924 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 1096 



and served as a basis for further measures 

 of defense for the comniunity. The coni- 

 mon use of cold-storage for meats, vege- 

 tables and fruits has lately increased the 

 need of protection against damaged foods ; 

 and this cold-storage process is likely to be 

 more and more used in the future — quite 

 legitimately — for the preservation of per- 

 ishable foods produced in greater quantity 

 than can be sold at or near the time of 

 their production. A cold-storage plant 

 performs as to foods the function of the 

 reservoir in an irrigation plant. Both 

 urban and rural communities have much 

 to hope in the future from cold-storage 

 and irrigation; but to both these public 

 utilities applied biological science must 

 contribute indispensable precautions. There 

 are climates in which extensive irrigation 

 is liable to produce and perpetuate pest- 

 iferous insects. 



One of the most favorable results of ap- 

 plied biology during the past fifty years 

 is the great addition made to the means of 

 detecting the true causes of abnormal con- 

 ditions of the human body, and to the ac- 

 curacy of diagnostic reasoning on both 

 acute and chronic disorders. These new 

 means of diagnosis and examination are in 

 part chemical and physical, but chiefly 

 biological. The theory and practise of 

 asepsis are results of biological researches. 

 Comparative anatomy, physiology and 

 pathology all contribute largely to modern 

 sanitation and to all the practises of boards 

 of health for the discovery and prevention 

 of unsanitary conditions in both urban 

 and rural communities. Very promising 

 examples of these useful practises are: the 

 precautions nowadays taken against con- 

 tagious disease in schools, the employment 

 of school nurses, the inspection of school 

 children's teeth, eyes, noses, ears and skin, 

 the discovery in the mass of school children 

 of the defective, the feeble-minded, and of 



those suffering from glandular abnormali- 

 ties, particularly in the nose, mouth, and 

 throat. The effective treatment of school 

 children following on the detection of their 

 disorders or defects promises much toward 

 the better health of the coming genera- 

 tions. The successful use of the Schick 

 test which enables the physician through 

 a laboratory expert to separate the sus- 

 ceptible from the non-susceptible individ- 

 uals who have been exposed to diphtheria, 

 and therefore to avoid all unnecessary ad- 

 ministrations of antitoxin, seems to open 

 a wide prospect in the study of natural im- 

 munity. The process of improvement is 

 not going to stop; on the contrary it wiU 

 advance at an accelerated pace. 



Another great field for applied biolog- 

 ical science in the future is the contest 

 against alcoholism and sexual vice. This 

 is an important part of the province of 

 social hygiene, a province which includes 

 the philanthropic and economic treatment 

 of the feeble-minded, the insane, the par- 

 alyzed, and the blind. The field is enorm- 

 ous; and its evils are intimately connected 

 one with another; but in the whole field 

 the means of cure and prevention have 

 come in the main from biological research. 

 There is every reason to expect that this 

 great field for Christian efl'ort will here- 

 after be more effectually cultivated than 

 it has ever been. 



In connection with the medical, surgical, 

 and sanitary activities of the present day, 

 new forms of educational effort have been 

 instituted which are very promising for 

 the future health and comfort of mankind. 

 Thus, the institution of district nursing 

 has already developed strong educational 

 effects. The district nurse goes from house 

 to house to treat and comfort individual 

 patients suffering from various disorders; 

 but in every house she also teaches the 

 mother, sister, or some other attendant on 



