462 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 667 



make it possible for the student to begin 

 a higher grade of work immediately after 

 entering the medical school. At the pres- 

 ent time most of our medical schools teach 

 the elements of biology, chemistry and 

 physics, and it is probably no exaggeration 

 to say that two thirds of the time of the 

 medical freshman is taken up with work 

 which may be, or in fact should be, done 

 elsewhere, and better, too. 



It was this consideration which led our 

 committee to outline in a general way what 

 should be covered in the several prelimi- 

 nary courses. It will be seen that the sug- 

 gested exercises in biology cover work 

 which would serve as a beginning in his- 

 tology and physiology as well as in com- 

 parative anatomy; the chemistry work 

 would cover that given in our usual medi- 

 cal freshman year, while the courses in 

 physics would take the place of work now 

 given in a perfunctory way in many of 

 our medical schools, but which is becoming 

 every year more and more necessary as the 

 many relations of this fundamental science 

 to medicine become more and more tan- 

 gible. 



A modern German classification divides 

 physiology into the two groups of studies 

 comprised under the titles of bio-chemistry 

 on the one hand, and bio-physics on the 

 other. A glance through any one of the 

 larger manuals of physiology in use in our 

 medical schools discloses a justification of 

 this division, and suggests also the desira- 

 bility of relegating much matter from the 

 class-ro'om in physiology to the class-room 

 in physics. Besides this, it is becoming 

 evident that modern pathology is making 

 every day wider inroads not only into the 

 fields of chemistry, but also into the domain 

 of physics, and taking all things together, 

 the committee felt that it was not going 

 too far in calling for the amount of physics 

 suggested in the circular letter. No ex- 

 planation of any length was made in refer- 



ence to the language work, as little difft- 

 eulty from this direction was expected. 



EESULTS OBTAINED 



Now as to the results. The replies re- 

 ceived were 215, of which the larger num- 

 ber were plain and satisfactory; a few 

 were not as clear as might be desired, from 

 which it follows that a perfectly sharp 

 classification can not be made from the 

 data secured. But the results are close 

 enough for the present purpose. Sixteen 

 of the answers came from state universi- 

 ties, 8 from agricultural and technical 

 schools and 191 from other institutions, 

 some of which include the best-known col- 

 leges and universities in the country. The 

 replies from 15 of the state universities and 

 from 7 of the agricultural and technical 

 schools showed a good general agreement 

 with our proposed courses of study. The 

 replies from 78 other institutions were also 

 favorable, although it appears likely in a 

 few cases that the schools in question have 

 not the facilities for properly doing the 

 work called for. On the other hand, about 

 30 well-known institutions made replies 

 which could not be looked on as wholly 

 favorable. 



The situation in some of the older schools 

 seems to be best expressed by the comments 

 made by President Hadley of Yale, . as 

 follows : 



The demand for places in our undergraduate 

 courses is so far in excess of what we can readily 

 meet that we can hardly arrange to take men for 

 one year, with a view of letting them leave us at 

 the end of that time. We must, I think, arrange 

 our courses for men who expect to stay longer. 



In this list along with Yale we must place 

 Cornell, Princeton, Trinity, WiUiams, 

 Lafayette, Union, Tufts, Vanderbilt, Bow- 

 doin, Oberliu, Hamilton, Amherst, Syra- 

 cuse and others of known rank. It is evi- 

 dent that the schemes of instruction iij 

 these schools are not flexible enough to 



