August 10, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



127 



up-to-date and aggressive methods of rod- 

 ent control will furnish an increased food 

 supply for America and her Allies which 

 will help to guarantee just that margin of 

 advantage in the world struggle which will 

 be neeessaiy to victory. 



Essential to action regarding any of the 

 problems discussed in this paper, whether 

 the domestication of and development of 

 new resources from wild stocks, the protec- 

 tion or propagation of those which are bene- 

 ficial, or the control or destruction of detri- 

 mental species, is an intimate and accurate 

 knowledge of nature. And this knowledge 

 can only come, in any comprehensive and 

 authoritative way, through the collection of 

 series of specimens, with the associated 

 study, in field and laboratory, of the dis- 

 tribution, systematic relationships, habits, 

 economic status and ecologj' of the animals 

 concerned. 



The present-day organization of Ameri- 

 can science delegates this task to the verte- 

 brate zoologist in college or university, mu- 

 seum of natural history, or government lab- 

 oratory. 



It should ever be the obligation of the 

 scientific man to labor for the public good. 

 "With a world to help feed, and a war to 

 help win, it now becomes peculiarly the 

 duty and privilege of the American scien- 

 tific man to make increased practical appli- 

 cation of technical information, in short, 

 to furnish a large measure of cooperation 

 and leadership in the struggle to make 

 democracy efficient and so to secure the 

 benefits of government by the people for 

 the nations of to-day and the generations 

 of the future. "Walter P. Taylor 



Biological Survey 



THE STATUS OF THE GRADUATE 

 DEGREE IN MEDICINEi 



The University of Minnesota is offering 

 graduate work in the various fields of medi- 



1 Presented before the Minnesota Academy of 

 Medicine, St. Paul, Minnesota, October 11, 1916. 



cine and surgery in three-year courses open to 

 students who already possess the bachelor's 

 degree, or its equivalent, the doctor's degree 

 in medicine from a Class " A " medical school, 

 and who have had at least one year's intern- 

 ship in a general hospital or a year's service 

 in an approved laboratory of the medical sci- 

 ences. On the satisfactory completion of such 

 a three-year course, the student is eligible for 

 the degree of Doctor of Science in internal 

 medicine, in surgery, in pathology, or in what- 

 soever other branch of medicine he may have 

 chosen his major subject. 



The status of this new degree of Doctor of 

 Science in a medical specialty has not yet 

 been determined; hence the following analysis 

 and discussion. Since the conditions laid 

 down regarding admission, residence, language 

 requirements, thesis and examinations are 

 those which have long been applied by gradu- 

 ate schools of universities in the approval of 

 candidates for the degrees of Doctor of Philos- 

 ophy or Doctor of Science, it has been assumed 

 by some that the new degree in medicine 

 scholastieally reaches only the level of these 

 older degrees. This assumption would seem 

 to be incorrect, first because o'f the longer time 

 required to obtain the degree, and, second, be- 

 cause of the scientific ability exhibited by men 

 with only the formal schooling represented by 

 the doctorate in medicine or the baccalaureate 

 in arts or sciences. 



In the following diagram is shown the rela- 

 tionship in point of time required for the at- 

 tainment of the M.D. degree in schools with 

 the " Minnesota standard " and the attain- 

 ment of the Ph.D. degree in universities in 

 general, as well as the additional time required 

 for the attainment of the new degree of Doctor 

 of Science in a medical specialty. 



It will be noted from the diagram that 

 four students, A, B, C and D, who have had 

 the necessary high-school or other preparatory 

 training, enter the college of literature, sci- 

 ence and the arts of the imiversity at the same 

 time and pursue regularly prescribed courses. 

 At the end of two years in college, during 

 which time he has taken a preponderance of 

 prescribed physical, chemical and biological 

 studies, A transfers to the medical school, and 



