Dec., 1901.] 
Meeting of the Biological Club. 
14 9 
that we count them among the triumphs of our modern science. 
Indeed the discover}- of such a relationship may be considered as 
having been impossible until the methods of modern research and 
the basis of knowledge as to life conditions were acquired, and 
which made it possible to put the disjointed fragments together, 
With the fragments thus related the riddle seems so simple that 
we wonder it was not solved before, but we must remember that 
it is knowledge which makes knowledge possible. 
These direct advantages in medical science are however but 
part of the great gift to modern methods of disease control, for 
the possibilities in the control of disease by sanitation, quaran- 
tine, vaccination, etc., and other methods are all based on 
biological data. 
In speaking of these recent acquisitions I would not disparage 
those important, in fact essential subjects of longer growth. 
Modern medicine would be a fragile structure without its basis of 
comparative anatomy, physiology, materia medica and therapeu- 
tics, which have for long years furnished a basis for rational 
methods in surgery and medication. 
With all this knowledge at hand it is grievous to observe how 
general the delusion that disease may be eradicated by some much 
emblazoned nostrum, that some vile ‘ Indian compound ’ will be 
thought to have more virtue than the most accurately propor- 
tioned prescription which represents the best that modern science 
can do in the adaptation of a particular remedy to a particular 
ailment. That the patent medicine business is a most gigantic 
fraud and curse will I believe be granted by every scientific man 
who has made himself acquainted with the subject. Its immense 
profits are attested by the square miles of advertisements that 
disgrace the modern newspaper and magazine. Fortunes made 
from the fortunes spent in such advertising, along with the com- 
missions to the lesser dealers, are drawn from a credulous people 
who not only receive no value in return, but in most cases doubt- 
less are actually injured as a result. 
That no student of biology can be deluded by such prepos- 
terous claims as characterize these compounds, in fact by any 
system of cure not based on sound biological principles, seems 
only a logical result of his training. I do not recall ever seeing 
the name of a biologist among the host of those who sing the 
praises of some of these rotten compounds. Mayors, congress- 
men, professors, clergymen and other presumably educated parties 
appear along with the host of those who fill this guilty list, a list 
that should be branded as a roll of dishonor. I believe that 
educated men owe some measure of effort toward the abatement 
of this plague. Naturally the medical profession is thought to 
be the rightful source for action, but among the uninformed any 
effort there is attributed to selfish motive. Certainly some 
