(To Mr. F. T. Gates)
No. 1 W. Franklin St., Baltimore,
Mar. 5th, 1902.
Dear Sir:-
Your letter is, of course, very gratifying. I have been greatly interested in the Rockefeller Institute, and feel sure that good results will come of it. We are still far behind Germany in this question of the scientific investigations of disease. Even our best laboratories connected with Universities are imperfectly equipped, the men in charge have too much teaching to do, there are not enough assistants, and there is an increasing difficulty in getting the best sort of men to devote themselves to scientific work. One serious difficulty in the limited number of positions with which living salaries are attached. For example, only last week a doctor connected with a leading school in St. Louis came to me wishing a pathologist and bacteriologist. They offered a salary of $2000! And that is more than is paid by any of the other schools in the city.
Did you see the brief summary which I gave the progress of bacteriological science in the New York Sun last year in the general reviews of the subject of science? If you did not, I can have a copy sent to you.
Sincerely yours,
Wm Osler