December 31, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



921 



1860, when his inquiries were opening new 

 vistas in physiology, Pasteur wrote: 



God grant that by my persevering labors I may 

 bring a little stone to the frail and ill-assured edi- 

 fice of our knowledge of those deep mysteries of 

 life and death, where all our intellects have so 

 lamentably failed. 



That prayer was granted. 



Let us review in a summary way the 

 fruits of applied biological science since 

 the nineteenth century opened. 



The first invention, vaccination against 

 smallpox, long antedated the later studies 

 of germs, parasites, the routes of disease 

 from one human being to another through 

 insects and other animals, and the theory 

 and practise of immunity. Vaccination, 

 the invention of a country doctor who prac- 

 tised in a dairy district, was a momentous 

 discovery in immunity from a fatal and 

 disfiguring disease which was frequently 

 epidemic, the immunity being procured by 

 causing in the human body another disease 

 very seldom fatal and not at all disfiguring. 

 The favorable reception and rapid appli- 

 cation of Jenner's discovery were due to 

 the fact that many persons at that time 

 protected themselves against the frequent 

 and terrible epidemics of smallpox by being 

 inoculated with smallpox itself. So soon 

 as it was proved that cowpox gave im- 

 munity in almost all eases against small- 

 pox, inoculation with cowpox came rapidly 

 into use ; because inoculated cowpox proved 

 to be, as one of Jenner's contemporaries 

 remarked, "a pleasanter, shorter, and in- 

 finitely more safe disease than inoculated 

 smallpox." The relief of civilized man- 

 kind from the terrible recurrent epidemics 

 of smallpox is one of the greatest benefits 

 that the profession of medicine has con- 

 ferred on the human race. 



From biological studies largely on mi- 

 croscopic organisms — protozoa, bacteria. 



and parasitic growths — the means of com- 

 munication from one human being to an- 

 other or from an animal to man of dys- 

 entery, cholera, typhoid fever, typhus 

 fever, puerperal fever, bubonic plague, 

 diphtheria, tuberculosis, cerebro-spinal 

 meningitis, syphilis, gonorrhoea, sleeping 

 sickness, yellow fever, malaria, and hook- 

 worm disease have all been brought to 

 light. Means of preventing or restricting 

 the spread of these diseases — with the ex- 

 ception of cerebro-spinal meningitis — 

 have been invented, and for most of them 

 improved methods of treatment have been 

 devised. Much has also been learnt about 

 infantile paralysis, and something about 

 cancer. The whole subject of toxins and 

 anti-toxins has been developed with won- 

 derfully beneficent results. 



It is really impossible to describe or ap- 

 preciate the alleviations and preventions 

 of human misery included in this list of 

 the fruits of applied biological science. 

 Some of the diseases mentioned were 

 within a few years familiar household ter- 

 rors in the most civilized countries, others 

 from time to time destroyed in recurring 

 epidemics large portions of the population 

 in many parts of the world. They ter- 

 rorized families and nations, made in- 

 numerable homes desolate, and ruined for 

 a time cities and states. The generations 

 now on the stage can hardly appreciate 

 the formidable apprehensions from which 

 their predecessors suffered, but they them- 

 selves have been relieved by the achieve- 

 ments of medical research and preventive 

 medicine. This blessed preventive medi- 

 cine may almost be said to have been 

 created by the combination of bacteriolog- 

 ical and pathological studies, which are 

 all, of course, biological studies. Physiol- 

 ogy has been wonderfully developed as a 

 study of biological processes by the addi- 

 tion of bacteriological experimentation to 



