334  The  History  of  Pathology.  {^M™mrm' 
success  that  the  ultimate  gain  to  knowledge  would  be  greater  by- 
keeping  the  example  and  methods  of  great  investigators  closely 
before  younger  minds,  for  these  are  things  that  cannot  be  trans- 
mitted by  lectures  or  books. 
The  hermit  idea  has  even  been  applied  to  plans  for  hospitals. 
This  also  has  sources  of  error — the  one,  that  good  work  can  be 
done  in  a  hospital  in  which  no  research  is  carried  out.  The  truth  is 
that  hospital  physicians  (and  the  argument  is  true  of  those  in  private 
practice)  cannot  remain  efficient  if  they  cease  investigating.  The 
other,  hardly  necessary  to  mention,  because  it  refutes  itself,  depends 
on  the  fact  that  a  hospital  with  research  as  its  chief  object,  and 
relief  of  suffering  secondary,  is  inconceivable.  If  hospitals  can  only 
be  stimulated  to  better  work  by  the  endowment  of  institutes  for  clin- 
ical experiment,  it  might  be  worth  the  trial,  but  the  whole  course  of 
medicine  shows  such  a  trial  is  unnecessary.  The  better  way  would 
be  to  furnish  hospitals,  including  asylums  of  various  kinds,  with 
means  of  research,  laboratories,  apparatus  and  trained  workers ; 
to  have  a  sufficiently  large  corps  of  clinicians  to  carry  on  modern 
methods  of  investigating  and  treating  the  sick,  and  to  choose  for 
such  positions  only  those  who  are  capable  of  advancing  the  subject. 
The  method  that  has  been  accepted  as  the  solution  of  the  problem 
in  pathology  is  to  appoint  assistants  to  so-called  fellowships,  often  with 
unnecessary  or  unwise  restrictions  on  their  time  and  work,  and  with- 
out proper  facilities  for  either  work  or  instruction.  Often  the  ambi- 
tions of  such  appointees  are  so  far  removed  from  their  positions 
that  their  own  time,  as  well  as  that  of  those  who  should  guide  them, 
is  thrown  away.  Science  gains  nothing.  Thomas  Fuller's  remark 
is  applicable  here,  that  "  many  can  play  Apollo's  lyre  who  are  not 
able  to  guide  his  chariot,"  and  the  advance  of  knowledge  would 
often  gain  more  by  giving  an  overworked  teacher  a  servant  at  ten 
dollars  a  week  than  one  or  a  half-dozen  fellows  at  $500  or  $1,000 
a  year  each. 
Another  obstacle  to  the  growth  of  pathology,  and  particularly  of 
pathologic  anatomy,  is  the  neglect  of  or  objection  to  autopsies,  a 
difficulty  that  affects  physicians  in  all  kinds  of  practice,  hospital  or 
private,  by  depriving  them  of  the  most  powerful  incentive  to  care- 
ful work.  This  is  the  one  feature  that  makes  the  scientific  part  of 
medical  education  in  America  still  inferior  to  that  of  Europe,  and 
