246 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



The time allotted to the teaching of this subject is all too 

 short, but it is not of the shortness of the time that I par- 

 ticularly complain but rather of the way time is wasted 

 in teaching the subject. 



To my mind, time spent in didactic teaching of ear, nose 

 and throat diseases is time practically wasted, as is time 

 spent in having students examine the normal subject and 

 time spent in quizzing. In a branch where individual work 

 is as necessary as it is in this, where but one student can 

 see a drum membrane at a time, or the interior of the nose 

 or larynx, why waste time giving didactic instruction 

 when the student can read the same thing in any good text 

 book? When there is so much to be seen and too little time 

 to see it in, why ask the student to spend time looking at 

 normal ears, noses or throats? 



When no one but the assistant and often not even the as- 

 sistant can see just what is being done in a mastoid ope- 

 ration or an accessory sinus operation, why spend time 

 giving operative clinics of mastoid operations, nose opera- 

 tions or throat operations? 



In other words, time devoted to didactic teaching and 

 clinics is time largely wasted because the didactic work can 

 be gotten just as well from the text book, and the student 

 cannot see in the clinic anyway. 



I repeat, the teaching in this subject, if it is to be of 

 value, must be individual, so why not set the student at 

 work at once examining patients? The object of teaching 

 this subject is not, as some teachers seem to think, to 

 teach the student just as little as possible so he will refer 

 more patients to the professor who taught him, nor is it to 

 enhance the glory and reputation of the teacher, but is to 

 prepare the prospective physician to care properly for the 

 ills of his patients and in this the public has a most vital 

 concern. The time is past when medical schools were run 

 for the glory and reputation of the professors. 



I would suggest as a proper way to teach ear, nose and 

 throat diseases, that didactic teaching be cut down to a 

 minimum or dispensed with altogether, and that clinical 



