In a limited way, a special course in practical therapeutics in the 

 field of internal medicine may be given in a medical school, and it is 

 of great assistance to the medical student who is obliged to enter upon 

 practice immediately and without the advantages to be derived from 

 a year or two of hospital practice. A course of this kind is a part of the 

 curriculum of the Johns Hopkins Medical School and is given by an 

 instructor in clinical medicine. It occupies a period of 15 weeks and 

 consists of lectures and demonstrations given twice a week; as stated 

 in the announcement of the gentleman in charge, this course com- 

 prises the clinical study of a number of the more common and useful 

 drugs, their dosage, administration, and effects, methods of prescrip- 

 tion-writing and illustrative formula, demonstrations of practical 

 therapeutic measures, the use of hydrotherapy, the preparation of 

 simple and useful forms of diet, the care of patients considered from 

 the nursing point of view, the treatment of various emergencies and of 

 special diseases by climate, rest, and other practical procedures. 



The clinical work of the third and fourth years affords abundant 

 opportunities for further training in practical therapeutics. 



This brings me to the subject of lectures and recitations or con- 

 ferences. 



Some didactic teaching, be it in the form of lectures, recitations or 

 conferences, is necessary in most, if not all, branches of medicine. In 

 these exercises, the teacher not only clears up doubtful points and sum- 

 marizes scientific evidence, but he also has an opportunity to so di- 

 rect "the unwary understanding" of the young, as Sir Thomas Browne 

 has it, that some perchance will escape intellectual sclerosis at forty. 



My own experience with students has led me to believe that they 

 profit most if they have first read their textbooks before attending a 

 lecture on a given subject. The teacher's own experience is that he 

 derives most advantage from a consultation with a specialist in some 

 other branch of science when he has first informed himself on the 

 points at issue. It is then that a short talk with a man of wide experi- 

 ence easily clears up an obscure point. The student should be put 

 into a similar attitude of mind by proving to him that he will get 

 more out of an hour with his teacher than out of an hour with his 

 books at home. If the subject under discussion is one that is well 

 treated in textbooks, the established points may be passed in rapid 

 review and then the latest researches, the newer theories brought out 

 by the instructor. Whenever it is possible to do so, demonstrations 

 and experiments should be used to illustrate the points under discus- 

 sion, and these may be given either during the talk or immediately 

 after. 



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