730 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 935 



on a traditionally inspiring sea. They are 

 far too acute not to know that their strong- 

 est leaders are the imaginative, productive 

 spirits in their new life and they want to 

 follow the best. It is not amiss for such 

 men to feel they have a right to gain some 

 notion of what investigation entails. Such 

 information is gathered to some extent in 

 the laboratories of the first and second 

 years, but in most instances it is to a very 

 small extent. The doing of fixed experi- 

 ments in fixed hours does not entail the ex- 

 ercise of investigative faculties other than 

 those of the most mechanical nature. The 

 student receives instructions as to the set- 

 ting up of apparatus and the preparation 

 ■of his material. If he follows these faith- 

 fully and accurately he is reasonably cer- 

 tain of gathering the data for the neces- 

 sary conclusions. Perhaps from his pri- 

 mary deductions he is required to general- 

 ize some governing principle of the widest 

 application. At best he has had almost no 

 chance for the use of his imagination; he 

 has never learned the meaning of high 

 scientific accuracy. He has no true notion 

 of the difficulty of putting a problem on a 

 working basis. I believe it must be the lack 

 of just such powers which leads to the ad- 

 verse criticism of so many American stu- 

 dents in German universities. 



The student more or less realizes these 

 facts and when in his third and fourth 

 years he finds he can get access to the lab- 

 oratory most attractive to him, he takes his 

 scraps of time and does what he can. Is it 

 worth while to meet him half way? 



Six years ago the medical students of the 

 University of Pennsylvania organized the 

 Undergraduate Medical Association, mod- 

 eled upon the American Medical Associa- 

 tion, and having for its constituent parts 

 the numerous medical societies which are 

 a constant part of student life. The or- 

 ganization planned one large meeting a 



year, when original papers were to be pre- 

 sented. The success of the meetings has 

 varied considerably. This, as will appear 

 later, must necessarily be so. Fourth year 

 men do the largest part of the work, be- 

 ginning in their third year and finishing 

 the following April. If they are to do any- 

 thing worth while they must expect to pay 

 the price of slackening in their other work, 

 and it occasionally happens that there are 

 not many men in a class who dare to do 

 this. I do not believe it ever happens that 

 there are not many who would be glad of 

 a chance to do some independent work, but, 

 as a rule, under the circumstances of an 

 inflexible curriculum, there are not enough 

 who dare to carry this to a successful con- 

 clusion. 



Such men receive all possible encourage- 

 ment from the faculty, and in reason they 

 are given every facility for their work. 

 But the assistance never takes the vital, 

 practical form of time to work. The stu- 

 dent investigator must keep abreast of his 

 fellows and do his experiments when he 

 can. With the present medical course this 

 "when" requires considerable research for 

 the discovery of its existence. Since such 

 a situation must unfailingly hamper the 

 activity of the Undergraduate Medical As- 

 sociation it was decided to attempt to bet- 

 ter it, and with the encouragement and 

 help of Dr. Allen J. Smith, the dean of the 

 faculty, the following investigation was 

 undertaken. 



Twenty-five medical schools were se- 

 lected as a basis of investigation. It is evi- 

 dent from the lists given that they rep- 

 resent fairly well the various types of 

 effort in the field of medical education. 

 The deans of these schools, with the excep- 

 tion of Johns Hopkins, received the fol- 

 lowing letter and questions. In the case 

 of Johns Hopkins the letter was sent to 

 Dr. W. H. Howell, and his reply must be 



