Marcu 29, 1912] 
have two colleges each and six others have 
one each. At least half of these denomina- 
tional institutions are small, struggling and 
of low educational standards. One of the 
Presbyterian ‘‘colleges,’’ for instance, is 
made up of 164 preparatory and 44 college 
students. One of the Lutheran ‘‘universi- 
ties’? is composed of 35 preparatory, 48 
collegiate, 12 professional and 17 graduate 
students, 15 of the latter being non-resi- 
dent. Assuming that the denominations 
can make real contributions to higher edu- 
cation, such multiplication as this is surely 
unjustifiable. Its effect is to reduce all 
education to a lower level and to depress 
all betterment of the teacher’s place. 
When an institution calling itself a col- 
lege hires its professors by the month, and 
pays such salaries as only youths just out 
of college can accept, it is not to be ex- 
pected that a high sense of obligation will 
characterize its trustees. In the gradual 
process of the country’s growth such insti- 
tutions will either disappear or find their 
true place, many of them as secondary 
schools. But, meanwhile, it is not in these 
institutions that one must expect a just 
sense of appreciation of a professor’s serv- 
ice. It is in the stronger colleges, whether 
small or large, that one wust expect the 
beginning of the movement for a just 
recognition of the obligation that the col- 
lege owes to an old and faithful servant. 
Quite naturally, the creation of the Car- 
negie Foundation conveyed to many college 
boards the impression that the establish- 
ment of such an agency lifted at once from 
the shoulders of college authorities all 
obligation to care for their worn-out or 
disabled teachers. The very opposite is 
the fact. The creation of the Carnegie 
Foundation makes clear and emphasizes 
the obligation of educational organizations 
to deal justly, thoughtfully and generously 
with those who have given a life’s service 
SCIENCE 
485 
to education. The very purpose of the 
fund is to arouse in college authorities an 
appreciation of this obligation. The trus- 
tees of the foundation can provide retiring 
allowances for only a small fraction of the 
college teachers of America. The duty of 
the individual college in this matter still 
remains, and is but the greater now that 
the principle has been made clear. 
GENERAL EXAMINATIONS IN A MEDICAL 
SCHOOL: PLAN OF EXAMINATION 
RECENTLY ADOPTED AT 
HARVARD? 
Tue curriculum of the medical school has 
been a frequent topic of discussion in recent 
years. This association has devoted much at- 
tention to it and it continues in one form or 
another to occupy much of our time. A mini- 
mum curriculum requirement for a standard 
medical school is the basis for admission of a 
medical college to the Association of Ameri- 
can Medical Colleges, and we determine the 
ability of the school to give efficient instruc- 
tion within the limitations of this curriculum 
before we accept them for membership. It is 
clearly understood that we have fixed a mini- 
mal standard, but make no attempt to mould 
each school after a single fixed model. It is 
recognized that variations in personnel, in 
physical equipment and in local conditions 
make impossible the same type of teaching in 
every school. Were this possible, it would not 
be desirable, for no surer means of stopping 
progress could be conceived. It is the duty of 
each of us to try new methods and to share 
with others the experience so gained. From 
this alone can improvement come. 
Tt has seemed to us at Harvard that medical 
schools have tended toward too great a rigid- 
ity of curriculum with too many separate ex- 
aminations. This has resulted in leaving too 
little to the initiative of the student and in 
producing students too crammed with facts, 
too little able to think and to apply intelli- 
1Read at the meeting of the Association of 
American Medical Colleges held in Chicago, Feb- 
tuary 28, 1912. 
