398 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1054 



tion may be expected toward standardizing 

 work in biology required of students looking 

 forward to tbe study of medicine; and to 

 formulate tbe considerations which would seem 

 practical to incorporate in plans for such 

 courses. 



The Zoological Society promptly appointed 

 a committee for this conference, and the fol- 

 lowing questions were discussed, not only with 

 this committee, but with a number of repre- 

 sentative members of the Zoological Society. 

 Besides this, published statements of courses 

 and of discussions on this subject were exam- 

 ined. 



The following questions seemed to be most 

 important. 



Question 1. Is the work given in different 

 colleges in the elementary, general course in 

 biology adapted to satisfy the requirements 

 of premedical training in this subject? 



Question 2. Is it possible to so select and 

 standardize the work of the first year in biol- 

 ogy in different colleges as to make it uni- 

 form, and to include, here, all needed to make 

 it an adequate course? 



Question 3. If an ideal course, including 

 sufficient preliminary work, can not be secured 

 within the one-year period advocated, what 

 principles should be urged to govern the plan- 

 ning of the biological work of students look- 

 ing forward to the study of medicine, so that 

 they will profit most by the training of the 

 first year, and be best prepared to follow this 

 up in special departments of biology more 

 directly related to medicine. 



Question Jf. What additional work is to be 

 advised, which is not to be obtained in the first 

 year's general course? 



Both oommittees agree that it is of the first 

 importance to urge the selection of only thor- 

 oughly trained scientific men as teachers for 

 this work. Such men can be trusted to insist 

 on real scientific methods and to select the best 

 material and treatment to give the beginner 

 a practical introduction and basis for further 

 work. 



Beyond this point, however, the committees 

 were unable to proceed. The zoologists sug- 

 gested that the anatomists should draw up a 

 statement of what they desire the zoologists 



to do, in preparing students for anatomy. 

 After this has been done, the zoologists are 

 ready to consider how far it is practicable to 

 meet these needs. Several attempts have been 

 made in this direction, 'and your committee 

 submits the following statement to the asso- 

 ciation for its approval, and transmission to 

 the zoologists. 



At the present time a one-year's course in 

 biology is generally required as a preparation 

 for the work of the medical school. This 

 study of biology must serve as a preparation 

 for medical work in physiology, pathology, 

 bacteriology and parasitology, as well as anat- 

 omy, and! it may fairly be questioned whether 

 a single college course is adequate for this 

 purpose. The study of botany alone is ob- 

 viously insufiicient, and the domain of zool- 

 ogy is so vast that much care should be exer- 

 cised in the choice of those phases of the sci- 

 ence to be presented to young students. 

 Courses which are primarily experimental and 

 deal with the functions and reactions of ani- 

 mals, although excellent in preparation for 

 the physiological work of the medical school, 

 are not the proper basis for the study of hu- 

 man anatomy. It is the purpose of this re- 

 port to point out only those features of the 

 college preparation which experience has 

 shown to be desirable, and in fact essential, 

 for the successful study of gross and micro- 

 scopic anatomy. 



No uniform or stereotyped preparatory 

 course is recommended, for it is recognized that 

 every teacher should give special attention to 

 those subjects and groups in which he is par- 

 ticularly interested, and to the knowledge of 

 which he has contributed by his own re- 

 searches. Success depends in large part upon 

 the ability of the teacher, but the following 

 purposes of instruction should not be for- 

 gotten if the preparatory work is to satisfy 

 the requirements of anatomy. 



1. Students frequently begin the study of 

 human anatomy with an insuificient knowl- 

 edge of the lower forms of animal life. The 

 broad knowledge of the various classes of ani- 

 mals and of invertebrate and lower-vertebrate 

 morphology, which was the inspiration of the 



