If one confronts the doctor with that type of scientist who, with the test tube in his laboratory, with the syringe or the surgical knife in his hand, steps on animal and human corpses, in order so fanatically to satisfy his scientific instinct, then we very decidedly object to such a scientist. We have found this type in the documents of this trial in the person of Dr. Rascher, whose name casts a dark shadow over the proceedings. Dr. Leibbrandt, the protector of medical ethics, would therefore have rendered a good service to German science if, in his capacity as a psychiatrist, we had pointed out that Rascher, this sadist and psychopathist, had nothing whatsoever to do with real science. It is my duty as a defense counsel to emphasize energetically that it is not permissible to construct from local coincidences any connection between my client and Rascher and his system. The scientific research worker sees his task in the discovery of the unknown in order to equip the doctor with new weapons in his fight for human life. I briefly want to demonstrate with two examples why the modern medical profession cannot renounce the scientific research work that was impossible without great efforts and sacrifices (1) giving a brief description of the development of modern surgery; (2) mentioning the school to which the defendant Beiglboeck belonged as a pupil and a teacher. I do not give this second example in order to glorify my country, but because the particular influence of its teachers is decisive for the spiritual standard of the personality. At the beginning of modern surgery stands that mighty figure of English surgery, Joseph Lister, whose great idea it was that the surgeon should not fight the inflammation of the wound but should prevent its cause, i.e., germs entering externally. Thanks to bacteriology, anti-sepsis was changed into asepsis. Over the entrance gate of the General Hospital in Vienna we read the words “Saluti et solatio aegrorum—Dedicated to the health and consolation of the sick.” These words not only demand the highest accomplishment of the doctor’s duties but are the motive for the most successful work in the large field of medical research. Theory and practice joined together in order to become a piece of living humanity. I would go beyond the limits of my task if I mentioned all the names that spread the glory of Vienna University throughout the world. But their penetration into the world of the unknown was always a hazardous enterprise which demanded courage and sacrifice. I want to quote the words of one of the great doctors, Professor Wagner-Jauregg, who says in his book “Fever and Infection Therapy”,