246 HUMAN DISSECTION. ITS DRAMA AND STRUGGLE 



graduates were allowed to practice in the state where their medical 

 school was located. Between 1776-1810, seven new medical schools 

 were chartered; between 1810-1840, twenty-six; in the interval 

 1840-1875, forty-seven; and seventy-nine between 1875 and 1901. 

 This sums up to a total of 159. 



According to Bardeen ('05), the standards fell as the schools 

 multiplied and as little medical education as possible was sold 

 at the highest possible rate. As the competition was keen, they 

 were reluctant to add anything new, which might frighten stu- 

 dents away. There were, however, a few first-rate private insti- 

 tutions affiliated with universities; also state controlled ones were 

 beginning to be strongly organized and staffed. 



Prior to and for a short period after the beginning of the 

 present century, practically all of the teachers were part time. 

 They consisted of a professor, who occupied the chair, and one 

 or more demonstrators who were in charge of the dissecting- 

 laboratory. The former presented lectures only. Most were sur- 

 geons, the heads usually having a practice whereas the others 

 were in the process of establishing one. Together, they spent be- 

 tween 800 and 900 hours, almost entirely on gross anatomy. In 

 general, the teachers used their positions as stepping stones to their 

 practice, which enhanced the opinion that anatomy constitutes 

 the handmaid of surgery. They taught authoritatively with most 

 of their energies being devoted to Gray's Anatomy and to the 

 neglect of microscopy and research. Main stress was put on the 

 quiz. Because they did not consider anatomy as a science, they 

 made few contributions to the field. Between 1872-1881, there 

 were thirty investigations by American anatomists reported in 

 Schwalkes Jahresberichte, 1 per cent of the total, and in the in- 

 terval 1892-1901, there were nearly 400 among 10,000 international 

 contributions, about 4 per cent of all listed (Bardeen, '05; Mall, 

 '06). 



Some of the important medical and private agencies which 

 have both analyzed and influenced medical schools in reform in 

 anatomy at various times since 1900 are the following: 



1. The Council on Medical Education of the American Med- 

 ical Association which began to classify medical schools as early 

 as 1906 on the basis as to how medical students fared in State 



