J0NE 6, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



855 



tion is needed from science and clinical 

 teachers. 



The establishment of state board exami- 

 nations has been of great aid to medical 

 education. It has raised the general stand- 

 ards of the profession, and secured a more 

 uniform curriculum over the entire coun- 

 try. It has, however, had a decided influ- 

 ence on the overloading of the curriculum, 

 as they have yoked the old methods with 

 the new. The necessity for arranging the 

 examinations to meet the training of grad- 

 uates of years ago, as well as the recent, 

 has been detrimental to progress and has 

 encouraged cram-quiz book methods and 

 put a premium on ability to answer ques- 

 tions, calling for mere detail information 

 of the subjects. The time has come when 

 state boards of examiners should recognize 

 the changes that have occurred in methods 

 of medical education ; that the student who 

 is best educated has not the best knowl- 

 edge of small and unessential details; that 

 to meet the requirements of the state 

 boards he has to have recourse to quiz 

 compends for much that is of no practical 

 use to him. The new methods have been in 

 force long enough to establish a class by 

 itself and for licensing there should be 

 one type for the graduate of former days 

 and one for the more recent. As at pres- 

 ent conducted, both in content and method, 

 it is satisfactory to neither class. This as- 

 sociation, by the cooperation of the Fed- 

 eration of State Medical Boards, could be 

 of great value in correcting this defect. 

 The state boards are appreciating this de- 

 fect as well as medical educators, and would 

 welcome any plan which would aUow of a 

 practical examination, both laboratory and 

 clinical. 



The difficulty in arranging such an exam- 

 ination is the lack of money and laboratory 

 and clinical facilities. States with centers 

 of medical education could easily get the fa- 



cilities by holding the examinations in 

 those places and using the college labora- 

 tories and clinics and hospitals. Different 

 dates could be arranged for various sec- 

 tions. The states should consider that it is 

 their duty to provide the necessary funds. 

 That such a plan is feasible is shown by 

 the ease with which large numbers of candi- 

 dates for the positions of hospital interne 

 are examined, both by written and practical 

 examination. 



Examinations have, and probably will 

 be, the means of testing the character of 

 instruction given by the medical schools 

 and the knowledge of the students, but 

 they should be adapted to give a true in- 

 dex. They must coordinate with the meth- 

 ods of instruction. At the present time 

 they do not. Eating colleges according to 

 the ability of students to pass these ex- 

 aminations is putting a premium on only 

 such instruction as wiU enable the student 

 to successfully meet the test. It is exalt- 

 ing narrow training over broad education. 

 Evaluating bodies should not place too 

 much value on the percentage of failures 

 and passing as an index of instruction in 

 the colleges. 



From members of the general profession 

 one constantly hears the harsh criticism 

 that recent graduates are deficient in de- 

 tailed knowledge of this or that specialty. 

 That while skilled in laboratory methods of 

 diagnosis, they have acquired little of the 

 art of medicine. They insist that many 

 new topics ought to be added to the course 

 of study. 



Much of the overburdening of the clin- 

 ical years has been due to adding topics or 

 extending courses in the special branches 

 to meet these criticisms. The profession as 

 a whole should appreciate that the student 

 must, in his college course, gain his train- 

 ing in scientific methods if he is ever to 

 have it. That only the essentials can be 



