December 26, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



1U15 



recent graduates to serve as internes under 

 competent visiting physicians, one or two 

 years more may be added to the student's 

 equipment, making a training of five or 

 six years before the young doctor actually 

 begins independent practice. 



The inclusion of the medical schools 

 ■within universities is one of the most im- 

 portant • advances of medical education 

 made in many years. Of the 156 schools 

 existing in this country, 74, or nearly one 

 half, are departments of colleges or uni- 

 versities. In this respect, however, 

 America is still far behind Germany, for 

 in the latter country no medical school 

 exists except as a part of the larger insti- 

 tution. The advantages of such a connec- 

 tion are too obviotis to dwell upon. Apart 

 from the material benefits that are likely 

 to accrue to the school, and the prestige 

 granted it in the educational world, there 

 is the atmosphere of a higher culture, a 

 more scientific spirit, and less utilitarian- 

 ism, which is breathed by instructors and 

 students alike, and which cannot fail to 

 make the graduates broader men. In the 

 larger of these university schools a portion 

 of the teaching body consists of men who 

 do not engage in medical practice, but. 

 like the instructors in the non-professional 

 schools of the university, give their whole 

 time to their specialties, in teaching and 

 research. Usually these are the holders 

 of the chairs of the non-clinical, basal sci- 

 ences, anatomy, physiology, pathology, 

 bacteriology, physiological chemistry and 

 pharmacology. The outcome of this must 

 be to broaden and deepen the scientific 

 basis of medicine. The clinical branches 

 are still taught by men who are at the same 

 time private practitioners. In a recent 

 thoughtful essay on 'Medicine and the 

 Universities,' a professor in one of our 

 leading medical schools urges the further 

 severance of medical teaching and private 



medical practice. He would have internal 

 medicine, surgery, obstetrics, and, indeed, 

 all the principal clinical departments of 

 instruction, placed like the fundamental 

 sciences 'on a true university basis,' by 

 which he means that the holders of these 

 chairs should devote all their time and 

 energy to teaching and research. This 

 would require the paying of large salaries 

 and the building of extensive university 

 hospitals, wherein the professors could 

 carry on their investigations. In my 

 opinion the benefits that would thus ac- 

 crue to scientific medicine far outweigh 

 the arguments that may be brought against 

 so radical a change, and, notwithstanding 

 its highly idealistic character, in view of the 

 present unparalleled generosity of private 

 wealth in endowing scientific research, the 

 present rapid and sure progress of medi- 

 cine, and the intimate connection of medi- 

 cal advance with the interests of all classes, 

 I look forward confidently to the future 

 establishment of our medical schools on a 

 basis more nearly parallel with that of 

 the non-professional schools of the uni- 

 versity. 



Wliat now as to the future of medical 

 science? With the impetus which it has 

 received from the mighty strides of the 

 past twenty-five years, its future progress 

 and future great achievements are assured. 

 But it behooves us, in whose hands lies the 

 training of the physician, to see that he 

 enter on his work with a full realization 

 of his responsibilities. The future of sci- 

 entific medicine lies ivitli the university. 

 ' ' Though the university may dispense with 

 professional schools," said President Wil- 

 son in his inaugural address at Princeton 

 a few weeks ago, "professional schools 

 may not dispense with the university. 

 Professional schools have nowhere their 

 right atmosphere and association, except 

 where they are parts of a university and 



