II 



tnral science which accompany the students during the 

 last years of their University training. 



At all times it has been a difficult task for the me- 

 dical faculties to keep the balance between the practical 

 and theoretical branches of study, and, beyond all ques- 

 tion, for the last generation the practical side has had 

 the best of it. A very extensive technical training is 

 absolutely necessary for the student nowadays if he 

 wishes to become a tolerably good doctor, and it is 

 only natural that this side of the subject should prove 

 very attractive to him on account of its immediate use- 

 fulness. This is a good reason why the universities 

 should take care lest the place taken by the natural 

 science subjects should become too subordinate. And 

 it is of still greater importance to lay stress upon the 

 training in natural science when many years' overpro- 

 duction of doctors is threatening to impair the social 

 standing of the medical men, in spite of the fact that 

 the great bulk of young doctors leave the University 

 with a greater and more solid practical knowledge now 

 than at any other lime. It is quite silly, anyhow, to 

 believe that ethics and trade-unionism can help the lame 

 dog over the stile. The means by which the working 

 class has raised its condition, will never be of any good 

 to the medical profession, whose prominent social stand- 

 ing in former days was due to quite other causes than 

 economic ones. 



The difficulties I am speaking of here, are not local. 

 They are felt in other countries as well. At least, the 

 concluding words of Krehl's preface to his Pathologische 

 Physiologic (1898) seem to point in the same direction. 

 He, too, thinks there is every reason to bring to remem- 

 brance the fact that ..Wirksamkeil, Bedeutung und An- 

 sehen des ar/tlichen Standes in dem gleichen Maasse 



21 



