SCIENCE 



[Vol. XVllI. No. 439 



at least five years in additional study before he commences 

 to see any thing of practice. He should thea spend at least 

 three years more in special medical and clinical studies, 

 during- one year of which he should, if possible, reside in a 

 hospital. If then his purpose is to become a specialist, an 

 original investigator, and a teacher, it is desirable that he 

 should spend two years more in clinics and laboratories de- 

 voted to his special subject, and at least half of this time 

 should, at present, be spent abroad. These are the broad out- 

 lines of what I suppose most physicians of the present day 

 would consider a desirable scheme of medical education for 

 an intelligent boy with a fair amount of liking for study, 

 good health, and sufficient means to enable him to go through 

 with it without making undue demands upon his parents or 

 guardians. 



You will observe that there are several qualifying clauses 

 in that last sentence. The aphorism that it does not pay to 

 give a five-thousand-dollar education to a five-dollar boy 

 must be constantly borne in mind in considering these ques- 

 tions. On the other hand, it is also to be noted that in the 

 preparation of educational schemes it is not necessary to 

 provide for the demands of youths of extraordinary ability 

 and industry — for men of genus. Beds suitable for giants 

 are not required as part of the stock of an ordinary furniture 

 store, especially if it require giants to make them. Some 

 cases of disease will recover without treatment, though the 

 cure may be hastened by proper management; some will die 

 under any treatment; the result of some depends on the treat- 

 ment. It is much the same in education. Some will acquire 

 knowledge and power without special training; others will 

 never acquire these things under any training; but the career 

 of many depends, to a large extent, on the training which 

 they receive. The recent announcement of a compulsory 

 four yeai's' course of medical studies by Harvard and the 

 University of Pennsylvania, soon to be followed by a similar 

 announcement fi'om Columbia, looks toward the ideal just 

 indicated. 



The number of those who are obtaining a college educa- 

 tion as a preparation for medical study has increased, and 

 will still more increase as the competition among an excessive 

 number of physicians becomes fiercer. 



From information received from some of our leading medi- 

 cal schools for the present year, it appears that the proportion 

 of students who have taken preliminary degrees before com- 

 mencing the study of medicine varies from fourteen to forty- 

 tljree per cent in Eastern schools, from three to twelve per 

 cent in Western schools, and from fifteen to twenty per cent 

 in Southern schools. 



Just here comes in a very difficult point. When shall 

 general education cease and special training begin ? The 

 answer to this must depend largely on the individual, but it 

 seems to me that the present tendency is to begin to specialize 

 too soon. This early specialization of study and work may 

 lead to more prompt pecuniary success, but not, I think, to 

 so much ultimate happiness and usefulness as the longer 

 continuance of study on broader lines. "For it is in knowl- 

 edge as it is in plants," as Bacon says. " If you mean to use 

 the plant, it is no matter for the roots; but if you mean to 

 remove it to grow, then it is more assured to rest upon roots 

 than slips. So the delivery of knowledge as it is now used, 

 is of, fair bodies of trees without the roots — good for the car- 

 penter but not for the planter. But if you will have science 

 grow, it is less matter for the shaft or body of the tree, so 

 you look well to the taking up of the roots." 



In discussions on medical education and the duties of 



medical schools, we are too apt to lose sight of the fact that 

 the best that the student can do in them is to begin to learn. 

 If he does not studj' much longer and harder after he gradu- 

 ates than he does before, he will not become a successful 

 physician. Moreover, the great majority of men have differ- 

 ent capacities for learning certain things at different ages. 

 They lose receptive power as they grow older. 



Permit me to use here a personal illustration, and pardon 

 the apparent egotism of an old gentleman who refers to his 

 youthful days. Thirty-three years ago I began the study of 

 medicine, having obtained tlie degree of bachelor of arts 

 after the usual classical course of those days. It so happens 

 that the smattering of Latin and Greek which I obtained has 

 been of great use to me, and I may, therefore, be a prejudiced 

 witness; but my acquaintance with many physicians at home 

 and abroad has led me to believe that the ordinary college 

 course in languages, mathematics, and literature is a very 

 good foundation for the study of medicine, and I do not 

 sympathize with those who demand that all who are to enter 

 on this study shall substitute scientific studies for all the 

 Greek and a part of the Latin of the usual course. This 

 change is good for some but not for all. I had attended 

 lectures in physics and chemistry, but had done no labora- 

 tory work, and I could read easy French and German. Thus 

 equipped I began to read anatomy, physiology, and the prin- 

 ciples of medicine. Nominally I had a preceptor, but I do 

 not think I saw him six times during the year which fol- 

 lowed, for I was teaching school in another State. Never- 

 theless, he told me what books to read, and I read them. 

 The next thing was to attend the prescribed two courses of 

 lectures in a medical college in Cincinnati. Each course 

 lasted about five months, and was precisely the same. There 

 was no laboratory course, and I began to attend clinical lec- 

 tures the first day of the first course. One result of this was 

 that I had to learn chemical manipulation, the practical use 

 of the microscope, etc., at a later period when it was much 

 more diificult. In fact, I may say that I have been studying 

 ever since to repair the deficiencies in my medical training, 

 and have never been able to catch up. 



Probably a large number of physicians over fifty years of 

 age have had much the same experience, and feel that there 

 are certain things, snch as the relations of trimethyloxyethy- 

 lene-ammonium hydroxide in the body, or the causation of 

 muscular contraction by migration of labile material between 

 the inotagmata, — the bearings and beauty of which might 

 as well be left to younger men. Not that these things are 

 specially diificult to understand, but they form part of a new 

 nomenclature which in most cases it is not worth the while 

 of the older men to learn, because it is far more difiicult for 

 them to master it tlian it is for their sons. One of the most 

 comfortable and satisfactory periods of a man's life is that 

 when he flrst distinctly and clearly recognizes that in certain 

 matters he is a helpless old fogy, and that he is not expected 

 to know anything about them. 



(To be continued.) 



EXPERIMENTAL POTATO FARMING. 



The question of the influence of different quafities of seed upon 

 the earliness and productiveness of a given variety of potatoes is 

 one that has been much discussed, and the following experimen- 

 tal planting was made at the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion to test the value of three qualities of seed. The seed of lot I. 

 was grown from a planting made in the middle of March, and 

 harvested and stored in the cellar as they ripened. The potatoes 

 had sprouteu badly during the winter, and were a good deal 



