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sciimcE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 1083 



A NEW FSOFESSION 



The following extracts from a paper entitled 

 "Applied Biology, A New Profession," em- 

 phasizing the opportunities for men in sani- 

 tary engineering, public health work and mu- 

 nicipal engineering was read before the Civil 

 and Sanitary Engineering Section of the 

 Alumni Convention at Pittsburgh, February 

 20, and the complete article can be found 

 in the reports of the convention. 



With increasing urbanization caused by the flux 

 from the country districts to the cities and all 

 the results which accrue from the consequent 

 overcrowding and the extension to a greater num- 

 ber of people of an artificial mode of living, the 

 chances for morbidity and mortality are greatly 

 increased. To offset these conditions and to min- 

 imize these dangers, there has grown up in the 

 last quarter century a new profession, sanitary 

 science or preventive medicine, concerned with the 

 prevention and control of disease rather than with 

 cure, and as the proverbial "ounce of prevention" 

 is still "worth a pound of cure" and as the in- 

 crease of perplexing problems, which are the out- 

 growth of these constantly extending artificial con- 

 ditions, is apparent, the new profession would be 

 justified even if the brilliant deeds it has accom- 

 plished, during the few years it has been in ex- 

 istence, were unknown. Those of you who are 

 interested in this work know of many instances 

 in your own experience to corroborate my asser- 

 tion. That this new field is entirely distinct from 

 that of curative medicine and that it contains 

 many problems which the ordinary physician is not 

 fitted either by training or by experience to solve, is 

 proved by the fact that our more progressive med- 

 ical schools are offering a three-year post-gradu- 

 ate course to their students, in order that they 

 may be properly qualified to cope with the prob- 

 lems of sanitary science. 



The following extract from the health bulletin 

 of one of our most progressive states further em- 

 phasizes this point. "The practise often followed 

 of naming the leading practitioner as health ofii- 

 cer is by no means indicative of a good choice. 

 It is probably more often the reverse. A physi- 

 cian becomes a competent practitioner only after 

 intelligent and arduous study of curative measures. 

 The more successful he is the more he has spe- 

 cialized in his chosen work to the exclusion of 

 those particular sciences that have to do with pre- 

 ventive measures." 



For those of you who are interested chiefly in 

 the engineering side of public health work, it is 

 desirable to review the applications of biology to 

 sanitary science, in order to make clear the great 

 number of points at which this subject touches 

 the welfare of humanity. There is, perhaps, no 

 better way of doing this than by examining the 

 curriculum of that institution which was a pioneer 

 in this fleld and noting the practical applications 

 of the various subjects therein contained. 



First and foremost in this curriculum comes 

 the course in general biology, which is the study 

 of the physics and chemistry of living matter, 

 and if our thesis is that we are trying to improve 

 human living conditions and better the environ- 

 ment of mankind in general, what better way is 

 there of approaching a solution of this difficult 

 problem than by studying the simpler forms and 

 their correspondingly simpler reactions to changes 

 in their environment? And what subject more 

 fundamental could be imagined than that one, 

 which from its very name means the study of liv- 

 ing 



An independent piece of research work, a 

 thesis, is also required and this tends to develop 

 the resourcefulness of the individual when he is 

 thrown upon his own responsibility. To the prag- 

 matist, who claims that the work of the investi- 

 gator in pure science has no practical value, it is 

 but necessary to point out there is only a very 

 little research that sooner or later does not meet 

 with a practical application; the pure science of 

 to-day becoming the applied science of to-morrow. 

 On completion of this course, the student in biol- 

 ogy has a four-fold possibility before him: first, 

 openings in the various fields of public health 

 work; second, positions in the fermentation indus- 

 tries; third, teaching positions, either in biology 

 or its practical applications; fourth, an oppor- 

 tunity to build upon this excellent foundation a 

 medical education. 



The supply of persons properly trained to 

 teach biology, especially its applications to public 

 health work and of those adequately equipped to 

 occupy field positions, is far below the demand. 

 One finds in many of these positions, incompetent 

 men; men who are not fitted by either training or 

 experience to solve problems related to the public 

 health in a sound, rational, scientific manner, but 

 who work by some rule of thumb method or dis- 

 pose of their problems in a manner similar to that 

 of the alchemists of the middle ages. It is true 



