A maxim of Hippocrates, in Old English lettering, hangs beside the desk of Dr. Roscoe Roy Spencer in Bethesda, Md.:
Life is short,
Art is long
The occasion instant
Experiment perilous
Decision difficult.
To a man who has made public health his life's work, experiments perilous are strictly a part of routine. In 1919 "Spenny" Spencer fought bubonic plague in New Orleans; in 1922 he went to Montana to tackle Rocky Mountain spotted fever, developed a vaccine which won him a gold medal from the American Medical Association, public renown as the hero of Lloyd Douglas' novel, Green Light. Now he is elbow-deep in another...
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