THE HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL. 35 



THE HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL. 



By FRANK WALDO, Ph.D., 



CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 



TI/ HILE the new building plant of the Harvard Medical School 

 VV i s approaching completion it seems a fitting time to give a 

 brief account of the work of the school and its equipment. Harvard was 

 the second of the American colleges to establish a school of medicine. 

 The study of medicine in Harvard dates from the close of the war of 

 the American Revolution, when in the years 1782 and 1783 three 

 professorships of medicine were founded; and the first degree, that of 

 M.B. (bachelor of medicine), was conferred in 1788. It was not until 

 1811 that the degree of M.D. began to be given. Up to 1810 the 

 instruction was given in Cambridge, at which date the school was trans- 

 ferred to Boston, where in 1815 the first medical school building was 

 erected. The second building that was occupied was completed in 

 1883. 



The theory of medicine has of course been taught from the begin- 

 ning of the Harvard Medical School and eminent men have lectured 

 to its students, but outside hospital and clinic facilities had to be 

 sought. In the first Harvard Medical School building there was no 

 laboratory at all. 



With the removal in 1883 to the buildings at present occupied by 

 the school, limited laboratory facilities were provided, in which very 

 important investigations have been conducted. The hospital and 

 clinical service is still, however, so dependent on outside cooperation 

 that this work has been much hampered. 



For entrance into the school a college degree is required, or in 

 exceptional cases its equivalent, and since 1892 a four years' course 

 has had to be pursued in order to obtain the degree of doctor of 

 medicine. 



The present policy of the school is to so arrange the studies that 

 the student can give his time fixedly for lengthy periods to one sub- 

 ject or group of subjects. Thus anatomy and histology are given 

 the first half of the first year, and physiology and physiological and 

 pathological chemistry during the second half. In the second year 

 pathology and bacteriology are studied during the first half year. It 

 has been the rule to lay down a rigidly required course, throughout. 

 in the study of medicine, but beginning in the fall of the present year 

 the fourth year work will be elected in order to give the student an 

 opportunity to specialize in the department of medicine that he pro- 

 poses to adopt for his practise. 



