The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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April, 1927 The Health BrLLETi>" 29
sonnel of faculties, hospital facilities
for clinical instruction, and so forth
during the past twenty years," Dr.
Leathers said. "lusufBcient emphasis.
however, has been placed upon control
of disease.
"Present-day tendencies indicate that
the physician of the future will be
faced with a new type of practice.
He
must become a family adviser in hygiene
and preventive medicine. Also,
he must participate in a more concrete
way in community health service. Consequently,
every medical school should
have a department of preventive medicine
and public health, with a full-time
personnel and maintain university
standards in its scope and ideals."
The Asheville Citizen.
IS MEDICAL SCIENCE TAKING ADVANTAGE
OF ITS OPPORTUNITIES
Althoug-h Scientific Medical Research Has Unfolded Many Discoveries,
the Present State of Medicine Still Shows Many-
Obstacles to be Overcome
By THOIMAS PARRAN, JR., M.D., Assistant Surgeon General,
United States Public Health Service, Washington, D. C.
The state of medicine is an index of
the civilization of any age and country,
one of the best, perhaps, by which it
can be judged. Oliver Wendell Holmes.
What is meant by "state of medicine"
In this connection our thoughts
range over the whole field of scientific
medical research. The discoveries in
every phase of medical science appear
so rapidly that it is difficult to keep
pace with them, and impossible to attempt
to recount all of them in the
confines of a brief paper. We marvel
at the progress of bacteriology in discovering
facts concerning the cause of
disease, and especially methods of prevention
and cure. We think of the
many contributions of chemistry and
physics to the advancement of medical
science, and our thoughts turn to the
great hospitals and educational institutions
which are monuments to medical
progress.
BiHliant Medical Progress
The progress of medicine, especially
preventive medicine, furnishes one of
the most brilliant pages in the history
of mankind. As astounding as have
been the accomplishments of our generation
in every phase of science, none
have a more significant bearing on the
ultimate welfare of the race than the
discoveries of modern medicine, pointing
the way to the prevention and
alleviation of human ills. Judged by
these standards, medicine has more
than kept pace with our civilization.
There is another and equally important
approach to the evaluation of the
state of medicine, and that lies in a
consideration of the extent to which the
knowledge of medical science is being
applied to the service of humanity.
How fully is medicine meeting its responsibility
in giving to the average
citizen the benefits of the information
that is ours Although for many diseases,
the cause, mode of transmission,
and method of prevention are completely
known, and although we have
at hand all of the knowledge necessary
to fulfill the visions of Pasteur in causing
certain diseases to disappear from
the face of the earth, this ideal has
not been attained or approached in a
single instance. The illnesses and
deaths that are constantly occurring
from such diseases as diphtheria, typhoid
fever, smallpox, scarlet fever,
and malaria, and the enormous toll of
sickness and deaths that is associated
with childbirth and infancy, are constant
reminders that the triumphs of
medical science are not being fully
utilized for the prevention and cure of
disease.