Becoming a Student of Medicine. Learning the Love of Learning My decision to study medicine at the outbreak of the first world

While progress in science sometimes results from the insight of a genius or from serendipity, more often it evolves from the toil of a vast number of investigators, each building upon another's contributions. Most of these investigators become casualties of progress; the stars of one era fade into oblivion in the light of the new knowledge in a new era. Only historians remember. In this autobiographical essay, I shall mention successful toilers, those I have known closely or have seen perform, some of whom made history over the past half century. Some were giants. They include three individuals whose wisdom attracted and kept me in experimental medicine. From two, I learned that it is a greater pleasure to give than to take. From them I received. From the third, I learned the strategy of research. Research is intoxicating, the more so if one sees its appli cation to human disease. I became addicted. Success in research is like gambling: some success brings more of it, but the game can also bring grievous losses. it is the net pluses that count. My failures may have exceeded my suc cesses. I recall remarking to a colleague on one occasion, “If failures are assessed, I may gain the championship.― Let me tell my story as faithfully as I remember it, without gilding or censoring. Since I have been honored by two biographies (1, 7), this article shall be limited to the high lights of my peregrinations in medical research; these coy ered eight universities and two research institutes. I shall relate the events more or less in chronological order. My peregrinations began with research in microbiology, from there to immunology, virology, hematology, and radiation biology, leading to the multidisciplinary science of oncol ogy. Cancer research, as I recall, was an unattractive infant and did not seem very respectable as a specialty. During the past half century it has grown both in attractiveness and in respectability.