106 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIII. No. 



Europe and her colonies, the apprentice 

 system was in vogue in medicine. Theo- 

 retically there is no better. The apprentice 

 learns from his master the history and 

 principles of his science, receives correction 

 and encouragement and watches at close 

 range the master's methods and the exhibi- 

 tion of his skill, and has the opportunity 

 to try everything himself. The system 

 suffers mainly from the paucity of masters. 



In passing I should like to recall your at- 

 tention to the fact that exactly these ad- 

 vantages were those urged for the labora- 

 tory method of instruction when the per- 

 sonal contact of the teacher with a few 

 chosen students were the features empha- 

 sized, and these relations still remain the 

 ones for which we strive. Yet in the com- 

 petition between the several methods of in- 

 struction during earlier centuries the di- 

 dactic form prevailed — for reasons too 

 obvious to need recounting here. From the 

 first the weaknesses of the method were ap- 

 parent, but teachers were in a measure 

 misled by the persistent hope that through 

 the spoken or the written word or through 

 the picture of a thing or act they could 

 effect in the nervous system of the student 

 those changes which the independent act 

 and thought by the individual himself 

 alone can cause. We now know that if an 

 animal be carried through a maze — even 

 many times — it does not learn its way. It 

 must go itself. The same is true for man. 



So at the present day more training of 

 the eye and hand and of the powers of ob- 

 servation and of inference are demanded. 

 These pave the way for the many attain- 

 ments which are to be exercised within the 

 frame set by the philosophy, history and 

 scope of your science. Through these at- 

 tainments and within this frame you are to 

 work in the light of the best knowledge to 

 be had, realizing that among these condi- 

 tions knowledge is the least stable and the 



most likely to take a turn for the better. 

 Nevertheless, when one has reached the 

 point of view that our knowledge is in a 

 constant flux, there are some common diffi- 

 culties which at once appear. Guided by 

 the conviction that learning advances, we 

 are sometimes in our enthusiasm misled by 

 the notion that each new thing is probably 

 an addition to the fund of truth. 



But old men shake their heads. The life 

 of a new discovery has been said to be for 

 three years, and after it has survived for 

 that time, it too often fades away. 



I have a personal interest in this matter, 

 for the laboratory is my habitat. It must 

 be admitted that the atmosphere there is 

 sometimes such as to force intellectual fruit 

 unduly, and it may even be put upon the 

 market while still quite green ; but we grow 

 wiser with experience, even in the labora- 

 tory, and the future I am sure will contain 

 proportionately fewer premature revela- 

 tions than the past. But leaving aside the 

 group of false alarms and false hopes which 

 have gone far to discredit the influence of 

 the laboratories, there still remain the 

 significant and well-grounded results which 

 they have furnished. To these the practi- 

 tioner must be alive and responsive in the 

 same manner as he is alive to clinical ad- 

 vance, and not allow either prejudice or 

 indolence to stand in the way of his utiliza- 

 tion of these new facts for the benefit of 

 those whom he is called to aid. 



When the ideal relation is established, as 

 it surely will be, between the physician 

 and the well springs of new knowledge, not 

 only will the practitioner find continuous 

 aid and stimulus coming from the labora- 

 tory, but in return will use his best efforts 

 for the extension and increase of the work 

 which laboratories do ; substituting enthusi- 

 asm and cooperation for the less helpful 

 relations which sometimes appear. 



It must be admitted frankly that in this 



