40 MEDICINE 



terrelation of knowledge coming from objective teaching. The suc- 

 cessful practice of medicine depends more than ever before upon 

 the use of methods which give accurate knowledge of the con- 

 dition of the sick individual, and training in the exercise of these 

 methods is the most important part of medical education. It is 

 certainly of importance that the student should learn the structure 

 of the body, the functions of the different organs, and the changes 

 which organs and functions undergo in disease. The knowledge 

 acquired will be constantly used in solving the problems presented 

 in the practice of medicine. While this is true, a great part of the 

 value of these studies consists in the discipline which laboratory 

 study enforces. 



In the laboratory the student learns to acquire conceptions of 

 objects and of the activities taking place in them, by means of sense 

 impressions, and to use and appreciate methods by means of which 

 the field of investigation is extended. He learns to approach pro- 

 blems from the scientific point of view. Progress and success in medi- 

 cine is directly dependent upon the habit of investigation. Medi- 

 cine is not and probably will not be an exact science with definite 

 laws, by the application of which the exact sequence of phenomena 

 can be foretold. Every case of disease is a problem, and on the 

 knowledge acquired from investigation successful treatment of the 

 individual depends. Science demands to know, and methods by 

 which knowledge can be obtained are of supreme importance. 

 Methods of obtaining knowledge have been widely extended in 

 clinical investigation. Every year sees the discovery of new methods. 

 There should be, and with the foremost men there is, no distinction 

 between the clinic and the laboratory. In both knowledge is sought 

 by the use of the senses, and methods of investigation have a su- 

 preme importance. The laboratory discipline can be given just 

 as well in the clinic as in the other laboratories, with the advan- 

 tage that the methods of the clinic are the methods which are used 

 in the practice of medicine, and facility in methods can only be 

 acquired by continual exercise. It is evident, however, that the 

 laboratories and clinics should only be conducted by men who 

 themselves know and fully appreciate the importance of methods. 

 It is probable that in the medical education of the future there will 

 be a restriction of the laboratory training in anatomy, physiology, 

 and pathology, and an extension of the training in the methods 

 of the clinical laboratory. 



