December 29, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



875 



shields. The chief point is that certain shields 

 are squeezed out, or suppressed by their enlarging 

 neighbors. The ultimate result is the formation 

 of fewer but larger shields.^ 



Can these words be intended figuratively, 

 the reference being to phylogenetic develop- 

 ment, not to ' orthogenetic variation,' with all 

 that that term, as defined by Gadow, implies? 

 If so, the cross reference on a later page is 

 certainly misleading: for in his discussion of 

 the variations of Thalassochelys caretta, he 

 says: 



The interesting fact in connection with these 

 variations is, moreover, that some of the shields 

 are mtich smaller than the others, sometimes mere 

 vestiges in all stages of gradual suppression, and 

 that the abnormalities are much more common in 

 babies and small specimens than in adults. 

 The importance of these ' orthogenetic variations ' 

 has been discussed on p. 326.^ 



Egbert E. Coker. 



Johns Hopkins University, 

 November 28, 1905. 



ON THE GRANTING OF THE M.D. DEGREE. 



A SHORT time ago I received a letter from a 

 member of a state board of medical examiners 

 which touches upon a matter of present in- 

 terest. 



The letter, from which I shall quote, was 

 in reply to one giving information respecting 

 courses in this college designed for students 

 ■who have the study of medicine in view. 



After remarking that in his state the raed- 

 ical examiners had decided to give one year's 

 credit to graduates of colleges, provided cer- 

 tain subjects in biology, chemistry and physics 

 had been pursued in the college course, he 

 proceeds as follows: 



The fact is that many of the colleges teach these 

 branches better than the average medical school. 

 Any ordinary high school boy can enter the med- 

 ical department of the university. Yet, they are 

 not willing to give a year's credit to men who 

 take four years beyond their entrance requirement. 

 The confederation of state medical boards is 

 divided on the question. So long as the average 

 medical school admits high school graduates, I 

 shall stand for giving one year's time to men who 



^Loc. cit., p. 326. 

 "Loc. cit., p. 388. 



take a college course. Or, in other words, seven 

 years for the combined medical and college course. 

 Not six years as proposed by Michigan, provided 

 men take both 'courses at Ann Arbor. The seven 

 years seem to me to be only fair play as an en- 

 couragement to the higher education. 



What I wish to write you about in particular, 

 is this: The present regulation is not to give the 

 college men any time credit. The plan originates 

 with medical schools in universities where they 

 have also an arts department. They do allow the 

 medical and college course to be completed in six 

 years instead of eight, but it requires men to go 

 to their college department. Now there are sev- 

 eral medical schools requiring a straight B.S. or 

 A.B. degree for entrance, such as Johns Hopkins, 

 Harvard, and Rush in 1907. If men going from 

 colleges * * * will all go to schools requiring 

 the A.B. or B.S. entrance requirement, it will do 

 more to help iis to bring the medical schools into 

 line than anything I know of at present. It seems 

 to me the professors in these colleges should bring 

 every pressure to bear on their prospective med- 

 ical students to get them to go to the medical 

 schools only that require degrees for entrance. 



Upon the question of requiring either the 

 IB.A. or the B.S. degree as a preliminary to a 

 medical course it is not my purpose to speak 

 further than to say that I do not think the 

 time has come in this country to make such 

 requirement, unless upon the completion of 

 such course the degree M.D. is to be given. 



President Hadley has this to say on the 

 general subject of requirements for admission 

 to the professional schools of Yale: 



However convenient it might be to insist on the 

 possession of a bachelor's degree by all pupils in 

 the schools of law or medicine, I feel that it 

 would be a violation of our duty to these pro- 

 fessions to hedge ourselves about by any such 

 artificial limitations. We should make the stand- 

 ard of admission to our law and medical schools 

 higher than it is at present; but we should base 

 it upon qualifications for professional study which 

 we could test by an examination, rather than 

 upon previous residence at an institution entitled 

 to give a bachelor's degree. If a man is really fit 

 to study law or rnedicine we should encourage him 

 to study law or medicine with us, without making 

 arbitrary restrictions. 



No one will be likely to question the wisdom 

 of President Hadley's remarks, provided the 



