THE PHILIPPINE 



Journal of Science 



B. Medical Sciences 



Vol. IV APEIL, 1909 No. 3 



ADDRESS AT THE COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES OF THE 

 PHILIPPINE MEDICAL SCHOOL.' 



By Paul C. Freer. 



The physicians of the Occident are at present in a position far 

 different from that of their colleagues in the Far East. There we have 

 institutions of learning whose history extends over centuries, institutions 

 in which the great advances of science have been made, institutions that 

 have developed Faraday, Berzelius, Gay-Lussac, Liebig, Wohler, Virchow, 

 Pettenkofer, Nernst, Ostwald, Fischer, Pasteur, Koch, Ehrlich, and a 

 host of others. There, those beginning their academic careers are 

 brought in contact with a well-trained army of assistants and even with 

 the masters themselves. They have at their disposal the great state 

 laboratories and hospitals, are in the centers giving facilities for the 

 international exchange of the resiilts of research, and the comity between 

 seats of learning gives to them not only the exactness necessary for the 

 development of scientific investigation, but also the tolerance of the views 

 of others which is essential to the thorough discussion of any subject. 

 The great majority of the scientific journals are published in Eiirope 

 and America, and in those continents the workers in science can digest the 

 current literature of their siibjects almost as soon as it is issued from 

 the press. Great scientific congresses meet at frequent intervals, where 

 discussion of recent advances spurs on the new endeavor ; in short, in the 

 Occident we have a scientific atmosphere which in every way favors the 

 growth of medical knowledge. 



In the Far East, on the other hand, until very recent years, the various 



^Address of the Dean of the Philippine Medical School: Eead at the com- 

 mencement exercises of the Scliool, February 27, 1909, Manila, P. I. 



84022 71 



