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THE TREE AND THE FRUIT.

THE British Science Guild was founded in 1905 by NORMAW LOCKYER, the famous physicist andastronomer, who died some 15 years later. The

object of the founder was to promote by organisedeffort the application of scientific methods and theirpractical issues to public affairs generally, thus

instructing the country that it must look to science,as it advances, for the main solutions of funda-mental social problems. In an appeal directed to thepublic last week by Lord MELCHETT (the presidentof the Guild), Sir RICHARD GREGORY and Dr. J. S.YOUNG (respectively chairman of the executive andfinance committees of the Guild), and Lady LOCKYER,assistant treasurer, it is indicated that the advance-ment of science for public good lies especially withinthree spheres of endeavour-namely, that of research,that of education, and that of propaganda in advocacyof the benefits to be obtained through science alike byGovernment departments, educational and localauthorities, and individual employers. This last

sphere of work for public good the Guild claims tohave filled successfully by the aid of experts inscience in all its branches, whose aid has been givengratuitously, a fact which enforces the appeal of theGuild for financial support.Under the foundation of the Guild lectures are

given each year associated with the name of NORMANLOCKYER, and last Tuesday the fifth of these lectureswas delivered in the Hall of the Goldsmiths’ Companyby Sir WALTER FLETCHER, secretary of the MedicalResearch Council, who asked a large audience toconsider broadly the field of work which is tilled by thefollowers of medicine. With such a scope for anaddress the lecturer could only attempt to dwellupon certain features or episodes that have significancefor our guidance at the present time, and in thehistorical drama of the evolution of medicine heselected the changes during the three centuriesbetween the accession of HENRY VIII. and QUEENVICTORIA as illustrative of the whole story. In an

interesting comparison of the development of themathematical, chemical, and physical sciences withthat of medical science, he pointed to the fact that inthe former there had been a progress that had beencontinuous in the main from the days of Greek civilisa-tion onwards, while in the latter there have occurredsignificant breaks in the forward march. Clearlyduring the Dark Ages there was no regular develop-ment in our knowledge of physics, but, despite thehuge material obstacles, the study of both mathe-matics and chemistry was maintained. In the caseof medicine, however, the scientific status remainedunaltered, save in a few sporadic directions, betweenthe first century B.C. and the seventeenth century.Here and there discoveries that proved of value weremade sporadically, but for the most part the supersti-tions of old mythology befogged the path of medicallearning, prevented the doctor from searching outthe truth on the lines of natural philosophy, andeven prevented him from following the teachingsof HIPPOCRATES, whose doctrines throughout this

long period represented the truth. These doctrineslost by the inventions of many disciples and gainedlittle from any additions to knowledge of natural

philosophy. This is a curious reflection when weremember the debt that modern developments of

professional equipment owe to our increased familiaritywith physics and chemistry and their mathematicaland physical foundations. Why did not the acquisi-tion of physics, which proved so fruitful of result in

the material and moral development of the world,have no correlating influence upon medicine and

surgery ? To this question there is no single answer,.but two circumstances are predominant as contributingto the explanation, if not explaining the anomaly.First the material with which medicine and surgeryhave to deal cannot be treated in the main onmathematical or logical grounds ; and secondly,when the rule and the balance can be trusted, themicroscope is very generally an adjuvant for the

obtaining of necessary information, and the micro-scope did not arrive until after the death of HARVEY.And now, .in compensation for the lagging of the

past, we have so fierce a rate set to medical progressthat neither our educational machinery nor our

laboratory methods can keep pace. Not only, as SirWALTER FLETCHER pointed out, has medical know-ledge come so tumultuously as to allow no proper timefor the adjustment of the traditional system of medicaltraining, but the new learning is often so directlyassociated with researches in the domains of physicsand chemistry, which can only be conducted byexperts along their own lines, that the initiativeoften passes from the physician to the scientificworker in the laboratory. These words must not betaken to imply a supersession of medicine, for theirsignificance is exactly in opposition to this ; we have,on the contrary, a practical proof here of the growthand development of medicine, in that the art andscience of healing are steadily annexing the resultsobtained by workers engaged in other provinces ofwisdom. But as these provinces, as well as the

province of medicine thus allied to them, are alikein the stage of a rapid acquisition of knowledge, it canbe readily believed that scientific workers are sorelyneeded. What is not so easy to believe, thoughequally true, is the fact that these workers, even theleaders among them, are not duly rewarded by the

: public. Though the happiness of the world’s future, may depend upon the activities of the army which is: wresting from Nature her secrets, that army is under-manned and ill-paid.

CANCER OF THE STOMACH.

SOME 16,000 persons die annually in Great Britainfrom cancer of the stomach. So rare is it for a caseof this disease to be cured, or even to give thesemblance of cure for an appreciable period aftertreatment, that many clinicians state freely that theyhave never seen such an occurrence, and surgeons areglad to exhibit at medical societies any rare cases inwhich they have been able to prolong life for morethan a few years. At a time when the whole worldis more than ever interested in cancer research,and when the activities of the Radium Commission areraising hopes which have never been entertained before,it is perhaps salutary, if discouraging, to reflect thatat the present day there exists even with the latestradiological technique no real avenue of hope for thesufferers from this, the commonest of all forms ofcancer. Established cancer of the stomach is notdifficult to diagnose-tumour formation, vomiting,and cachexia are signs which are unmistakable andare usually harbingers of impending doom; but apartfrom these late features, there exist to-day diagnosticfacilities which enable this disease to be recognised bythe expert physician after quite a brief observation ofthe patient whose dyspepsia or other early signs haveled him to seek advice. In the course of the discussionat the Medical Society of London on Nov. llth,