SIR WM. OSLER ON SCIENCE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1312, 15 December 1911, Page 6

SIR WM. OSLER ON SCIENCE.

« Sir William Osier, the Regius Proles Bor of Medicine in the University of Ox' ford, speaking at the opening of the new Pathological Institute ot the lioyol intirmary, Glasgow, said:— "An institute was something more than a deadhouse, and very much moro tluia an ordinary patholoßical 4 l<\boratory-*it was the cerebrum of tho infirmary, tho place whero the thinking was done, where ideas wore nurtured, where men dreamed dreams, and thoughts were materialised into researches upon the ona great problem that confronted the profession in cach generation, tho nature of 4 "Why was a riglit judgment on that one point tiie aim of medical education and of research —the be-all and end-all of their efforts? It was because upoji correct knowledge depended the itv of the control of disease, and upon their views of its nature the measures for its prevention or cure. Observation plus thinking had given tliem tlie vast stores of knowledge they now posted of Mio structure of tho bodies of uunif creatures in health and disease. y "There had been two inherent dilhcultios —to pot men lo see straight, and to get. men to think clearly but in spite of the frailtv of the instrument the method had been one of the most powerfill over placed in the hands of man. it cave them Vesalius and the new anatomy, Newton and a now universe, Moreaeni and tho now morbid anatomy, I.acnnec and the new medieino, Virchow and the new pathology, Darwin and a new outlook for man on the " "Tho andier.ts thonelit as cloarly as wo did, had greater skill in the arts and in architecture, but they hart never lenp. od the use of the great instrument which had given man control of Nature—experiment. There had not been a single advance of (lie first importance which was not a fruit, of this scientific modernism. Tho institute which they opened that day was a manifestation of the new ''"Four great riddles of the first runic awaited solution," said Sir William Osier. "Literally thousands of workers ncro struggling to unravel the mystery of cancer. Tho exanUioms were still wim them, still killing thousands, and they awaited tho researches which would reveal tho cause of nioasles and scarlet fever nnd smallpox. Perversions of tnirtabolisin were every day yi<'Ulni(? "|> their fascinating secrets, but they 'ached tho sure and certain studies that a.<no could give (hem control of such common diseases as diabetes, ivul gout, ami arthritis. rourthly, they were entering a new chapter in the researches "V™ f "» internal secretions, on tho fnncuojfc of those mvsi'M'ious glands, so insiiniifioaiit anatomically, but so potent itl their influence upon growth a l "' nutrition. "There wore of Problems m be solved by this generation, there wns much knowledge to be seasonejl before it could be used to the best advantage." _________