74 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. Xo. 446. 



dilettanteism wliieli regards culture as an 

 end and not an adjunct of life. I have 

 sometimes thouglit that, with the increase 

 of luxury and wealth, and especially with 

 the increase of a leisure class, there has 

 been an increase of those persons who 

 pursiie a college course without special 

 pui'pose or aim. Many of these, in fact, 

 pass through their course without attempt- 

 ing severe study, and are content with the 

 passing joys of an undergraduate existence. 

 Like oarsmen in a boat, they constantly fix 

 their eyes on a receding shore, are satis- 

 fied with what they see and do not look in 

 front of them. To such the mental stimu- 

 lation which comes from university con- 

 tact with eager, earnest men engaged in 

 branches of medical study which call into 

 keenest activity every faculty, must prove 

 of untold benefit. 



Too many medical men reason from case 

 to case as did John Hunter, and frequently 

 these cases are imperfectly observed and 

 inadequately interpreted. The physician 

 needs rather a study of principles de- 

 duced from a systematic and painstaking 

 observation of the phenomena of disease 

 and illuminated by scientific conceptions. 

 Already anatomy, physiology, chemistry, 

 bacteriology and pathology are firmly 

 founded upon the scientific method. The 

 practise of medicine and of sixrgery, 

 pharmacology, food dynamics and bodily 

 metabolism mi^st be similarly based upon 

 scientific deductions. The range of ob- 

 servation required must be wide and the 

 mass of acc^^mulated facts to be gathered 

 for ultimate study must be enormously 

 large. The task of interpreting such ob- 

 served phenomena calls for the widest 

 training of the human faculty, and where 

 else can this training be secured except in 

 connection with studies of the broadest 

 and most liberalizing character? From 

 every point of view the intellectual as- 

 pect of medicine is the most important. 



To men who have been trained by univer- 

 sity studies for research we must look for 

 the future development of medicine. The 

 training of the medical man has been nar- 

 row in the past; in future he must draw 

 his inspiration from centers of learning 

 and receive stimulation from his intel- 

 lectual peers. 



A lack of thoroughness is thought by 

 those who are familiar with the educa- 

 tional and industrial development of the 

 world to be a characteristic of the Ameri- 

 can people. We grasp after results, but 

 are not willing to lay a broad foundation 

 of preliminary education. We have 

 business universities (once commercial col- 

 leges), summer universities, correspond- 

 ence universities and the like, and seek to 

 get knowledge and to secure degrees in 

 the shortest time and with the least possible 

 study. In no profession has this lack of 

 thoroughness wrought so much evil as in 

 the study of medicine. 



To you who are to receive the degree of 

 doctor, of medicine I offer a hearty word 

 of congratulation, because in the study of 

 medicine it is possible to combine research 

 and practical work, that is, the acquisition 

 of pure knowledge with the application of 

 scientific knowledge to the better care and 

 treatment of sick people. Nothing in my 

 judginent is so stimulating to the student 

 as the possibility of applying scientific 

 knowledge to daily iise. I can not speak 

 so positively of other sciences, but I can 

 assert that in the history of medicine it 

 has been found that he who makes the 

 most fruitful discovery is the one who has 

 approached the problem which he attempt- 

 ed to solve through the avenue of prac- 

 tical work. Men who sit down in the 

 privacy of their chambers to make dis- 

 coveries lack the incentive to produce 

 practical results which comes from actual 

 contact with the outside world and with 

 the hard-and-fast conditions of nature. 



