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SCIENCE 



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



portuuities to acquire the points of view 

 and the methods of practical medicine. 

 On the other hand, they have the disad- 

 vantage of distracting and diverting some 

 students from a thorough study of the pre- 

 paratory sciences. I have had frequent oc- 

 casion to observe this effect. Some of our 

 medical students chafe under this pro- 

 longed preparation, forgetting the fact that 

 it is an opportunity which may never come 

 to them again, and forgetting also that it 

 gives them the badge, the impress that will 

 differentiate them from the mere empiric, 

 when the time comes for them to compete 

 with their fellow practitioners. To the 

 teachers, on the contrary, particularly if 

 they belong to the productive tjrpe, the uni- 

 versity atmosphere is perhaps more stimu- 

 lating. The methods and ideals of these 

 teachers are more closely related to those of 

 the university professors than to those of 

 their clinical colleagues. For while re- 

 search is valued as much perhaps in the 

 medical department as in the philosophical 

 department, there is the difference that in 

 medical circles the reward of immediate 

 appreciation goes chiefly to those investi- 

 gations that promise to have a direct prac- 

 tical application. The medical atmosphere 

 encourages research by the sharp stimulus 

 of an abundant reward for practical re- 

 sults. The university spirit or the aca- 

 demic spirit, on the other hand, takes the 

 wider and wiser view that looks beyond the 

 immediately useful to the large results that 

 may be expected from a growth of knowl- 

 edge in general. This serener atmosphere 

 forms a grateful environment for research, 

 and in the long run no doubt it produces 

 the larger harvest of useful knowledge. 

 Investigation after all is always a volun- 

 tary offering. There is no way of compel- 

 ling it or of estimating its value in terms of 

 time or quantity, and men who investigate 

 do not like to be put under the pressure of 



demonstrating that the work they do is of 

 immediate importance to mankind. They 

 prefer to study those problems which for 

 one reason or another have aroused their 

 interest. Considering the complexity of na- 

 ture, especially the living side of nature, 

 and remembering how difficult, even dan- 

 gerous, it is to apply knowledge that is in- 

 complete, the rest of mankind would do 

 well to encourage in every way the little 

 band of investigators whose chief ambition 

 and pleasure in life is simply to add to our 

 store of knowledge. As a matter of fact 

 mankind generally does not place a very 

 high estimate on the work of these disin- 

 terested individuals whose labors contrib- 

 ute to the common good rather than to per- 

 sonal gain, although history teaches us in 

 an infinite number of ways that on the 

 work of such men depends in large meas- 

 ure the possibility of progress. Perhaps 

 the explanation lies in the fact that the 

 good these men do comes after them, it 

 benefits posterity rather than the present 

 generation, and we are inclined to let pos- 

 terity do the appreciating as well as the 

 benefiting. But this is a line of thought 

 aside from our present purpose. The con- 

 clusion that I wish to emphasize is simply 

 that all the agitation that has been going 

 on in medical circles during the past two 

 decades has resulted finally in the estab- 

 lishment of two reforms in medical educa- 

 tion. First, the preliminary training for 

 entrance upon the medical career has been 

 greatly increased. Starting with practi- 

 cally nothing at all, it was raised first to a 

 common-school education, then to a high- 

 school education and finally, in the univer- 

 sity schools, to a college preparation, par- 

 tial or complete. Second, in the medical 

 course itself the work of the first two years 

 has been so arranged that it continues the 

 traditions and methods of the university 

 in the study of the so-called underlying 



