592 



NA TURE 



[October io, 1907 



One of the most remarkable features of the boy's 

 jaws are the teeth, which form the subject of a 

 special report by Prof. Gaudry. 



It will be seen that the work is to an unusual 

 degree exhaustive, and has been performed with an 

 attention to scientific accuracy for which palaeon- 

 tologists cannot be too grateful. The observations 

 are beyond dispute, and the theories advanced are sug- 

 gestive and worthy of careful consideration. The work 

 furnishes us with the most important collection of 

 data as to the nature and habits of Quaternary Man, 

 since the discoveries in the caverns at Spy. We 

 know that Man, even in the Pleistocene, buried his 

 dead, sometimes on intact foyers, sometimes in holes 

 dug in the floor of the cave, sometimes in rude cists 

 consisting of upright stones supporting horizontal 

 flagstones. Frequently he buried them in beds of 

 ologist iron. In the Barma Grande there is evidence 

 of disposal of the dead by incineration. With the 

 dead were buried such trinkets as necklaces, bracelets 

 and anklets made of perforated teeth, shells, and verte- 

 bra of fish. 



As to the people who lived in these caves, we can 

 with considerable confidence correlate them with the 

 Quaternary hunters in the valley of La Vezere, with 

 those whose remains have been found at Laugerie- 

 Basse, Gourdan, Chancelade, and Cro-Magnon. It 

 is probable, however, that the hunters of the 

 Grimaldi Mountains were the earlier. 



In conclusion, we can unhesitatingly state that the 

 Grimaldi caves have furnished us w-itli the most com- 

 plete picture we yet possess of Man's life in Europe 

 during Mid-Quaternary time. William Wright. 



MEDICAL EDUCATION AND SOME OF ITS 



PROBLEMS. 

 T) V a time-honoured ordinance, the opening of the 

 -'-' medical session at the beginning of October is 

 made the occasion for the delivery of inaugural ad- 

 dresses at the various schools of medicine. In London, 

 medical education is in a somewhat transitional stage, 

 and it may be interesting to inquire whether the 

 addresses delivered shed any light on the problems 

 that have to be solved. At the present time in London 

 there is a need for concentration of the preliminary 

 and intermediate studies, chemistry, biology, anatomy, 

 and physiology, taken during the first two rears of 

 the curriculum, and until recently taught in every 

 medical school. Now these are scientific subjects, and 

 could more efificiently and less expensively be con- 

 ducted in fewer centres with better equipped labora- 

 tories than has hitherto been the case. In this wav it 

 would be possible for some, at least, of the medical 

 schools to devote all their energies and funds to the 

 professional training of the last three years of the 

 curriculum. Various plans have been suggested for 

 effecting this. Some years ago, a scheme for a cen- 

 tral institute at Soutfi Kensington for teaching the 

 preliminary and intermediate subjects was inaugur- 

 ated. It was an ambitious scheme requiring some 

 200,000?. for its realisation, and though in theory a 

 good one, is probably not the best practical one for 

 London. London is too large to have a single centre; 

 and L^niversity and King's Colleges, and one or two 

 of the medical schools, have definitely decided to con- 

 tinue teaching the preliminarv subjects. Moreover, 

 by a recent vote of the Faculty of Medicine of the 

 University of London, the scheme of a Central Insti- 

 tute at South Kensington has been negatived, and 

 the former policy reversed. 



-Another scheme is actually in being and seems to 



be working w^ell, and might be extended; this is the 



drafting of the Westminster Hospital students to 



Kmg's College, and of the St. George's Hospital 



NO. 1980. VOL. 76] 



students to L"niversity and King's Colleges, for thi 

 preliminary and intermediate studies. Speaking of 

 this departure, Dr. .Allchin, of Westminster Hospital, 

 in his opening address at King's College, said : — 



" When in 1899, after the report of Lord Selborne's 

 Commission on a University for London, the medical 

 demand for a re-constitution of the University took 

 organised and coherent shape, the urgent need that there 

 was for some concentration in medical teaching was 

 always placed among the foremost arguments. The feel- 

 ing generally among the medical schools at that time^or 

 certainly of the great majority of them — was in favour 

 of some scheme by which certainly the elementary subjects 

 of the curriculum, and to some extent also the inter- 

 mediate, should be taught at fewer centres, thus leaving 

 the smaller schools at least, on whom the pressure of 

 expenditure was relatively the greatest, free to devote their 

 energies entirely to teaching the later subjects. But so 

 far the University of London has utterly failed to bring 

 about any concentration whatever during the seven years 

 of its re-constituted existence, and, what is almost as 

 serious, it has by the course it has followed converted 

 what w-as seven years ago a widespread feeling among 

 the metropolitan medical teachers of welcome towards the 

 principle of concentration into one of very considerablr 

 hostility towards the principle, and has led to many of 

 the schools resolutely opposing any coalescence. In 1905 

 a coalescence with regard to preliminary studies was 

 arranged between the Westminster Hospital School and 

 King's College, and has worked satisfactorily. I believe 

 that if the University six or seven years ago, when the 

 medical schools would, for the most part, have welcomed 

 the principle of concentration, had exercised upon the 

 different schools a wise and judicious pressure towards 

 giving effect to this principle, much might have been done 

 in this direction." 



Certainly this scheme has much to commend it, and 

 with some financial aid from the University it is diffi- 

 cult to see that an arrangement of this kind would be 

 less efficient than a central institute; it would be far 

 less costly than the latter, and, therefore, more likely 

 to be in working within a reasonable time. The last 

 is an element of some moment, for there can be no 

 doubt that London has suffered by contrast with the 

 splendid laboratories and facilities of the new pro- 

 vincial schools, .-md students in the London schools 

 have diminished in numbers. Long as the five years' 

 curriculum is for the pockets of those who have to 

 pay the fees, it is none too long for the acquirement 

 of the knowledge required for the pass examinations; 

 in fact, it is the exception for a student to obtain a 

 qualification under about six years. It has there- 

 fore been suggested that the curriculum might be 

 lightened by relegating to the school science studies 

 the physics, chemistry, and biology required. This 

 plan commended itself to Sir Douglas Powell in his 

 address at University College. He said : — 



" I am myself decidedly of opinion that most, if not 

 all, of the chemistry, biology, and physics required for 

 the ordinary pass examination might, and should be, and 

 in time will be, included in the public-school science studies, 

 and be cleared off before the student enters upon the 

 medical curriculum at all ; so that the first t\vo years of 

 the student's time may be given up almost entirely to 

 anatomy and physiology, including some comparative 

 anatomy, so far as it may be illustrative of human 

 anatomy, and some physiological chemistry." 



Intimately associated vith the question of medical 

 education is that of qualifying examinations. In 

 England, Scotland, and Ireland, there are no fewer 

 than twenty-one bodies which have the power of 

 granting degrees or diplomas qualifying to practise 

 medicine and surgery, and there must of necessity 

 be considerable variations in the standard of, and in 

 the conditions of admission to, these examinations. 

 To bring order out of chaos, the only practicable plan 



