Mat 8, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



666 



expressive metaphor. The recognition of 

 the principle of inequality is a most im- 

 portant step in curriculum making. 

 Everything else really rests upon it. If we 

 had a magic yard-stick by which to meas- 

 ure each man's powers and lay out the cur- 

 riculum adapted to develop those powers, 

 it would be our duty to do so. Education 

 would then become truly individualistic. 

 Since we can not accomplish this ideal, we 

 must do our best to approach it. "We know 

 that no body of men is able to lay out a 

 perfect curriculum for medical students 

 taken in the average or en masse; witness 

 the severe criticism which may be laid 

 against the A. M. A. model, founded 

 though it was on two years' work by a com- 

 mittee of a hundred medical educators. 

 Recognizing the principle of inequality of 

 men, how much less can any faculty work 

 out a fixed curriculum adapted to the stu- 

 dent considered as an individual. To my 

 mind the argument leads inevitably to the 

 elastic curriculum. An elastic curriculum 

 is not an elective curriculum, although the 

 elective principle should find recognition 

 in it. 



PRINCIPLE OP RELATIVE VALUES 



We have said that our aim is to develop 

 technicians and that for this we must fur- 

 nish facts on which the thing to be done, 

 whether of hand or brain, is founded. In 

 furnishing these facts, the important prin- 

 ciple of relative values must receive empha- 

 sis. It is a fact that the stomach secretes a 



principle will t£uke care of itself in any group cnr- 

 riculum, for as Professor Jackson has said: 

 "Our medical students represent a selected group 

 wtose physical and mental characters are, broadly 

 speaking, quite similar. This is tacitly assumed 

 in making fixed requirements for the greater part 

 of the curriculum. Yet the individual differences 

 are undoubtedly of tremendous importance, and 

 have hitherto been largely overlooked in medical 

 education. ' ' 



certain per cent, of hydrochloric acid. It 

 is a fact that the lachrymal glands secrete 

 a certain per cent, of sodium chloride. The 

 former fact is much more valuable to a 

 physician than the latter. It is valuable 

 practically. Many other facts not im- 

 mediately valuable in treating patients are 

 valuable practically as thought-stuff. Facts 

 are like medicines; some are for external 

 and some for internal use. But the differ- 

 ences among facts as regards usefulness are 

 as great as the differences among medicines. 

 We should do our best from the multiplic- 

 ity of facts to supply those most likely to 

 be valuable to our students. Now the pie* 

 maker is not a good judge of the value of 

 pie as an article of diet, nor is the specialist 

 in all respects in the best position to 

 evaluate relatively his line of facts. The 

 physiologist should have the help of the 

 internist, the aurist, the oculist and the 

 neurologist in determining what facts of 

 physiology should be taught and the time 

 to be devoted to this teaching. The prin- 

 ciple applies equally to all the other 

 teachers and their branches of knowledge. 



PRINCIPLE OP MINIMUM REQUIREMENT 



This leads to the principle of minimum 

 requirement. Take anatomy, for example. 

 We will all admit that certain facts of 

 structure of the body form an indispen- 

 sable part of a medical man's equipment. 

 A knowledge of these facts must be de- 

 manded from every student. This mini- 

 mum is hard to set — impossible, indeed, in 

 a strict sense. Still, for practical purposes 

 it must be set. In my judgment the mini- 

 mum in nearly every subject is much less 

 than schools have ordinarily required. 

 They have required as much as possible, 

 not as little as possible. In my opinion an 

 effort should be made in each department 

 to ascertain the minimum. This should be 

 taught intensively. The merely desirable. 



