He became a national figure, first within the profession, then within science, then in the larger world, serving as president or chairman of nineteen different major scientific organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Academy of Sciences. Stanford president Ray Wilbur neither flattered nor overstated when in 1911 he wrote him, “Not to turn to you for information in regard to the best men to fill vacancies in our medical school would be to violate all the best precedents of American medical education.”
...more
