6 SCIENCE, 
science. Carl Semper used to say, die Medi- 
ziner sind lauter verdorbene Zoologen—the 
medical men are all spoilt zoologists—and 
the saying still remains only too nearly true. 
The first question is : What place shall be 
given to biology in medical education? In 
order to answer this question we must re- 
member that biology should here serve a 
twofold purpose, that of making the be- 
ginning so as to lay the proper foundation 
for further study and that of inculcating the 
value of the comparative method. 
The fundamental principles of biology 
ought to be taught to every student of medi- 
cine before he is allowed to study medical 
anatomy or physiology. This great reform 
will surely come about, and has, in fact, been 
already effected by one important univer- 
sity, which has made biology a requirement 
for admission to its medical school. Or 
perhaps the necessary time can be secured, 
after the student has entered the medical 
school, by lessening the number of hours 
now required for anatomy. That far more 
time is usually devoted to anatomy than is 
advantageous to the student I am thor- 
oughly convinced. Formerly, when gross 
anatomy gave the student almost his only 
training in exact scientific observation, the 
subject had a pedagogic value, which it has 
since lost in very large measure, because 
histology, experimental physiology, bacte- 
riology and pathology offer far better disci- 
pline of the observational power than 
anatomy alone can supply. 
It must be further remembered that a 
large part of anatomy is to the student sheer 
memorizing and without intellectual value. 
Finally, we all know that a large propor- 
tion of the facts of descriptive anatomy are 
speedily forgotten after the examinations 
are past, and that the practitioner finds no 
occasion to recall them. A study which 
occupies so many hours as to exclude other 
valuable forms of mental training and im- 
parts much information not of practical 
[N. S. Vou, X. No. 236. 
value may well be abbreviated. On the 
other hand, a thorough course in descriptive 
anatomy, exclusive of histology and surgical 
anatomy, must always be indispensable. 
The only question is concerning the propor- 
tionate division of time with the other 
studies, which within recent years have 
become equally indispensable. 
My second point is the inculcation of the 
value of the comparative method, to which 
the development of biological science is 
mainly due. Life presents itself in an im-. 
mense variety of species, and the vital phe- 
nomena assume a characteristic manifesta- 
tion in each species. It is by comparing 
the structure and functions that we are able 
to distinguish the fundamental and essential 
part of the phenomena from that which is sec- 
ondary, and thus we gradually reach those 
generalizations which alone constitute true 
science. A detail is a grain of earth, use- 
less for building until it is compacted with 
many other grains into a useful shape, 
which, hardened, like a brick, in the furnace 
of thought, can be added to the temple of 
knowledge. Now, since medical interest 
centers in man, medical investigators have 
cared little for comparative research, and 
have often failed to grasp the problems with 
which they dealt. Many an able physician, 
when he studies, say the physiology or pa- 
thology of a dog, a guniea pig or a frog, hon- 
estly thinks that he is studying comparative 
physiology or comparative pathology, al- 
though he is really doing nothing of the 
kind. Heis studying, perhaps, gastric di- 
gestion or the hypertrophic degeneration of 
the liver; he seeks to understand the pro- 
cess in the one organ or the other, and the 
stomach is to him the stomach, the liver 
the liver. He may note the differences be- 
tween one animal and another if they are 
marked, but he does not attempt to deter- 
mine the process in the carnivora, the ro- 
dents and the amphibia, see what is com- 
mon to them all, and what is special modi- 
