Official proceedings of the annual meeting: 1923

PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF RESEARCH FINDINGS-McCOY 55

of a community in which so much confidence is reposed in the procedure that whooping
cough contacts are excluded from schools unless vaccinated. The pathetic eagerness
of the public to be vaccinated against influenza and pneumonia is another example
of practice outstripping research, as it is generally recognized that the vaccines against
influenza and pneumonia are still in the experimental stage.
Recently, apparently through some misunderstanding, a rather optimistic report
was broadcasted in reference to the success of certain investigations of influenza.
The readiness of the public to accept and act on this information would have been a
revelation to anyone who regards the great mass of the population as apathetic to
scientific medicine.
We must I think, recognize that overconfidence in the results of research investigation is precarious. Only too often the result of a blood test is regarded, not as an
indication, but actually as a diagnosis. Again, it is unquestionable that too much
dependence on the laboratory report occasionally does harm in diphtheria.
Theoretically, we ought to have no such thing as morbidity due to anthrax, but
in the present state of our knowledge we would have to discontinue the industries
dependent on hides and hair if we would abolish anthrax.
Let us glance at the field of industrial hygiene; when we have a clear-cut remedy
for an industrial hazard, such as the prohibition of a certain kind of phosphorus in
making matches, it is not a difficult matter to have the remedy applied; when, on the
other hand, we are as uncertain and vague as we must be regarding hazards and prevention of many diseases in industry, the public may be excused if it is in no haste to
accept our suggestions.
Automobiles in the United States kill several thousand persons per year; indeed,
one insurance company has on the average four policy-holders killed every day; here
is a direct, certainly a preventable, loss of life. As an individual and as one interested
in the conservation of life, I should like to see the automobile abolished, but as one
interested in the welfare of the whole people I realize that the automobile is indispensable and that the loss of life, deplorable as it is, may be more than compensated
in other directions.
It is often said that when a direct economic gain is to be effected, much more is to
be expected in the way of adoption of public-health measures than when the argument
is solely from the public-health point of view. No disease to"which man is subject
is more certainly preventable than rabies, and research has disclosed all of the essential
facts of the disease, yet every year a number of deaths due to this disease are reported.
The loss of live stock, due to the same infection, is very large, and yet the wellunderstood and readily applicable preventive measures are not applied with respect to
men or animals. I am not sufficiently familiar with the field to speak with much
assurance, but I venture the opinion that the eradication of rabies is not economically
worth while, either from the public health or the agricultural point of view,
Upon the whole I feel that we can congratulate ourselves on the readiness of the
public to utilize our substantial contributions to public health. We must take heed
that we exercise such judgment in recommending the applications of our research
findings as to continue to merit the confidence of our master, the great public.