Medical Science in the Twentieth Century †

I deem it a signal honour to have been asked to give this address during the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of your renowned Medical School, particularly as such emphasis is being given in your ceremonies to historical matters for, as you know, I have no claim whatever to be considered a medical historian. My only qualifications to talk on this matter are that I have spent nearly half of this century doing some sort of research related to medicine, and that I can claim to have great sympathy with those who study history, for I believe that some background of medical history is helpful in giving depth to current thought and that it is of great benefit to the student to know more than the bare bones of his subject. It is no doubt salutary to consider from time to time what our ancestors have done in their day and to examine the achievements of the present in the light of the past, for there is and perhaps always has been a tendency, especially among the young, to believe that all current knowledge was acquired in the last ten years or so. Such an examination is particularly relevant in this University for you are the proud possessors of one of the greatest of the medical historical libraries of the present day, and this no doubt colours thought in your Medical School. It is a great grief to us all that the mant who played so outstanding a part in the building up of this fine library, and who was the repository of so much learning freely put at the disposal of others, is not with us today. But we all think of him with affection and I am sure his work for your School will be valued and remembered for as long as this Library lasts. It is clear that the current of medical thought did not make any perceptible deviation from its course because the calendar suddenly changed from registering 1899 to registering 1900. We cannot therefore consider twentieth century medicine completely divorced from what had gone before, particularly in the nineteenth century. The great base on which the medical and surgical practice of the nineteenth century had been elaborated was laid by the careful correlation of the * Professor of Pathology.