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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 761 



during the past five years. The better 

 schools, which we need alone consider in 

 this matter of the status of our develop- 

 ment, are organized, almost without excep- 

 tion, as the medical department of a uni- 

 versity. Herein lies the secret of their 

 success and the promise of their improve- 

 ment in the future. In these schools there 

 is firmly established a four years' graded 

 course, of which the first two years are de- 

 voted largely to the preparatory medical 

 sciences of anatomy, physiology and pa- 

 thology, using these terms in their broad 

 sense to include such subjects as histology, 

 physiological chemistry, pharmacology, etc. 

 The most significant fact, however, is that 

 these preparatory sciences are taught by 

 specialists who give their entire time to 

 the work, and whose methods and ideals 

 differ in no essential respect from those fol- 

 lowed by teachers of physics, chemistry 

 and biology. In other words, the instruc- 

 tion in these medical sciences has been 

 raised to the university level, as has been 

 the case noAV for so many years in the Ger- 

 man schools. The change in the character 

 of the instruction in these subjects has 

 brought it about that in many of our col- 

 leges and universities they are accepted as 

 appropriate courses for academic degrees, 

 a recognition which I believe will soon be- 

 come general. For when properly taught 

 a course in anatomy, physiology or pathol- 

 ogy gives a liberal education and a mental 

 training which are of value to any man, 

 whatever may be his career in after-life. 

 These subjects deal with the great prob- 

 lems of existence, the riddles of life and 

 death and propagation, and all the proper- 

 ties of that extraordinary substance which 

 we call living matter; they throw light not 

 only on the special questions that interest 

 the physician, but they furnish also valu- 

 able material for the practical use of the 

 sociologist, the political scientist, the phi- 



lanthropist and the statesman. Moreover, 

 they bring us close to the highest and most 

 difficult subject that the human mind is 

 called upon to contemplate, that is to say, 

 the relationship between ourselves and the 

 material universe, the ever-fascinating and 

 mysterious interdependence of mind and 

 matter. Much has been said upon the sub- 

 ject of the cultural value of liberal studies 

 as opposed to so-called professional or 

 technical studies, but in all discussions of 

 this kind there is a tendency toward a cer- 

 tain arbitrary assumption that courses of 

 studies must fall wholly under one or the 

 other of these rubrics, whereas common ex- 

 perience teaches us that merely putting a 

 label upon a thing is no guaranty that the 

 contents are thereby properly described. 

 The preparatory training for life should be 

 liberal and humanizing, but it is quite pos- 

 sible that many different lines of study may 

 lend themselves with equal success to the 

 development of these qualities, and it will 

 be admitted perhaps by every one that the 

 courses of study in college, in addition to 

 having a broadening influence upon the 

 student, should also inculcate in him some 

 specific kind of mental training which will 

 fit him better to take a high rank in what- 

 ever career he may happen to select. 



The term technical, as applied to courses 

 of instruction, has acquired an unfortunate 

 connotation which implies that they are 

 lacking in value from the standpoint of 

 general training. As a matter of fact, many 

 of the graduate courses given in our uni- 

 versities are quite as technical as those 

 given in the preparatory sciences in the 

 medical school, and for one as for the other 

 it is short-sighted to assume that they are 

 devoid of a general educational value. I 

 prefer much the definition of the term 

 technical which has been given by Professor 

 Karl Pearson. He makes a distinction be- 

 tween technical and professional instruc- 



