146 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 943 



the faculty with power. This is in accord- 

 ance with the recommendation made by Presi- 

 dent Schurman in his last annual report. 

 Hitherto the deans have been nominated by 

 the president and appointed by the trustees. 



At Harvard University Dr. L. J. Ehea has 

 been appointed assistant professor of pathol- 

 ogy, and Dr. Dunham Jackson instructor in 

 mathematics. 



Db. Alexis Harding, of Geneva, N. T., has 

 been appointed to the department of dairy 

 husbandry in the Agricultural College of the 

 University of Illinois with the title of pro- 

 fessor of dairy bacteriology in the college and 

 chief in dairy bacteriology in the station. 



De. Karl M. Wiegand has been appointed 

 professor of botany in the State College of 

 Agriculture of Cornell University. 



DISCUSSION AND COSBESPONDENCE 



UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH WORK IN MEDICAL 

 SCHOOLS 



To THE Editor of Science : A recent article 

 in Science (November 29, 1912) by Mr. 

 Drinker comments upon " Undergraduate Re- 

 search Work in Medical Schools." In this 

 article I find certain points that deserve com- 

 ment. One of these points is this: 



If we classify all these schools upon the basis 

 selected by Mr. Flexner in the first report of 

 the Carnegie Foundation in Medical Education, 

 namely, upon the possession or lack of a two 

 years' college entrance requirement, we find that 

 of the schools permitting undergraduate research 

 five faO the test. 



The University of Cincinnati is one of the 

 five. Another point is contained in the clause, 

 " Schools permitting research and giving no 

 visible time for it," etc. 



I desire to point out that unless qualifica- 

 tions are added to such statements they are 

 very misleading ; and also I desire to point out 

 that making the point of a one-year or a two- 

 year requirement means absolutely nothing 

 unless the facts concerning the enforcement of 

 such a requirement are known, and unless the 

 requirement itself is a definite one. I make 

 this statement upon the basis of certain facts 

 that I have collected in the past year. 



The University of Cincinnati demands for 

 entrance to its college of medicine one year of 

 specified work in subjects which are generally 

 conceded to be advisable, if not necessary, 

 premedical subjects; namely, physics, chem- 

 istry, ■ biology and modern language. At the 

 University of Cincinnati, a year in these sub- 

 jects means a certain amount of ground cov- 

 ered, in a certain amount of time, i. e., three 

 lecture periods (hour periods), and two three- 

 hour laboratory periods, per week. The ad- 

 mission committee of the college of medicine, 

 composed of the heads of the departments of 

 chemistry, anatomy and pathology, have in- 

 sisted that students coming from other col- 

 leges should present a worlcing knowledge in 

 physics, chemistry and biology equal to that 

 demanded of University of Cincinnati pre- 

 medical students. In the past year or so a 

 few students have been refused admission by 

 our admission committee, in spite of the fact 

 that they had had a college year of physics, 

 chemistry and biology, but had had courses in 

 these subjects which could not reasonably be 

 expected to produce the results that we de- 

 manded, or which did not produce these re- 

 sults, as proved by practical, oral, tests. Such 

 students, however, had no difiiculty in enter- 

 ing colleges whose announcements place them 

 in the first group of Mr. Flexner. Apparently 

 it is sometimes true that a one-year standard 

 is a higher one than a two-year standard. It 

 makes a great deal of difference whether a 

 school lives up to a standard of efliciency, or a 

 standard of prose (or poetic terms). 



With regard to the " visible time " for re- 

 search, I have no fault to find with Mr. 

 Drinker, because in spite of everything he 

 reaches a conclusion that appeals to me, but 

 " visible time " in a schedule means nothing. 

 If there is no " visible time " it may mean that 

 the schedule has been arranged to suit the 

 students who have just met the requirements, 

 and that, so to speak, " invisible " time is a 

 plenty for those who have more than met such 

 requirements. But even aside — even admit- 

 ting that all the students just meet the re- 

 quirement — one needn't treat them all alike. 

 As a matter of fact, it were well to try to treat 



