THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAN, PORTLAXT, AUGUST 15, 1909.
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GOLXD. Vanarrbilt. Morgan, Harri
man O yes, you know considerable
about them and about others who
l.bor in the same golden vineyard.
But about Welch and Loeb. Kast and
Kisfhcr. Gaylord and Clowes. Murkoe, the
Aiayo bntherp. T-'ltxner and Gorgas
what do you know about them? '
IjCt you e? Certainly. It penu as
thoueh yoa must have heard something
of Flexncr and of GorRes. The names
seem familiar to you. do they not? Well,
how about th others? What do you
know about them? Nothing! Nothing!
And yet mark you this carefully every
one of these men are world-famous and
must of th"m have become so within the
lai half decade.
No. tl:cy A:-e not buiMrs of great fortunes-;
neither have they m-reftk'd .with
the groat transportation, financial or po
littcnl problems of the world. They have
wrought fur more potentially. They have
brought about an American conuuest of
tlw world ihat makes the much-talked-of
American invasion cf the marts of the
world pale into insiimificanco when com
pared with their achievement. Tliey have
plrtred American medical science along
side that of Germany, hitherto tlie world
l.der in this branch o. human endeavor,
ami In oro respects have even outdis
tanced Germany.
By reason of this great work these men
tuiil many other ftunilarl- occupied
Americans who could be mentioned are
famous tlirougnout the entire medical
world. And theirs should be household
names wiih you. for they are laboring
night and day to protect you and your
family from many of the ills that hu
man flesh ts heir to. Also, if you are of a
grateful nature, you will prepare to give
not a little horn are to these protectors of
vour fireside, even as the 15,000 delegates
to the lmp?nding 16th triennial Interna
tional Medical Congress, representing the
flower of the world's medical profession.
are now planning to do the last three
days cf August and the first three days
of September, when they foregather in
the ancient capital of Hungary, Buda
pest. By these men and their co-laborers one
dread disease after another is slowly but
surely being robbed of its centuries-old
terrors. Herein lies the reason why the
u American delegate!" to the congress
will be the center of wellnigh excep
tional Interest, for they will, tell how
cerebro-sninal meningitis lias been con
quered b' American students of the
scourge: how cancer has been found by
Americans to be a curable disease: how
the pestilences of the tropics can be
stamped out, -a la Gorgas, and the coun
tries in that section of the world made
the ' support of vast civilization: how
American maternity hospitals furnished
Information of inconceivable benefit, and
fatality in. maternity cases has been re
duced to a minimum: how cocaine was
ftnd to be a general, as as local
anaesthetic, a. discovery of great lmpox- (
tance in' surgery: how men and women
snould eat and drink so as best to pre
serve their . vitality, secure and retain
their health, and prolong life; how a
vital organ, puch as a kidney, can be
transferred from one live animal to an
other, instantly taking up the circulation
of the blood; how the common housetly
has been pretty definitely convicted of
being tMe chief disseminator of typhoid;
how a person may be immune to typhoid
and yet carry around the germs of this
disease in his body, and for years spread
the fever right and left. All these things
reilect American triumph, in the work of
medical research and of preventing or
curing disease, and much of it has been
accomplished by Americans since the
latest meeting of the International Medl
cal Congress at Lisbon, Portugal, three
years ago.
- World Famous Biologist.
Whenever any group of financiers
railway men get together, sooner or later
the talk centers on B. . H. Harriman.
Similarly, when the men who, all over the
world, are making a study of disease-, and
of all those strange germs which cause
so many diseases, get together, sooner or
later their conversation centers upon Dr.
William H. Welch, of Baltimore. They
say of him, as the big men of finance or
railroads say of Harriman, "He's doing
the great things in our line in the United
States nowadays." And those who see
Dr. Welch for the first time are very
likely to say. as do those who see Mr.
Harriman first: "What! That little man
Dr. William. H. Welch?. I had always
pictured him as a tall, well-built man,
with very dignified manners, with bi
spectacles, alw-ays looking as though he
was constantly thinking of germs, or try
ing1 to study out the secret of life.".
Dr. Welch Is short of stature, rather
thick-set, his head well poised upon Lis
shoulders and beautifully moulded, with
its contour air the more easy to be seen
beeausA long ago the fair hair which once
crowned it disappeared. He Is the lead
ing authority in the United States upon
bactcriolry. He knows more about those
queer little living disease things which
liave.to be detected by the microscope
than any other American, but even he
does not know yet how these frrms are
created, or exactly in what way they com
municate their poisons to the human sys
tem.. With his eye on the miscroscope, or
with his queer looking chemical apparatus
at his elhow. he is able to Identify a germ
as swiftly as a bank teller can discrim
inate between the various denominations
of bank bills.
When a new president was elected to
one of the great trunk line railroads a
year or two ago, a veteran of the railway
world heard someone say that this pres-
i ldent came up from the ranks. He re
plied: "Nowadays they all do." That Is
' just as true of the great men of American
medical science, as it is of those who are
doing big things with the modern Ameri
can railways. The career ot ur. weicn
is a good example of this fact.
He was born among the 'foothills of the
Berkshires, in the northwest corner ot
the state of Connecticut. His father was
a country doctor, one of the old-fashioned
kind, and very likely, when the son was
a little boy, he thought that he; would
some day be like his father, a country
doctor, going his daily rounds among the
farmers of that remote Connecticut town
and country-side.' He was a chubby-
faced, fun-loving, good-natured boy, and
he always had a smile quite as distinc
tive and infectious as is the characteristic
smile of President Taft. But It was ob
served that although he liked sport, he
was also a very good student, and at last
the people of his town began to say that
after he had been to college he might
become a professor or a great man. When
he was little' he was spoken of as "cute."
and when he was in his 'teens they said
of him that he was very -bright-He
was graduated from Yale College,
and was a classmate tliere of the late
United States Senator Edward O. Wolcott.
of Colorado. He never seemed to study
very hard, or at least h did not make
hard work of study, and yet he graduated
third in his class. He was versatile. At
one time his classmates thought he would
succeed as a teacher of languages, but
when he took mathematical prizes, they
were sure that he would become a great
mathematician.' After his graduation he
took up the study of medicine. To dis
cover the nature of bacteria was for him
an ambition quite as strong and fascinat
ing as was the ambition of El H. Harri
man to- dominate the railway systems of
the United States. Tho young medical
student sought knowledge . while others
were seeking fame and fortune. .
After he received his medical diploma. ,
young Welch went to Germany to study.
He began to realize what his career was
to be. The patient, plodding, phlegmatic
German students of science took quick
heed of him. and it was for that reason
that he afterwards became the distin
guished professor of pathology of Johns
Hopkins University.
Discovery of a Great Biologist.
When the iate Daniel C. Gilman, who
was the first president of Johns Hopkins,
decided to secure for the chair of pathol
ogy and biology one of the world's great
experts, he looked all over the United
States, and was unable to find anyone
who, if fitted to fill that chair, was also
in position to accept It. Therefore, Presi
dent Gilman sent a representative to Ger
many to find a professor competent to
teach these advanced sciences at Johns
Hopkins. This representative was' told
that he need not balk at any demand for
salary, provided he could find the right
man. -
The emissary went to one of the most
brilliant of the young men of the German
universities, and offered him a salary of
JT500 a year, more than twice this teacher
was receiving in Germany. In fact, at
that time there were very few American
professors who were paid as large a sal
ary ae that. . -
But, the German professor would not
accept the offer. He had a life position,
and the German government was paying
him a salary and would pension him at
old age. Why should he leave Germany
for the Uni'ed States? , Then another
professor was tempted unsuccessfully.
The representative of President Gilman
offered him ten thousand a year u ne
would accept the professorship at Johns
Honklns. - But this man intimated that
a hundred thousand dollars a year would
not tempt him, because he was working
for science and not for money. Still an
other professor was offered as much as
jao.000 a year.
No, I can t accept the offer, he re
plied, "but why" do you come to us Ger
mans? There is a young- American per
fectly competent to take that professor
ship. He is at this very moment an ad
vanced student ill this university, and
he is groing to be one of the world's
great authorities in the science of hi
oloey. Why don't you ask him to be
come the professor at Johns Hopkins?
r?:
is
I
"Who is he? What is his name?" the
Yankee tempter asked, eagerly, fever
ishly. .
"His name is William H. Welch, and
the world Is going to hear from him,"
was the reply.
President Gilman's representative lost
no time in coming- in contact with
young- Dr. Welch. He offered the lat
ter the professorship ahd a salary then
unmatched by that received by any
other American professor. Dr. Welch
recognized the golden opportunity and
seized it, and after awhile the world
of science began to hear of the dis
coveries he had made of the nature of
germs and in biology, which is the
science of human life, until now the
world over among men of science he
has a reputation fully equal to that
which the Morgans and Harrimans and
Rockefellers have secured in the world
of finance and business. .
Conquering Dread Sleningitia.
Some time in the Spring of 1903 an
epidemic of eerebro-spinal meningitis
grave the physicians and many-of the
people of New York City , a genuine
frigrht. The very word meningitis
caused a shiver similar to that which
the word- cholera or yellow fever al
ways produced upon those who are in
danger of epidemic of those diseases.
Kor years the men of medical science
the world over had been trying to dis
cover whether it were a germ or not.
and. if it were a germ, what kind of a
germ, that caused this disease, ninety
per cent of the cases of which were
fatal. It. was more dreaded by th
physician's than cholera or yellow fever
for science had already taught then
how to put an end to epidemics of thos
diseases.
This particular epidemic of menin
gitis lasted two or three years, and thi
physician who was brought' more than
any other with it was Dr. Louis H.
Fischer. He is going to tell the Inter,
national Medical Congress at Budapest
something- about . many of tne cases
which he treated, and to explain to
them how it was Ihat some things
whi4h came under his observation were
brought to the attention of Dr. Srrnon
Flexner. who has gained permanent
fame through his discovery of the men
ingitis germ, and of the way in which f
serum may be manufactured which will
destroy the germ as the diphtheria
serum attacks and destroys the germ ol
that dread disease.
Dr. -Louis Fischer was of earlier ser
vice than that which he was able to
give the medical world during the epl-.
demic of meningitis. For it was while he
was an advanced or post graduate stu
dent at Berlin that his attention was
called to the discovery made by the Ger
man professors of a scrum which, he was
told, contained tho.se little germs that are
the deudlv enemy of the diphtheria germ
so deadly Hint If th"ff healthy germs
detect the deadly parasites they at once
attack Minn, give battle to them, very ,
(Concluded on Pag A.)