464 



SCIENCE 



[ N. iS. Vol. XXVI. No. 607 



who are expected to devote a good fraction 

 of their time to athletics aud fraternity 

 interests can not carry such courses, but 

 we are far from believing that the present 

 tendency in these matters in some of our 

 schools is a desirable one or one which may 

 be expected to persist. 



The writers of many of the replies re- 

 ceived by us seem to assume that tjie pro- 

 posed preliminary science course is the 

 work of medical practitioners who have 

 devoted but little time to the study of 

 working conditions, and further that the 

 courses involve difficult or advanced scien- 

 tific studies. Both notions are absurdly 

 wrong and it is evident that the presidents 

 of a few of the colleges are not very 

 familiar with the work of our active medi- 

 cal men on the one hand, or with ele- 

 mentary scientific studies on the other. It 

 may be added that the members of our com- 

 mittee are not practitioners of medicine, 

 but we have dra.A\m many valuable sug- 

 gestions from practitioners as well as from 

 teachers. 



This work may call for more than one 

 year's time from many students who at- 

 tempt it, we admit, but that it is really 

 more than can be accomplished in one j^ear 

 is not to be admitted yet. Any one who is 

 familiar with science teaching will recog- 

 nize that we have here merely the elements 

 of such work, and it is a fact well known 

 to many of us who have dealt with medical 

 students for a number of years that some 

 of the state universities actually give such 

 courses,', and successfully, to freshman 

 students. 



Our committee has been accused of advo- 

 cating a departure from an ' ' ideal ' ' course. 

 We have admitted all the time that the 

 scheme is not perfect, but we are concerned 

 with the practical question of what we can 

 get, rather than with what we should like 

 to have. I firmly believe that the difficulty 

 is not so much with our proposed course 



as with the ideas which obtain in some 

 quarters as to what is a fair amount of 

 work for a young freshman who has com- 

 pleted four years of study in a good high 

 school. I believe that with such a training 

 honestly completed our schedule may be 

 carried through in another year of college 

 work. "With this as a beginning, possibly 

 in time a second year may be added to the 

 requirement. 



But the point of importance is the 

 amount of work and not the name. The 

 Council on Medical Education has spoken 

 of it as a preliminary year, but if it ac- 

 tually calls for more than that time the 

 student should be required to spend it, 

 since it seems that little .short of this would 

 answer as a preparation for modern medi- 

 cine. That the applicant for entrance to 

 the medical school has this minimum 

 amount of knowledge should be deter- 

 mined through the examinations of an in- 

 dependent board, and not through the 

 professional school, or by certificate of the 

 college or preparatory school. We all 

 know what siich entrance examinations 

 amount to, and an important step forward, 

 will be taken when the right to enter upon 

 the study of medicine, as well as the right 

 to practise is passed upon by authorities 

 other than the college faculties. The 

 standard in such entrance examinations 

 should be made as uniform as possible for 

 the whole country, and to aid in bringing 

 about such a desirable situation is one of 

 the objects of the present movement. 



J. H. Long 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



Pragmatism, a Neiv Name for Some Old Ways 

 of Thinking: Popular Lectures on Phi- 

 losophy. By William James. New York, 

 Longmans, Green and Co. 1907. Pp. 

 xiii -f 310. 

 Tron de I'air! as I used to hear the Gascons 



of the Quartier exclaim, long ere I knew of 



