OBITUARY NOTICES OF MEMBERS DECEASED. Ux 



it is difficult even for those of us who have witnessed its evolution, 

 to realize its crudity and provincialism. Our medical schools were 

 mainly proprietary institutions conducted for financial profit. 

 Laboratory facilities, clinical material and individual instruction 

 were either lacking altogether, as in the department of obstetrics, or 

 were just beginning to be provided in the other two principal sub- 

 jects of a medical course, medicine and surgery; but provided so 

 inadaquately that the student, obliged to go abroad to complete his 

 education, could not justly be surprised at the contempt with which 

 his medical diploma was regarded in Europe. The proprietors of 

 our medical schools were quite satisfied that they had fulfilled their 

 whole duty if they furnished a lecture room for a few hours a week 

 to the teachers of the most important subjects in the course. The 

 didactic lecture was the accepted method of medical teaching. Any- 

 thing else that was offered was subordinate to it. These were the 

 conditions in the very best of our schools and it was under these con- 

 ditions that Dr. Penrose was obliged to teach. The only means at 

 his command to prepare his students for their future responsibilities, 

 was the didactic lecture. But of this means he availed himself with 

 consummate ability. 



It is no exaggeration to say that none of his contemporaries 

 made his lectures at the same time so instructive, entertaining, amus- 

 ing and useful. The most admirable quality of his art was the 

 vivid and lasting impression made upon his auditors. 



Much as we admired the skill, the operative dexterity, the sound 

 judgment, and the great experience of Agnew, the profound erudi- 

 tion of Leidy, the brilliancy of William Pepper, all of Dr. Penrose's 

 old students will bear me out in the assertion that today, twenty 

 years at least, after they were given, we remember his lectures more 

 distinctly than those of any of his colleagues. 



In the swing of the pendulum from the old to the new methods 

 our present tendency is perhaps to neglect the didactic lecture too 

 much. It can be utilized with advantage still. The medical teacher 

 of today could not do better than to study the methods of a man 

 like Penrose who was obliged to concentrate all his ability on the 

 only means of teaching at his command. 



His personal dignity, penetrating but kindly voice, exquisitely 



