The Advance of American Medicine 
By Felicia Robbins 
Eleventh in a Series of Articles on American Tendencies 
Before reviewing in detail the tendencies of American Medicine 
in the last ten years, the fact should be emphasized that the evolution 
of medicine in general in the last half century has been marked by 
more striking advances than medical progress has registered in the 
combined scrolls of its earlier history. The last forward step, by far 
the longest, has carried modern medicine very far towards its goal— 
recognition of the underlying causes of human suffering and its con¬ 
sequent abolition. Judging from what has already been accomplished, 
the conclusion seems justified that startling possibilities may be real¬ 
ized within the space of the next few decades. A glimpse into the 
wonderland of the future is afforded to a certain extent by a review 
of medical tendencies during the last ten years, a decade which may be 
fittingly described as an epoch-making period in medical history. 
Tendencies in medicine are usually surmised as coming from 
within the profession, but, like reforms in politics, they are governed 
essentially by external factors. Hygiene and sanitation are recent ad¬ 
ditions to the domain of medicine, with the result that there is now a 
more general diffusion of knowledge as to how to live and remain well, 
including the proper care of the body, the selection of nourishing food, 
sufficient exercise, suitable sanitary environment, a clean water supply, 
protective devices against infection and accidents. The health of com¬ 
munities as well as individuals is now preserved and improved by a 
better education of the people. Much progress has been made in the 
spreading of information as to the care of the unborn, the conserva¬ 
tion of infant life, and child welfare in general. 
The prophylactic tendency of modern American medicine is illus¬ 
trated by the fact that the IJnited States to-day is expending four 
billion dollars annually for the prevention of diseases which are pri¬ 
marily the result of ignorance, laziness, or superstition. Within the 
recent past South America has been largely reclaimed through the 
applied science of hygiene and preventive medicine, and the same is 
true of our southern Atlantic coast. Hookworm disease, a disabling 
parasitical infection of warm countries, is now well under control; and 
up to 1917, the International Health Board estimated that 750,000 
persons were treated for this disease in the Southern States. A great 
industrial campaign was begun to train the masses along preventive 
and curative lines, and the result was a great reduction in the number 
of cases. The conquest of the tropics, in the sense of making these 
unexploited countries, with their manifold treasures and wider com¬ 
mercial possibilities, safe for whites, is under way. Fighting the mos¬ 
quito pest in a concerted effort to eradicate malaria—the most widelv 
