NOVEMBEE 1, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



601 



rigid standard of entrance examinations could 

 be lived up to, provided these were so to be 

 gauged as to provide not only for admission 

 from tbe government schools conducted under 

 American auspices and giving a grade of in- 

 struction parallel to that in the United States, 

 but also from a number of academies and col- 

 leges under ecclesiastical control. The en- 

 trance examinations for the first year were 

 therefore conducted so as to secure for us a 

 very good class of students, some of them 

 perhaps not the equal of our own high school 

 graduates in certain branches of study, but all 

 of them with suf&cient training of one kind or 

 another to enable them successfully to carry 

 on their medical studies. It seemed impossible 

 to secure students on examination for the ad- 

 vanced years, as our courses of study would 

 be so different from the ones which had been 

 conducted in the ecclesiastical medical school 

 existing in the Philippine Islands, that it 

 would be hopeless to exjiect candidates to pass 

 the same questions as would be submitted to 

 our own scholars; consequently, the faculty 

 decided it to be advisable to admit to the ad- 

 vanced classes only special students not candi- 

 dates for a degree, and to permit the lattei 

 gradually to become regular upon passing the 

 examinations at the end of each college year. 



The government approved of the above 

 plans, and to enable the school to establish the 

 first four years of its five years' course, it ap- 

 propriated the sum of $64,000 United States 

 currency to meet the ordinary expenses of 

 equipment and salaries. A temporary build- 

 ing was assigned to the faculty, which wa^s-- 

 fitted up to serve fairly well for two years, the 

 laboratories being those of chemistry, anatomy, 

 bacteriology and pathology, clinical micro- 

 scopy, histology, physiology and pharmacology. 

 In addition to this appropriation there also 

 were provided fifty additional free beds in St. 

 ' Paul's hospital, so that the number at the dis- 

 posal of the school for clinical purposes in the 

 first year will be one hundred. Rooms were 

 also prepared for an out-of-door, free dispen- 

 sary in the same hospital building. The mem- 

 bers of the civil government who were to teach 

 in the Philippine Medical School accepted 



their positions without additional remunera- 

 tion, so that the expenses for salaries were only 

 to pay members of the faculty not otherwise 

 engaged in government work. 



As soon as the funds were available, the 

 necessary microscopes and apparatus for a 

 thoroughly modern equipment were ordered 

 from abroad and the entrance examinations 

 were held on June 10. The school began its 

 first year with fifty-four matriculates and it 

 must be confessed that the standard of work 

 among the students in the first three months 

 has been very high. The school was able to 

 secure the services of Dr. Kobert Bennett 

 Bean in anatomy and Dr. Philip K. Gillman 

 in pathology, but as yet has not called any in- 

 cumbent to the chairs of physiology and 

 pharmacology. 



As soon as the temporary quarters were 

 occupied and instruction was being carried on 

 systematically, the faculty began to plan for 

 its new medical building and for a general 

 hospital, the staff of which should be the mem- 

 bers of the faculty of the school. The govern- 

 ment, realizing the necessity of these improve- 

 ments has appropriated $125,000 for the Medi- 

 cal School building and $390,000 for a gen- 

 eral hospital of 350 beds. These permanent 

 structures insure the future of the medical 

 school, and will in all probability be occupied 

 within the next eighteen months. 



The establishment of this medical school ia 

 one of the greatest steps recently made in the 

 advance,jef-^he American government. The 

 CTeafoenefits to be derived from the obstetrical 

 ward and our out-door clinic alone would war- 

 rant the outlay, as we strongly hope soon 

 thereby to exert a marked influence upon the 

 alarmingly high infant mortality in the 

 Philippines. The graduates of the school in 

 a few years will also begin to make their 

 presence felt. The American physician has 

 never been able to reach the common people in 

 the same way as the native, and the missionary 

 work of a good number of well educated native 

 physicians in the matter of hygiene and 

 public health can not be underestimated. 



The training and character of the members 

 of the faculty render it certain that their 



