ADDRESS AT COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES. 73 



abroad, the Government established a Medical School for the purpose 

 of bringing up young physicians who would be capable of using exact 

 methods of laboratory technique and diagnosis and who would them- 

 selves be able to carry on the work of investigation so well begun. 

 The period of stagnation has passed, the time for development has come, 

 and the Far East, with its tremendous mass of heart-breaking problems 

 and enormous wealth of new material, is finally coming into its own. 

 The center for the study of tropical medicine will eventually be moved to 

 this part of the world and Manila with the start already gained, will 

 finally become one of the great centers of medical learning. 



Although the time for stagnation is past and new conditions, which 

 inevitably must continue to prevail and which must lead to further 

 development are here, there are not wanting those who regard with a 

 sceptical mind that which has been done and who deprecate the expense, 

 effort, and sacrifice. Insular prejudice is difficult to overcome and to 

 eliminate it altogether must take years of patient endeavor amidst cir- 

 cumstances of the most discouraging nature. However, conscious that 

 we have followed the right path, conscious that our development has 

 been real and not imaginary, and conscious that our work will eventually 

 result in the greatest good to the greatest number, we can continue 

 to ignore unjust criticism. Let us not forget that the true followers 

 of the art of Esculapius in other countries have their trials as well, 

 let us not forget that in other parts of the world true scientific work 

 is often regarded as impractical and visionary, and that despite this, 

 medical science has grown and developed marvelously. 



The great mass of humanity, to say the most, are but slightly familiar 

 with the achievements of modern medicine, and having but a superficial 

 insight into the exact methods of scientific investigation are prone to 

 regard the great modifications in practice which we encounter to-day, 

 as compared with the principles followed even a few years ago, as the 

 result of the controversies between various schools of medicine or as being 

 due to the influence of different empiric doctrines upon the methods of 

 thought of physicians. In so doing, they completely overlook, or ignore, 

 the fact that since the latter half of the eighteenth century the develop- 

 ment of science in all of its branches has proceeded with startling 

 rapidity. In the few years preceding and following the French Eevolu- 

 tion the methods of exact investigation became firmly rooted in the scien- 

 tific world; and these methods, which before that time were confined to 

 a few of the greater minds, were universally adopted. Quantitative study 

 was developed in chemistry, and the bitter controversies in support of 

 opposite views carried on by the devotees of that science, finally resulted 

 in the present development of structural formulas. This development 

 gave to us the many dyes and stains without which modern biology 

 would be far behind its present status. We obtained a clearer insight 

 into the nature of the great group of carbohydrates, and the hitherto 



