812 



SCIENCE, 



LN. S. Vol. XVII. No. 438. 



that in our father's day and in our own 

 earlier lives no such conditions existed or 

 were contemplated. "I need hardly ask a 

 body like this," said President Roosevelt 

 in addressing the Methodists assembled in 

 council, "to remember that the greatness 

 of the fathers becomes to the children a 

 shameful thing if they use it only as an 

 ■excuse for inaction instead of as a spur 

 to effort for noble aims. * * * The instru- 

 ments with which and the surroundings in 

 which we work have changed immeasur- 

 ably from what they were in the days when 

 the rough backwoods preachers ministered 

 to the moral and spiritual needs of their 

 rough backwoods congregations. But if 

 we are to succeed, the spirit in which we 

 do our work must be the same as the spirit 

 in which they did theirs." 



Moreover, we must remember that "the 

 world-field into which all nations are com- 

 ing in free competition by the historical 

 movement to which all narrower policies 

 must sooner or later yield, will be com- 

 manded by those races which, in addition 

 to native energy and sagacity, bring the 

 resources of scientific investigation and of 

 thorough education." The international 

 race for the leadership of the world is just 

 as strenuous and intense in medicine as it 

 is in commerce. If we are going to join 

 the race and win the prize there must be 

 the highest development of American edu- 

 cation at the top. The best men must be 

 pushed to the front, and ample opportuni- 

 ties for growth, for investigation and for 

 original research must be provided. Never 

 has there been so large an opportunity for 

 the man of large ideas, complete education 

 and indomitable energy and purpose as 

 there is to-day. The world is waiting, 

 looking, longing for him, and will cry 

 'Make room' for him when he is found. 



In the hands of the trustees of our col- 

 leges and hospitals are the money and the 

 opportunity for developing such men. If 



the right spirit pervades both trustees and 

 medical faculties and hospital staffs, then 

 it will be but a short time before America 

 will lead the world in medicine as well as 

 she now does in commerce. 



Will the profession rise to the level of 

 their great opportunity? Yea, verily they 

 will! Never yet have they been wanting 

 when the emergency arose; not only the 

 emergency of labor, but also the emergency 

 of danger. 



In Russia the common soldier counts for 

 little. Yet in Vladikavkaz (where the 

 Dariel Pass— the old Portas Caspiae of 

 Herodotus — leading from the Caucasus 

 joins the railroad frora Baku on the Cas- 

 pian to Moscow) is a monument to a com- 

 mon soldier. At the last battle in which 

 the Russians won the victory over Schamyl 

 which gave them undisputed sway over the 

 Caucasus, this soldier blew up a mine and 

 won the day at the cost of his own life. 

 It was ordered that his name should never 

 be erased from the list of his company. 

 At every roll-call when his name is reached, 

 the solemn answer is given 'Died in the 

 service of his country.' 



In our hospitals lurk the deadly breath 

 of diphtheria, the fatal virus of bubonic 

 plague, of cholera, of yellow fever, of 

 typhus fever, and the ever present danger 

 of blood poisoning. I have known of 

 brother physicians who have died victims 

 to each one of these scourges. Yet who 

 has ever known one of owe guild to shrink 

 when danger smote him on the right hand 

 and the left and death barred the way? 

 As brave as the Russian soldier, ready to 

 risk life, and, if need be, to lose it, these 

 martyrs to duty shall never have their 

 names stricken off the honor list, and at 

 the last roll-call the solemn reply shall be, 

 ' Died in the service of humanity. ' 



W. W. Keen. 

 Jefferson Medical College, 

 Philadelphia. 



