fundamental sciences such as 

 chemistry, biology, bacteriology, etc. He will 

 also have an excellent foundation of general 

 culture. He will superintend the work of 

 physicians, engineers, statisticians, chemists, 

 bacteriologists, attorneys, veterinarians and 

 the like employed for special limited but in- 

 tensive fields in public health, and will be the 

 guiding hand in shaping public policy with 

 respect to health. His life work, training and 

 ideal will be public health, not private practise 

 with public health on the side. 



I realize that in thus criticizing some of 

 Dr. Ford's statements I also have relapsed into 

 dogmatic statements. This is difficult to avoid 

 in the brief space of a letter, where proof 

 would require a volume. I hope, however, 

 that I have been able to show that certain 

 viewpoints and theories in public health are 

 debatable, and to have presented briefly a dif- 

 ferent, and I hope a better viewpoint. 



Harold F. Gray 



Board or Public Safety, 

 Palo Alto, Cal. 



the attitude of the state op california 

 toward scientific research 



The note on the Scripps Institution for 

 Biological Research which appeared in Sci- 

 ence, June 18, 1915, contains the statement 

 that the state of California contributes $7,500 

 a year toward the support of the institution. 



This should be amended to the extent of 

 saying that at the last session of the legisla- 

 ture, which adjourned a few weeks ago, the 

 contribution was increased by $5,000, thus 

 making the income of the institution from 

 the state after July 1, 1915, $12,500 a year. 



This discrepancy in statement is too small a 

 matter to be in itself worth noticing, but as 

 indicative of the attitude of the state toward 

 the institution and toward scientific investi- 

 gation generally, it is quite deserving of no- 

 tice. 



Two years ago when the first allotment was 

 made by the state to the university for the 



