56 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 



be clearly explained. It is in the lecture 

 that an enthusiasm for the work may be 

 instilled in the student's mind, and it is 

 important that too much weig'ht be not 

 placed on detail, but that every opportu- 

 nity be taken to show the application of 

 physiological truths in the practise of 

 medicine. For details the student should 

 be referred to the text-books. It is often 

 stated as an objection to systematic lec- 

 tures that the students come to depend 

 upon the notes which they succeed in tak- 

 ing during them in preparing for their ex- 

 aminations. To offset this possible tend- 

 ency, there are two other features of di- 

 dactic instruction which are of great im- 

 portance. The one is the recitation or 

 quiz, and the other, the symposium. One 

 recitation should follow every two lectures, 

 and it should be conducted, not by the lec- 

 turer himself, but by an assistant, who, 

 although using a general outline of the lec- 

 tures as his basis for questions, does not 

 keep to that alone, but reviews the subject 

 from his own point of view. It is impor- 

 tant that a record be kept of the manner 

 in which the questions are answered by 

 each student, for otherwise it is difficult to 

 hold every member of the class to thorough 

 preparation. Review quizzes covering the 

 larger subdivisions of the subject, such as 

 circulation, respiration, etc., are also of 

 great value. 



The symposia constitute a most impor- 

 tant feature of the course. Besides the 

 symposia on practical work, which have al- 

 ready been discussed, there should be liter- 

 ary symposia, or journal-club meetings, in 

 which each student in turn is required to 

 read before the class a short paper com- 

 piled from the literature on some theme 

 which has been allotted to him by ballot. 

 The themes must be carefully chosen, so as 

 to permit of presentation within the short 

 time which is available for such work, and 



so that there is adequate representation in 

 the English and American journals. Some 

 students may be given themes requiring 

 consultation of German or French jour- 

 nals, but in our experience the college 

 training in modern languages is inade- 

 quate for their extended use in this way. 

 A general discussion, by the members of 

 the class and by the instructor, should 

 follow the presentation of each paper, the 

 paper and discussion together occupying 

 twenty minutes, thus permitting three 

 papers to be presented in an hour. It is 

 advantageous so to group the papers that 

 the themes discussed during each sympo- 

 sium are closely related, for by doing so a 

 much greater interest is likely to be aroused 

 than if non-related subjects are presented. 

 To prepare, even for the simplest of 

 themes, a well-balanced and comprehensive 

 review of the literature that shall occupy 

 but ten minutes to present, is certainly by 

 no means an easy task, not alone for begin- 

 ners, but it is impressed upon the students 

 that the practise which they get in attempt- 

 ing to do it will be invaluable to them 

 when later, as practitioners of medicine, 

 they desire to present papers at medical 

 societies. Appropriate reprints of origi- 

 nal articles can be lent from the depart- 

 ment library to the students, but besides 

 this they should have free access to such 

 general reviews as the Index Medicus or 

 the Surgeon General's Catalogue, the use 

 and value of which they thus come to ap- 

 preciate. In order to stimulate their best 

 efforts, we have found it advantageous to 

 offer to submit the best two or three papers 

 for publication to the editor of the local 

 medical journal. There should not be 

 much difficulty in most large medical 

 centers of finding some editor who would 

 be glad to find room in his journal, at least 

 during the summer months, for the publi- 

 cation of well-written, up-to-date reviews on 



