*MEDICAL FADS AND FANCIES. 
R. Watrer Muus. 
It has ever seemed appropriate that the Naturalists 
Club should be addressed on a natural history subject, 
and I have a feeling that things medical possibly may 
not lend themselves felicitously to such an end, though I 
must say that this feeling does not justify itself when 
submitted to deliberate analysis. 
Medicine has been tritely described as an art founded 
on many sciences—a definition of obvious aptness. One 
might truthfully elaborate the definition to even more 
strikingly display the relation of medicine to the natural 
sciences by stating that medicine is the only art entirely 
founded on the natural sciences. Anatomy, physiology, 
bacteriology, chemistry and botany are the purest of 
the natural sciences. Even of the essentially medical 
branches such as pathology, hygienics and therapeutics 
it may be contended that they are subjects founded on 
Scientific observation of natural phenomena. This per- 
haps by way of extenuation for yielding to the tempta- 
tion to test the reaction of a body of those interested 
in natural science to certain views of present medical 
problems and tendencies. Then again, too, one feels a 
greater degree of surety in presenting a subject with 
which he is familiar, and naturally enough anticipates 
that he may so serve best. 
It is to be feared that most of us have at times been 
moved with a desire to propound to others something 
of our own convictions and philosophy. It would be an 
*This paper was read before the Naturalists Club of St. Louis in 
January, 1924. 
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