Experiences and Opinions of a Full-Time Medical Teacher

PERSPECTIVES IN BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE Volume Il · Number 2 · Winter 1939 EXPERIENCES AND OPINIONS OF A FULL-TIME MEDICAL TEACHER JAMES HOWARD MEANS, M.D.* The name ofthis newjournal appeals to me strongly, for it indicates the main channels ofmy professional life—"biology and medicine"—what a happyjuxtaposition ofterms! And "perspectives," yes, indeed—from the vantage point of the early seventies one can perceive in true perspective trióse things that have had deep meaning for him as he has made his journey. Medicine is, of course, far older than biology. It started in magic, and inJesus it rested on faith. However, I came first to biology, and, for me, medicine emerged from that. It all began, I suppose, from childhood natural history, an interest which was nurtured by my father, who, though not a trained scientisthimself, had sciencedeeply atheart. His was undoubtedly the first important intellectual influence in my life. The actual life ofany individual is the resultant of those forces that tend to hold him together and those that tear him apart—the impact upon him ofpersons, events, or ideas combined with the native equipment he has to withstand or to profit by them. At first, my adventures in natural history were no more than collecting and classifying specimens. Then came a little dissecting. At fourteen I came upon The Origin ofSpecies and read it through with rapt attention and excitement. It was my first encounter witxi a great scientific generalization —namely, biological evolution through the natural selection ofspontaneously occurring variations, or survival ofthe fittest. Darwin called this *Jackson Professor of Clinical Medicine, Emeritus, Harvard University, Honorary Physician, Massachusetts General Hospital. Present address: 60 Mount Vernon Street, Boston, Massachusetts. I27 a theory, and for a time it was violently attacked by both scientists and theologians . It has stood the gaff, however, and now, a century after it was first promulgated, it can properly be called a law. During this century, moreover, knowledge of its modus operandi has been greatly extended. I certainly have made no original contribution to this field, but it has fascinated me increasingly, and, as die years have flown by, it has provided me with a line ofreference for many things that I have always found enlightening and sustaining. I was gratified to discover recendy thatJulian Huxley has said that "without some knowledge ofevolution one cannot hope to arriveat a true picture ofhuman destiny." I am sure this is true (i). The next important intellectual impact came from meeting the late William T. Sedgwick, professor of biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Since I was a well-to-do Bostonian youngster, it was routinely assumed that I would go to Harvard College. I did, but between "prep" school and college, because my father was a friend ofSedgwick, I had the privilege of spending a year (1902-3) in the latter's biology department at MIT. This was when I was seventeen years old, and it was a fateful year for me. What Sedgwick did in a way to stir the imagination ofhis students was to present biology to them as one comprehensive basic science. The boundaries ofzoology and botany faded away, and a single science oflife emerged. I do not believe that many, ifany, colleges ofliberal arts were doing this sort ofthing for their students at that time. Zoology and botany were taught as separate subjects, often by separate departments. Sedgwick, when I studied under him, was using a textbook, An Introduction to General Biology (2), which he and Edward B. Wilson had first published in 1886. It was the second edition (1899) that I used, and it is no exaggeration to say that, because ofits effect on the direction ofmy thinking , it became for me one ofthe great books. The word "general" is the significant one in this title. A new and prophetic concept ofthe nature of a basicsciencewas implied in it. Theclassicaltypeofnaturalisthad searched the earth for new species ofplants and animals. He described and classified them. More importantly, he compared them one with another, and in his comparative workhe approached basic principles. The theory ofevolution itself, ofcourse, emerged from this background. But the modern biologist has, for the most part, a very different...