680 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 776 



degree of doctor of medicine after about six 

 years of university residence, to which, how- 

 ever, there must be added at least a year of 

 hospital work, and these men, like many doc- 

 tors of philosophy, would have a rather nar- 

 row education. Such an education is, how- 

 ever, less narrow than that of many Harvard 

 doctors of philosophy, under our present sys- 

 tem. Others would devote eight or even nine 

 years to their university careers, and their 

 training would be correspondingly broader. 

 Surely there is room at the Harvard Medical 

 School for these different classes of stu- 

 dents. But, in any event, the six-year men 

 can be excluded only by an act which will in- 

 evitably cut us off from an important and 

 rapidly growing group of American institu- 

 tions, the great middle western and western 

 state universities. We may not need the 

 numbers thus lost; surely we should not lose 

 their influence, if we are to be national and 

 not local in scope. 



As we believe, the greatest of all the needs 

 of the Harvard Medical School is free, and, 

 so far as possible, untrammelled intercourse 

 with every other department of Harvard and 

 with every other American university. No 

 small changes are necessary if our medical 

 education is to be made thus elastic, but surely 

 it can not injure Harvard College to broaden 

 the elective pamphlet by the introduction of 

 suitable courses, nor can it hurt the Harvard 

 Medical School to broaden its scheme of ad- 

 mission, to bring itself into relation with 

 American universities in general, and into 

 correspondence with the Harvard Graduate 

 School, if this be done without diminishing 

 the requirements for the degree of doctor of 

 medicine. 



These results may be accomplished by the 

 following arrangements : 



1. Count towards the A.B. suitable courses 

 in medical sciences. 2. Admit uncondition- 

 ally to the medical school all holders of a 

 respectable bachelor's degree. 3. Grant the 

 M.D. (a) after not less than a fixed minimum 

 of residence; (&) upon evidence of theoretical 

 and practical attainment in the medical sci- 

 ences (including the present admission re- 



quirements) and in the clinical branches. 4. 

 Establish a simple administrative mechanism 

 for the degree of M.D., modelled after the 

 present mechanism for the Ph.D. 5. Exe- 

 cute the above arrangements in the broadest 

 spirit, to establish and preserve academic 

 freedom, as exemplified in the greatest variety 

 pf preparation, of medical course, and of 

 finished product. 6. Eelax the present rigid 

 organization of the medical school curriculum 

 and lay stress upon the quality of our doctor- 

 ate rather than the means of its attainment. 

 Y. In all ways encourage the better students. 

 Permit them to advance at their own rate and 

 in their chosen paths. — The Harvard Bulletin^ 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 Life and Letters of Peter and Susan Lesley. 

 Edited by their daughter, Mary Lesley 

 Ames. In two volumes. Pp. ix '-\- 526, 562, 

 New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons. 

 The founders of American geology are only 

 names to most of the living. Not one re- 

 mains of those who were engaged on the surveys 

 of 1836 to 1841 and only one survives of those 

 who shared in the Pacific Railroad surveys. 

 Tradition relates that many of the early geol- 

 ogists were mighty men; the record of their 

 work and of their warfare has been trans- 

 mitted to us, but, for the most part, their per- 

 sonality is unknown. Obituary notices, pre- 

 sented in societies, usually discuss only the 

 value of the subject's scientific work and leava 

 the reader anxious to learn something of the 

 man. No such defect is present in these vol- 

 umes, for here is revealed Professor Lesley' as 

 he knew himself and as his friends knew him. 

 Peter Lesley's father, third of the name, was 

 born in Philadelphia, son of a revolutionary 

 soldier, who, coming from Scotland, had es- 

 tablished himself in that city as cabinet- 

 maker. Just as Peter third was about to 

 enter the university, his father died and the 

 young man was compelled to take the father's 

 business in order to support the family. In 



^ Professor Lesley was always dissatisfied with 

 his name and when he became of age he placed 

 the "Jr." as a prefix instead of suffix; thence- 

 forward he was known as J. P. Lesley. 



