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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1399 



states that some medical school will give a 

 course in anatomy based upon human types, 

 others will follow until the custom becomes 

 universal. This has been done for the past 

 ten years by the writer at Tulane or Virginia, 

 and at both "Western Reserve and Washington 

 University, St. Louis, anthropology is a part 

 of the medical curriculum in anatomy. 



Human types have been studied in relation 

 to medicine until physicians and surgeons are 

 becoming familiar with their varied mani- 

 festations. Bryant, following Treves and 

 others, calls the types carnivorous and herbiv- 

 orous, as determined by the functions of the 

 alimentary canal and diet. Chaillon divides 

 the types into four from the physiological and 

 clinical standpoint: digestive, respiratory, 

 muscular and cerebral. Mills has two types 

 of visceral form as determined through the X- 

 ray by position, tonus and motility: asthenic 

 and hypersthenic, each with subdivisions. It 

 is not difficult to see the differences between 

 the carnivorous and herbivorous types of Bry- 

 ant, Treves and others; between the narrow- 

 back and broadback of Goldthwait; between 

 the longskeleton and broadskeleton of Manou- 

 vrier; between the cerebral and digestive of 

 Chaillon ; between the asthenic and the hyper- 

 sthenic of Mills ; and between the hyperphylo- 

 morph and mesophylomorph of Bean; and it 

 may be easy to demonstrate that all the couples 

 are practically the same ; but the psychologist, 

 the physiologist and the pathologist must as- 

 sociate or dissociate the mental, the functional, 

 the pathological and the physical. 



The clinician may ultimately become fa- 

 miliar with human types by a process of as- 

 similation through experience, but the neces- 

 sity for the teaching of both race and type 

 differences to medical students becomes more 

 and more imperative. The proper place for 

 the teaching of these subjects is in a labora- 

 tory of physical anthropology as a part of the 

 medical course. At the beginning short practi- 

 cal courses in anthropometry and methods of 

 inspection may be offered as optional work in 

 connection with gross anatomy until such time 

 as more complete courses may be given which 

 should ultimately be offered as required work 



in a department of anthropology on a par with 

 the courses in physiology, pathology or an- 

 atomy. 



The physical and the psychical sides of man 

 in relation to diagnosis, prognosis and treat- 

 ment have been too much neglected in the 

 medical curriculum, due in part to the enor- 

 mous exacerbation of interest in germ diseases 

 following the brilliant studies of Pasteur as to 

 the role of bacteria in the production of dis- 

 ease. It is unnecessary to entail a discussion 

 of the varying share of inciter and host in the 

 production of disease, or upon the degree of 

 immunity or susceptibility of the individual 

 due to the physical or mental type or state. 

 Once recognize the equal importance of the 

 man and the germ, once understand the full 

 value of the physical and psychical type and 

 state, then follows as night the day the intro- 

 duction of departments of anthropology and 

 psychology into the medical curriculum. 



Furthermore there are constitutional dis- 

 eases, diseases of the blood and nervous sys- 

 tem, and disorders of the mind not due to 

 animal or vegetable parasites or germs of any 

 kind, that need to be studied in relation to 

 the physical and psychical type and state. The 

 application of such knowledge is a field for the 

 future in medicine. 



Another field in which anthropology is po- 

 tent is in that of growth. There is great need 

 for studies in growth of races and of types, 

 although Godin has blazed the trail in that 

 direction, and these studies should lead the 

 medical student to a thorough knowledge of 

 the laws of growth, of the curves of growth of 

 the organs, of the long bones, of the teeth and 

 of the parts and structures of the body. A 

 knowledge of the critical periods in the growth 

 of structures is vital in medicine. This should 

 be taught from the standpoint of race, and of 

 type within the race. 



We can not hope that anthropology will, come 

 into its own immediately as a separate depart- 

 ment in the medical curriculum, which is al- 

 ready overcrowded, but let us hope that the 

 study of the types of man will be pursued dili- 

 gently in many directions, and that a place 

 and time will be found in the medical curricu- 



