The Washington times., 1929-10-19
ESTUMULT
IN COLLEGES
Of j. 8.

BALTIMORE, Oct. 19.-
Symptoms, serious and dis
quieting," in American uni
versities and medical schools
were pointed out by DR.. Abra-
ham Flexncr. secretary of the
general education board, when
he spoke yesterday at the in
auguration of the department
of the history of medicine of
the Johns Hopkins University
and Hospital.
Colleges Responded
/ Or. F'Iexner said: "Our universities
, offer facilities and opportunities for
scholarly and scientific work OF the
highest quality, such as not even the
most sanguine could have predicted
a generation ago. They have re.
sponded to the call and pressure of
I the age.
But they have done something
else, something different. They
have thouGhtlessly and excessively
catered to fleeting, transient and i'm
mediate demands; they have failed
ard. in my opinion, they are more
and more failing, to distinguish be.
tween ripples and waves.
The American universities are be.
coming more and more tumultuous.
They have increased their genuine
facilities and opportunities; they
have simultaneously and needlessly
cheapened and mechanical them
selves.
Problems Serious
perhaps the phenomena | have in
mind are transient, mere symptoms
developed on the way to something
better. No one knows; but for our
generation they are serious and dis
quieting.
This, in general. What about med
icine in particular?
Progress. solid progress, such as
no one could have believed possible,
has taken place within 4 generation.
A scientific attitude has asserted It.
self and promised results important
to health.
But while science has widened
our vision and increased our salts.
factions, it has it's dangers. We can
! become So infatuated with progress
in knowledge and control that we
lose our perspective. lose the sense
Of relative cultural values
Medics in Danger
Il think, speaking as a laYman and
subject to correction, that some
thing like this has happened or is in
danger of happening, to the enthus-
astic. cIearheaded, forward-l looking
| perhaps too exclusively forward-look-
| ing and highly specialized young
| votaries of the mediCa! and other
| sciences.
They sometimes seem to be cul-
| t;rally thin and metallic: their
| training appears at times almost
| chronological rather than broadly
| and deeply scientific. They live in
| tumultuous times. in a tumultuous
| country, in tumultuous universi-
| ties
Conquest lures them on. az il
! should. along this path or that.
| Hut, meanwhile. physicians are
| members of the oldest and richest
| cultural guild in the civilized
world; they owe something to
! themselves as human beings.
| SometNlnE 10 tne TRADITIONS anu
| heirlooms of medical history, some
| thing to unity and integrity of
! medical science.
Philosophers Rule
while they are keenly follow:
/ ing this scent or that they might
/ vet hear the still, small voice that
/ keeps whispering, The world is
| ruled by dead phlosophers'-the
/ truth in which the wisest scientist
| would be quick to recognize while
turning the pages of the latest
! number of this or that Zeitschrift
1T is this life beyond the life
| OF its own day that will he revived
/ and enjoyed and comprehended
/ here as nowhere else al present in
| this country. The professor who
| undertakes this task will pull
| against. not with the current, but
| that is precisely why the effort is
| timely and important"