November 15, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



649 



taught, and that physicians who are medi- 

 cal inspectors are often lacking in adapta- 

 bility, understanding and are actually in- 

 competent without a sound basis of educa- 

 tional science — this failure of the prospec- 

 tive teacher and the prospective doctor to 

 get together is unfortunate for both and 

 for the child. Furthermore, there is a 

 growing suspicion that one of the factors 

 in the low state of medical education is the 

 poor teaching done within the walls of 

 medical colleges and the poorer grasp of 

 the complex problems of the education of 

 to-day. This is a day, in America and 

 Europe, for the professional training of 

 teachers; but who has heard of systematic 

 provision for training teachers of medical 

 students ? 



Nearly all of the small number of re- 

 sponses of groups 4 and 5 may be repro- 

 duced here verbatim, with a few of other 

 types. As these responses are generally 

 from representative institutions they con- 

 stitute an interesting symposium, A few 

 responses which came unsigned are omitted. 

 A later mail may bring in also a few more. 

 Here are the responses from the following 

 institutions in slightly abbreviated form 

 and with the name of the senders prefixed : 

 Johns Hopkins, Pennsylvania, Chicago, 

 Teachers College of Columbia University, 

 University of Pittsburgh, University of 

 Cincinnati, St. Louis University School of 

 Medicine, the University of Minnesota, 

 the University of Wisconsin, the State 

 University of Iowa, the University of Illi- 

 nois, the University of Nebraska, the Uni- 

 versity of Michigan, the George Washing- 

 ton University, Vanderbilt University, 

 University of Virginia, the Tulane Univer- 

 sity of Louisiana. 



Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 

 Md. Dean J. W. Williams, Medical De- 

 partment. 

 Your circular concerning the affiliation 



of medical and pedagogical departments 

 of American universities is at hand. Our 

 medical school makes no effort to give this 

 sort of instruction. The philosophical de- 

 partment of the university, however, offers 

 a number of courses to teachers and in its 

 summer school affords opportunity for in- 

 struction. Furthermore, a number of 

 "health courses" are offered to the general 

 public by the medical and chirurgical fac- 

 ulty of Maryland (The State Medical As- 

 sociation). 



Professor E. F. Buchner, Department of 

 Education and Philosophy. 

 I regret to state that we have nothing to 

 report from the Johns Hopkins University 

 on the cooperation between the medical de- 

 partment and the various lines of work 

 which are being offered to teachers. For 

 one reason at least the need of this coopera- 

 tion in Baltimore is not so essential, in 

 view of the fact that the medical and 

 chirurgical faculty in addition to the sev- 

 eral medical schools and medical associa- 

 tions, has been doing a great deal of work 

 along the line of the medical aspects of 

 public education. 



University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 

 Pa. Director A. C. Abbott, of the Lab- 

 oratory of Hygiene. 



I have read the several questions con- 

 tained in your letter, and do not feel in a 

 position to give categorical answers to any 

 or aU. of them, although one of the courses 

 given in this laboratory might be regarded 

 as remotely related to the topic which you 

 are considering. The course to which I 

 allude is that leading to the degree in pub- 

 lic hygiene, a subject that has been sadly 

 neglected in this country, and one for 

 which trained teachers are more or less in 

 demand. I can not say, however, that the 

 course is designed especially for the train- 

 ing of teachers, but rather with the idea of 

 giving to the candidate a broad grasp of 



