December 12, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



833 



left to medicine in his catalogue of the 

 Surgeon General's Library a monumental 

 labor which none will ever better and to 

 which he gave continuity of vigorous life. 

 S. Weih Mitchell 



THE DUTY OF THE STATE IN THE PROSE- 

 CUTION OF MEDICAL BESEAECHi 



It is an interesting manifestation of ap- 

 parent humility and unwonted lack of self- 

 conceit that man should have hesitated so 

 long to emphasize the primary responsibil- 

 ity of the state for the physical well-being 

 of its citizens. Health is a fundamental re- 

 source not only of the individual, but, in a 

 very real sense, of the state itself. The 

 happiness, the efficiency, and even the ex- 

 istence of every citizen is threatened by the 

 presence of disease in the individual home. 

 It would be interesting to discuss why an 

 educated nation has so long permitted the 

 existence and even encouraged the exten- 

 sion of sickness and disease among its citi- 

 zens by failing to take means for the cor- 

 rection of the individual evil, and for the 

 prevention of its dispersal among other 

 unaffected members of the community. 

 Discussion of this feature would demand 

 more time than is reasonable on this occa- 

 sion, and it is sufficient to have indicated 

 the existence of influences which stand in 

 the way of efficient work for the conserva- 

 tion and improvement of public health. 



The state university has been organized 

 and developed by the state in order to sup- 

 ply that trained knowledge which is essen- 

 tial for the comprehension and solution of 

 modern problems. Unwilling that all 

 knowledge should come to the public 

 through private citizens, or that the dis- 

 semination of knowledge and the methods 

 of its application should be dependent 

 upon the liberality of the fortunate indi- 

 vidual or in any way hampered by the con- 

 1 Address at the dedication of the medical lab- 

 oratories at the University of Nebraska. 



ditions under which private munificence is 

 granted and expended, the state itself, that 

 is, the common men and women of the com- 

 munity working together, have contributed 

 each one of their means and according to 

 their ability that they may have in their 

 midst a center of influence ready and able 

 to gather the best knowledge from all 

 sources, to assimilate it to their purposes, to 

 apply it for their protection and advance- 

 ment, and thus to make possible a broader 

 and richer and freer and fuller life than 

 they working singly could ever attain. 

 Every man and every woman in the entire 

 commonwealth who has sufficient honor and 

 self-respect to pay taxes has contributed to 

 the support of the state university as a 

 whole, and of every one of its individual de- 

 partments. The responsibility that the 

 university and every one of its individual 

 departments assumes is thus definite and 

 grave. It involves the very best possible 

 application of funds which represent many 

 instances of self-denial and privation on 

 the part of individual citizens that it may 

 further the interests of every one of those 

 citizens in the most efficient manner. This 

 is the problem which stands before the 

 medical department of the University of 

 Nebraska in its new quarters so generously 

 provided and admirably adapted for the 

 work of medical education, primarily in its 

 relation to the state of Nebraska itself, but 

 since we are all members of one nation, and 

 of one family of nations, in constant, inti- 

 mate, and unavoidable contact with each 

 other, really also in its relation to the na- 

 tion and the entire world. 



Men look at things from different points 

 of view. Toiling up the steeps of knowl- 

 edge, we reach different coigns of vantage, 

 from which we may look out and get a some- 

 what imperfect and incomplete view of the 

 achievements of the past, and the paths 

 that lead on to the higher attainments of 



