Apbil 22, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



607 



your powers of observation, of noticing 

 similarities and differences, and of describ- 

 ing what you see, learning to use the scalpel 

 and the microscope; but you also store 

 your mind with a knowledge of facts, proc- 

 esses and methods which will later be of 

 direct value to you in the study of medi- 

 cine. It would be hard for you to realize 

 how much time is lost in teaching medical 

 students these methods of study which 

 each one of you should acquire with- 

 out unusual effort in your college course. 

 It is sometimes said of the work in col- 

 lege that it is not so much the things 

 you learn as the knowledge of how to 

 learn which is valuable to the student 

 in after life. I think this statement con- 

 veys a false impression. It seems to me 

 that the college student preparing him- 

 self for the study of medicine can not only 

 learn how to study to the greatest advan- 

 tage, but that he can also store his mind 

 with facts and principles which will be of 

 enormous value to him. I believe that the 

 mind should be regarded in part as a store- 

 house of facts, which can be drawn upon 

 in emergency like a balance in the bank. 

 I have never heard any one question the 

 utility of a bank balance unless perchance 

 it was too large! Another advantage to 

 the medical student of the study of biol- 

 ogy in college is that it familiarizes him 

 with animal life in its simplest forms be- 

 fore he begins to study it in its most com- 

 plex form as evinced in man. By such 

 study he is enabled to take a bird's eye 

 view, as it were, of his subject before he de- 

 votes himself to its intimate study. It is 

 like studying the map of a city before we 

 explore the city. 



Second to the study of biology, in its 

 importance to the medical student, I should 

 rank physics. No one can properly under- 

 stand the various processes of the human 

 body who does not possess a knowledge of 



physics. Everything we do, everything we 

 say, everything we think and everything 

 that goes on within us is due to physical 

 cause, and a knowledge of these underly- 

 ing physical principles is absolutely essen- 

 tial to a knowledge of medicine. I rank 

 physics second to biology only because 

 some knowledge of physics must of neces- 

 sity be included in a knowledge of biology. 



Third on my list of collateral studies 

 comes chemistry. A knowledge of chem- 

 istry is of absolute necessity to the medical 

 student because it deals with the composi- 

 tion of everything he comes in contact 

 with. Before he can study material things 

 to advantage he must know of what they 

 are composed. So important is chemistry 

 that it is taught in the different degrees in 

 every medical school in the country, but it 

 would be of the greatest advantage to the 

 prospective medical student if he could ob- 

 tain a good general knowledge of organic 

 and inorganic chemistry, including quali- 

 tative and quantitative analysis, before he 

 entered the medical school; it would give 

 him extra time for his purely medical 

 studies, and it would enable him to master 

 more easily his biological and medical 

 chemistry. Chemistry, as you know, has 

 a language of its own and a great saving 

 of time is made if the language alone is 

 acquired. 



Fourth in importance in the list of col- 

 lateral studies is Latin, important to med- 

 ical men because it is the language of the 

 scholar and because medical men should 

 be preeminently scholars. The language of 

 medicine is essentially derived from the 

 classics; every bone and every muscle, 

 every artery and every vein; every nerve 

 and every organ is described in terms of 

 classical derivation. So also are all the 

 drugs, and even our prescriptions are 

 written in Latin, though the Latin in some 

 instances would give Cicero a surprise he 



