EVOLUTION OF MODERN SCIENTIFIC LABORATORIES. 503 



examinations require much time, trained observers, and considerable 

 apparatus. To secure for tlie patients tlie benefits in the way of diag- 

 nosis, prognosis, and treatment to be derived from these methods of 

 examination, a hospital should be supplied with the requisite facilities. 



A hospital, and especially one connected with a medical school, 

 should serve not only for the treatment of patients, but also for the 

 promotion of knowledge. Where this second function is prominent, 

 there also is the first most efficiently and intelligently carried out. 

 Herein we seethe far-reaching beneficence of a laboratory, such as this 

 one, thoroughly equipped to investigate the many problems which 

 relate to clinical medicine. 



The usefulness of an investigating laboratory in close connection 

 with a hospital has already been abundantly demonstrated. Chemical 

 studies, more particularly those relating to metabolism in various acute 

 and chronic affections, microscopical and chemical investigations of 

 the blood and bacteriological examinations of material derived directly 

 from the patient, may be mentioned as directions in which researches 

 conducted in hospital laboratories have yielded important results and 

 will garner still richer harvests in the future. 



There need be no conflict between the work of clinical laboratories 

 and that of the various other medical laboratories. Each has its own 

 special field, but it is not necessary or desirable to draw around these 

 fields sharp boundary lines beyond which there shall be no poaching. 

 It will be a relief to pathological and other laboratories to have certain 

 examinations and subjects relating directly to practical medicine con- 

 signed to the clinical laboratory, where they can receive fuller and 

 more satisfactory consideration. The subject-matter for study in the 

 clinical laboratory is primarily the patient and material derived from 

 the patient. Anatomical, physiological, pathological, pharmacolog- 

 ical, aud hygienic laboratories must concern themselves with many 

 problems which have apparently no immediate and direct bearing upon 

 practical medicine. In the long run, their contributions are likely to 

 prove most beneficial to medicine if broad biological points of view, 

 rather than immediate practical utility, are their guiding stars. The 

 clinical laboratory will concern itself more particularly with questions 

 which bear directly upon the diagnosis and the treatment of disease. 



To the small number of existing well equipped clinical laboratories 

 the William Pepper Laboratory of Clinical Medicine is a most nota- 

 ble addition. It is the first laboratory of the kind provided with its 

 own building and amply equipped for research in this country, and it 

 is not surpassed in these respects by any in foreign countries. It is 

 intended especially for investigation and the training of advanced 

 students. It is a most worthy memorial of the father of its founder. 



William Pepper, the elder, was a very distinguished physician and 

 trusted consultant of this city, for many years an attending physician 

 at the Pennsylvania Hospital, where he was a clinical teacher of great 



