November 12, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



679 



latter observation, I may say that in trying to 

 demonstrate it to visitors, the first objection is 

 apt to be, " but I don't see any band." When, 

 after some coaching, the faint hazy band is 

 seen, the next assertion is usually that there is 

 no difference in its intensity in different 

 spectra ; and it is hopeless to expect a veri- 

 fication of the delicate quantitative measure- 

 ment, unless the would-be observer can acquire 

 the requisite skill. It is important that the 

 spectrograms of the water-vapor band shall be 

 secured when the water vapor in the total 

 terrestrial air column is in smallest quantity. 

 A low dew-point at the earth's surface does 

 not guarantee this condition, which, in general, 

 is almost never present in summer. For this 

 reason the spectroscopic data should be ob- 

 tained in winter. 



Frank W. Very 

 Westwood, Mass., 

 October 1, 1909 



QUOTATIONS 



THE HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL AND HARVARD 

 COLLEGE 



The modern tendency to align medicine 

 with the other professions as a graduate topic 

 is a sound as well as an irresistible tendency. 

 But we think that some authorities have 

 fallen into a logical error in attempting to 

 buckle end-to-end, in the required training of 

 a physician, the present college curriculum, 

 and the medical curriculum as it grew up in 

 pre-university days. The courses provided by 

 medical schools comprise many which afford 

 a high type of culture looked at from any 

 standard. He would be exceedingly narrow 

 who should deny that many of the courses 

 which are indispensable ingredients of a med- 

 ical education are also essentially academic, 

 and worthy components of anybody's educa- 

 tion. We go so far as to regard practically all 

 the studies of the first year and a half of the 

 Harvard Medical School as in posse, if not in 

 esse, studies of an academic rank, as cultural 

 studies. In brief, we desire to see them, 

 while maintaining their indispensable role in 

 medical education, open to all persons who 



have any hygienic aims or any anthropolog- 

 ical interests. 



We would not " let down the bars " to all 

 who might care to wander about in medicine 

 unguided. We should throw proper restric- 

 tions about these courses, such as are thrown 

 about all other advanced courses by the faculty 

 of arts and sciences. But we should offer, to 

 be taken and counted toward the bachelor's 

 degree under proper precautions, all these 

 courses. Let us admit to them any persons 

 who wish to study the fundamental facts of 

 health and disease amongst all the other eco- 

 nomic, sociological or anthropological facts 

 which to-day make up the proper study of 

 mankind. 



By this device we should destroy forthwith • 

 the familiar bugbear of " counting twice " cer- 

 tain studies, under the " combined A.B. sys- 

 tem," toward both A.B. and M.D. For we re- 

 gard the diagnostic and therapeutic courses 

 of the medical school as the essentially med- 

 ical courses, and the other so-called funda- 

 mental courses as not merely medical, but in a 

 broad sense biological. We consequently see 

 no objection to including such courses in 

 work for a bachelor's degTce, though we fore- 

 see hesitation on the part of some of those 

 who grew up when the medical school was 

 virtually independent of the university, to ac- 

 knowledge the sources of some of their own 

 culture. 



We deny categorically the danger of undue 

 specialization in this field and have above 

 called attention to some random examples of 

 greater specialization by persons who later 

 won their doctorates in other fields. 



We insist that our plans, if carried out, 

 would encourage academic freedom and would 

 be in line with all that is good in the elective 

 system. In fact, so harmonious are these 

 ideas with the university system as it other- 

 wise stands that we can lay claim to no orig- 

 inality whatever in the advocacy of our plans. 

 In short, we ask for nothing more than a 

 logical application to medical studies of prin- 

 ciples which have long successfully governed 

 the graduate school of arts and sciences. 

 In this event, some men would receive the 



