THE
POPULAR SCIENCE
MONTHLY
SEPTEMBER, 1912
| RESEARCH IN MEDICINE[1] |
By Professor RICHARD M. PEARCE
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
V. Medical Research in American Universities; Present Facilities, Needs and Opportunities[2]
IF the preceding lectures have a special value, it is in indicating, on the basis of past experience, the methods and mode of approach, which will presumably yield the greatest measure of success in the investigation of present and future problems. Looked at in this light what I have cited of the past shows four important aspects:
1. The epoch-marking labors of isolated individuals working independently.
2. The application of the exact methods of physics, chemistry and biology to medicine.
3. The development of laboratories for the organized and intensive investigation of the various problems of medicine.
4. The idea of diminishing suffering and ameliorating social conditions.
The first of these factors naturally suggest the names of Vesalius, Pare, Harvey, Hunter, Jenner, Morgagni and Haller. Some of these may have been influenced by antecedent work as Vesalius by Herophilus and Erasistratus; Harvey by his forerunners, who studied the circulation of the blood; and all, perhaps, by the old teachings of Hippocrates or the experimental side of Galen's work, but the actual achievement of each, whether the result of chance suggestion, original conception, or keen observation, was the fruit of labors unassisted, prosecuted with
