1893.] 



Pathology among Biological Studies. 



115 



progress and of final victory, in face of the attacks of opponents and 

 the insnlts which are spared to nobody who comes before the public ? 

 33e who during a long and busy life is exposed to public opinion, 

 certainly learns to bear unjust criticism with equanimity, but this 

 comes only through the confidence that his cause is just, and that 

 some day it must triumph. Such is our hope in our wrestlings for 

 progress in science and art. Such is our hope in our struggles for civil 

 and religious liberty, and in this hope we gradually become hardened 

 asrainst malicious attacks. It is a kind of immunisation which, I 

 acknowledge, has also great drawbacks, for this hardening against 

 unjust attacks leads very easily to a similar indifference towards just 

 attacks, and, owing to the tendency to contradiction rooted in the 

 nature of human thought, it finally leads also to indifference to praise 

 and recognition. We withdraw again and again into ourselves, discon- 

 tented with the world and with ourselves also ; but who can so com- 

 pletely retire within himself that the consciousness of the insufficiency 

 of human thought, and that the criticisms of opponents are justified, 

 cannot penetrate the crust of even the most hardened reserve ? 

 Happy is he who has courage enough to keep up or regain his re- 

 lations with other men, and to take part in the common work ! Thrice 

 happy he who does not lack in this work the flattering commendation 

 ■of esteemed colleagues ! 



Such were the thoughts which filled my mind, as, looking forward 

 to the present occasion, I reviewed my own life and the history of 

 science, or, to use another expression, the fortunes of our predecessors. 

 How often have I found myself in a state of despondency, overcome 

 by a feeling of extreme depression ! And the history of science — what 

 long periods of stagnation and what numerous interruptions has it not 

 experienced owing to the victory of erroneous doctrines ! What has 

 saved me is the habit of work, which has not forsaken me even in 

 the days of outward misfortune — that habit of scientific work which 

 has always appeared to me as a recreation, even after wearying and 

 useless efforts in political, social, and religious matters. 



That which has saved science is identically the same ; it only 

 appears to be different, because the co-operation of many is necessary 

 to secure its advance ; hence, the exalting and consoling thought that 

 ■one nation after another comes to the front, to take its share in the 

 work. When the star of science becomes dim in one country it rises 

 sooner or later, to yet brighter glory, in another, and thus nation 

 after nation becomes the teacher of the world. 



~No science, more often than medicine, has gone through these 

 waxings and wanings of brilliancy; for medicine alone of all the 

 sciences has, for more than 2000 years, found ever new homes in the 

 course of a progress which, though often disturbed, has never been 

 wholly arrested. 



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