802 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 438. 



our own departments whom it is our pleas- 

 ure to meet, and whose acquaintance be- 

 comes not only valuable for what we find 

 them to be, but because of the stimulus 

 that they give to our own thoughts. 



Ordinarily the presidential address has 

 been devoted to some special professional 

 topic. My first idea was to select such a 

 subject for to-night, but as I \vas absent 

 from the country when I received the very 

 highly appreciated notice of my selection, 

 I asked the members of the executive com- 

 mittee for suggestions, being sure that their 

 united judgment would be better than my 

 own. I was very glad when they proposed 

 the topic upon which I shall address you, 

 partly because it is different from the usual 

 type of such addresses, and partly because 

 it seems to me appropriate to the present 

 time. I shall, therefore, give the time at 

 my disposal to presenting to you some 

 thoughts on 'The Duties and Responsibili- 

 ties of Trustees of Public Medical Insti- 

 tutions. ' 



Before entering upon my topic I beg to 

 state explicitly that what I may say is 

 offered in no spirit of unfriendly criticism, 

 but only by way of friendly suggestion. 

 I have been too long and too intimately 

 associated with scores of such trustees not 

 to know that they are almost without ex- 

 ception generous, self-sacrificing, giving. of 

 their time and money and thoughtful care 

 without stint and often sacrificing personal 

 convenience and comfort for the good of 

 the college or hospital which they so faith- 

 fully serve. Anxious to discharge their 

 trust to the best of their ability, I am sure 

 they will accept these suggestions, the fruit 

 of forty years of personal service as a 

 teacher and a hospital surgeon, in the same 

 friendly spirit in which they are offered. 



There are two such classes of institu- 

 tions to be considered: (1) Medical col- 



leges, and (2) hospitals, whether they be 

 connected with medical schools or not. 



There is, it is true, a third class of 

 trustees for a wholly new kind of medical 

 institution which has arisen as a modern 

 Minerva Medica, born full-armed for the 

 fray. Of this class we have as yet but a 

 single example — the Rockefeller Institute 

 for Medical Research. Akin to it are labo- 

 ratories for special investigations, such as 

 the two cancer laboratories in Buffalo and 

 Boston. But the Rockefeller Institute is 

 so recent, and its scope at present neces- 

 sarily so undetermined, that I would not 

 venture to consider the duties of these trus- 

 tees, and I am sure their responsibilities 

 are adequately felt by them. Moreover, 

 their admirable selection of a director for 

 the institution is the best pledge of a future 

 wise administration. I heartily congratu- 

 late the profession and America upon the 

 establishment of so peculiarly useful an 

 institute. Its founder has wisely left its 

 work unhampered saving as to its general 

 purpose, and the whole world, and espe- 

 cially the United States, will soon be his 

 debtor for researches and discoveries that 

 will abridge or even abolish some diseases, 

 shorten sickness, prolong life and add enor- 

 mously to the sum of human happiness. 

 Could any man of wealth by any possible 

 gift win for himself a higher reward or a 

 happier recollection when he faces the fu- 

 ture world ? 



Though not a medical institution, I can 

 not refrain also at this point from express- 

 ing not only for myself, but for you, our 

 hearty appreciation of what the Carnegie 

 Institution has done for medicine in the 

 reestablishment of the 'Index Medicus. ' 

 This publication is essentially and pecu- 

 liarly American in origin, but its useful- 

 ness is worldwide. It aids alike an author 

 in Japan or in India, in Europe or Amer- 

 ica. It is one of the best and wisest under- 



