May 22, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



749 



As it stands, all of our courses of study are ar- 

 ranged for the average man, and the average intel- 

 lect of five hundred people does not come very 

 high. An easy inference is that many bright men, 

 both in the university and in the medical college, 

 are merely marking time. A method such as I 

 suggest has nothing against it save the sanctity 

 we have thrown around the four-year idea of the 

 amount of work required for a degree. If re- 

 quirements for a degree were measured in quan- 

 tity and quality of work, instead of in time, many 

 of the difficulties of which we complain would dis- 

 appear. 



I have no sort of objection to the plan as outlined. 

 It is substantially that put in practise in 1895 by 

 a number of institutions maintaining premedieal 

 courses by private arrangement with medical col- 

 leges. I will present the communication to the 

 faculty for consideration and action, but I doubt 

 if we would care to advertise a three-year-in-and- 

 one-year-out-degree. That a baccalaureate degree 

 should not be given for work done in absentia is 

 almost a necessity if the degree is protected. 



A scheme which will give the man of exceptional 

 ability a chance would appeal to me. At present 

 onr educational systems favor the average man and 

 penalize the exceptional man. We spend too much 

 time trying to put a polish on a buckeye which 

 should be given to mahogany. However, count on 

 me to attempt to put anything through the com- 

 mittee agrees upon. I feel it is about time we are 

 getting down to fundamentals in this joint be- 

 tween university and professional schools. If the 

 fundamentals ar'e not such, then what I have said 

 is without significance; but being in close contact 

 with medical and university education makes me 

 absolutely certain that any attempt to shorten the 

 time before the degree of M.D. can be secured, by 

 elimination of English and other cultural studies, 

 is basically wrong and foredoomed to failure. 



This letter is to me an exceptionally strong 

 one, for I feel that it hits the nail exactly and 

 evenly on the head. The " divinely appointed 

 length of time " occupied in the various divi- 

 sions of an individual's educational career 

 needs consideration. Let us by all means 

 measure a man first by the quality of his 

 work, and second by the quantity, and then 

 help him in the way he should go, and if he 

 deserves it, if he is mahogany — polish him; if 

 he is a nut — ^give him what polish we can 



spare from the finer work, or plant him in 

 another soil. 



The second letter that I wish to quote in 

 this connection is from a medical dean of a 

 university where two courses are offered in 

 preparation for medicine, a one-year and a 

 two-year course, the latter leading with addi- 

 tional medical years to the degree B.S. This 

 letter says that when conditions change, they 

 in that university are prepared to make a re- 

 arrangement which will, the dean believes, be 

 an improvement. And further, 



The most serious problems with us arise from 

 the inefficiency of the high schools, especially in the 

 elementary science and language courses. So few 

 of our high schools (and I think the conditions are 

 essentially the same throughout the greater por- 

 tion of the South) give acceptable courses in sci- 

 ence and modern languages that for practical pur- 

 poses they may be left out of consideration. The 

 result is that the college courses must neeessarily 

 be more elementary in character and of lower 

 grade than they otherwise should be. A course in 

 general chemistry, for instance, arranged for stu- 

 dents who have had in the high schools an elemen- 

 tary course in general chemistry with laboratory 

 work would be of a much higher grade than a 

 course arranged for students without such prelim- 

 inary training. So long as this condition exists 

 there will be very little improvement in "chemis- 

 try 1" or "zoology 1" or "physics 1." The 

 weak elementary courses strike at the foundations 

 of a sound science training and so long as chem- 

 istry 1 is weak, chemistry 2, 3 ... a; will not be 

 all that we expect of them. The problem with us 

 is therefore the strengthening of chemistry 1. 



In the absence of adequate high school courses 

 one obvious remedy is the introduction into the col- 

 lege curriculum of a group of elementary Bcience 

 courses supplementary to the high school course. 

 This has been done in the modern language de- 

 partment here. Such an alternative will necessitate 

 an additional ' ' college year ' ' which for many rea- 

 sons is objectionable. The college should do less 

 rather than more of the high school work. 



This letter calls attention to the fact that 

 high schools offer courses in physics, chemis- 

 try and biology, and that they offer incom- 

 plete courses, which, however valuable they 

 may be to the individual who is not going to 

 study medicine, waste the time of the one who 



