846 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXI. No. 544. 



of the method of producing them both, es- 

 pecially the antidote. You have been fully- 

 instructed in the principles of this modern 

 branch of medicine and know how closely 

 your future professional activity will be 

 connected therewith. 



Perhaps it is not wise to prophesy a time 

 when enzymic diseases shall lose all their 

 terror by reason of the discovery of ef- 

 fective antidotes to the poisons to which 

 their ravages are generally due. It is rea- 

 sonable, however, to look forward to the 

 time when the terror of these diseases, 

 namely, diphtheria, typhoid fever, typhus 

 and kindred scourges shall be reduced to a 

 minimum. 



If, as has been well demonstrated, the 

 germ of typhoid fever is transmitted prin- 

 cipally in water, there seems no reason to 

 doubt the ability of health officers, collabo- 

 rating with broad-minded municipal au- 

 thority and high class engineering skill, to 

 perfect means whereby this deadly germ 

 shall be practically eliminated from our 

 water supply. Consumption may be 

 checked by the establishment of camps of 

 detention where the unfortunate victims of 

 this terrible disease may receive not only 

 the highest degree of proficiency in medical 

 treatment, but also be so segregated from 

 the non-infected portions of the community 

 as to render the spread of the disease diffi- 

 cult. 



Moses himself was a sanitarian of no 

 mean accomplishments and many of the 

 principles established by him in sanitary 

 science might well be exploited in modern 

 times. The type of camp which he estab- 

 lished for the detention of unfortunate 

 leper.s, well modified to suit modern prin- 

 ciples, would serve for the cheek and prac- 

 tical elimination of consumption. 



I realize vividly the effect of a mental 

 nature produced upon people of highly 

 sensitive constitutions and of an impres- 



sionable nature, such as the victims of 

 phthisis usually are, in being made prac- 

 tically prisoners in an environment of 

 misery and despair. This, however, is not 

 a question of sentiment, it is a principle of 

 existence. It is based upon the undoubted 

 right of the healthy to be protected against 

 the invasion of disease. Moreover, a deten- 

 tion camp might be made attractive in 

 every way with beautiful gardens, sun- 

 shine, flowers, music and all the other 

 agreeable arts of life, and thus the terrors 

 of detention be robbed of their chief sig- 

 nificance. 



The physician of the future will, there- 

 fore, be the herald and exponent of pro- 

 phylaxis. It seems a contradiction of 

 terms to predict a future for a learned pro- 

 fession, which, if perfected, would rob the 

 profession of all of its emoluments; but 

 with the changed condition of the future 

 physician a change in the character of his 

 emoluments will also come. The medical 

 profession, in other words, will not be paid 

 in proportion to the amount of sickness 

 which prevails, but rather in proportion to 

 the degree of health which is maintained. 

 That physician will have the largest com- 

 pensation whose parish is freest from dis- 

 ease. He will become the teacher of the 

 principles of public hygiene, as before men- 

 tioned, in the schools, colleges and hos- 

 pitals; he will, in my opinion, become 

 largely a public officer, and every state, city 

 and town will have as one of its chief offi- 

 cials a medical health officer. Surely such 

 an officer is quite as important to the wel- 

 fare of the community as the assessor and 

 tax collector. The physician of the future, 

 therefore, will become more and more active 

 as a citizen and take a more lively interest 

 in public affairs. 



I have looked carefully over the congres- 

 sional directory of the Fifty-Seventh Con- 

 gress and find that the congress of the 



