I sometimes wonder what it is that brings physicians to medical meetings. I believe that some attend these meetings with the hope, not unjustifiable perhaps, that the heavens will open and shed a great light on the dark places of science; others, perhaps most, come in search of help in the problems of their daily practice. All are disciples in both the art and the science of medicine, and a meeting is not successful unless one can sit at the feet of both. It has sometimes been asserted that the art leads the science and that the empiric of today is the scientific of tomorrow. That may be true occasionally, but the progress of medicine has more often been marked by the loosening of the shackles that bind physicians to empiricism. No matter how scientific may be the trend, there is nothing so convincing of truth as its successful application.