1014 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 417: 



the kations, charged positively ; others, the 

 anions, negatively. Electrolytic dissocia- 

 tion is much more pronounced in solutions 

 of inorganic than of organic substances. 

 In proportion to its extent, specific proper- 

 ties are conferred on these solutions. What 

 these properties are is not altogether clear, 

 but it is entirely probable that the specific 

 properties of many drugs are dependent, 

 in part at least, on the amount of their 

 dissociation when in solution. Further- 

 more, the amount of a given substance 

 which is able to pass through a membrane 

 is measured by the so-called osmotic pres- 

 sure of the substance, and this, which 

 varies with the concentration of the solu- 

 tion, seems to depend on the movements 

 of the molecules and the ions within the 

 liquid solvent. Since the physician, in the 

 giving of a drug, wishes to induce certain 

 cells of the body of his patient to absorb 

 certain quantities of the drug, it is obvious 

 that a knowledge of the principles by which 

 substances pass through membranes will 

 aid him. 



The laws of solutions and the laws of 

 osmosis still remain largely obscure, and 

 because of this the literature of the subject 

 contains much that is of little value— de- 

 ductions from insufficient data, conclusions 

 of one day which are overthrown by the 

 researches of the next, fantastic imagin- 

 ings which only throw discredit on the 

 really worthy, and hopes buoyed up by the 

 light of an ignis fatuiis. But enough of 

 truth has been already revealed to stimu- 

 late active research for the sake of physio- 

 logical progress, and to show that the sub- 

 ject bears profoundly on the problems 

 which the physician meets daily. It is 

 partly along this line that the revitalized 

 science of pharmacology, the study of the 

 physiological action of drugs, which for 

 several years has been actively pressing to 

 the front, promises to make still more rapid 

 progress in the near future. 



Medical Schools. — The growth of scien- 

 tific medicine, some of the branches of 

 which I have thus tried to present to you, 

 has reacted powerfully on our medical 

 schools. The prominent features of this 

 reaction are: the increase in the require- 

 ments for admission, the greater amount 

 of laboratory and clinical instruction, the 

 extension of the course in length, and the 

 inclusion of the medical schools within 

 universities. 



Within a few years the requirements for 

 admission to medical study have been raised 

 from an elementary education, by many 

 schools to that of a high-school course or 

 college preparation, by a few to a partial 

 college training, and by two to a full col- 

 lege course with a resulting bachelor's 

 degree. As the wisdom of the latter is 

 still not generally conceded, it is doubtful 

 whether in the near future it will become 

 widespread. Ideal as it seems, the one 

 argument against it, that thereby the 

 young man is forced to delay entrance to 

 his life-AvorJi until a late age, has never 

 been satisfactorily answered. President 

 Butler's recent pronouncement in favor of 

 a division of the college work into a two- 

 year and a four-year course has much in 

 its favor. This would allow a certain 

 amount of those studies which are pursued 

 for the purpose of general education and 

 culture, and a grounding in the especially 

 necessary chemistry, physics and biology. 



The increase in the amount of laboratory 

 and clinical instruction is merely in har- 

 mony with the truth that seeing is be- 

 lieving. 'Study nature, not books,' says 

 Agassiz, and he might have added for the 

 guidance of the teacher, 'Weary not your 

 pupils with words, let them see things.' 



In length the medical course has rapidly 

 increased from two to three, and from three 

 to four, years. With the increase in the 

 number of hospitals throughout the land, 

 and the oppoi'tunities offered therein to 



