14 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 679 



arise from the anomalous development of 

 the American college for many years, 

 making it, however admirable it may be 

 for certain educational uses, almost unad- 

 justable to the needs of professional edu- 

 cation. 



The preliminary requirement of the 

 bachelor's degree in arts or science should, 

 in my judgment, carry with it the specifica- 

 tion of collegiate laboratory training in 

 physics, chemistry and biology, with a read- 

 ing knowledge of French and German. 

 These requirements have been in successful 

 operation in the medical department of the 

 Johns Hopkins University since its founda- 

 tion in 1893, their adoption being necessi- 

 tated by the acceptance of the terms of 

 Miss Garrett's gift of endowment. We are 

 satisfied with the working of these require- 

 ments and would not lower them if we 

 could, but it must be conceded that, while 

 there is room for medical schools with these 

 standards, the country is not ripe for their 

 general adoption. The medical depart- 

 ment of Cornell University has recently 

 announced the intention to introduce sim- 

 ilar requirements, and the Harvard Uni- 

 versity Medical School demands the bach- 

 elor's degree without the other require- 

 ments mentioned. 



In order to meet the objection that the 

 average age of graduation from our colleges 

 is at least two years beyond that at which 

 professional study usually begins in Eu- 

 rope, various attempts have been made to 

 truncate the college course or to telescope a 

 quarter to a half of it into the period of 

 professional study, making one course of 

 study count for two degrees. Manifest 

 objections and embarrassments attend all 

 of these attempts to find a suitable stop^ 

 ping place between the high school and the 

 end of the college course. The plan adopt- 

 ed in this university to demarcate with 

 some sharpness the first two years of the 

 college course from the remainder and to 



exact the completion of these two years of 

 study as the requirement preliminary to 

 the study of medicine has much to recom- 

 mend it under existing conditions. I learn 

 from the last report of the Council on Med- 

 ical Education of the American Medical 

 Association that one medical school, the 

 medical department of Western Reserve 

 University, demands as a prerequisite to 

 the study of medicine three years of study 

 in a college of arts or science, sixteen re- 

 quire two years of collegiate study, eleven 

 of these schools being in the middle west 

 or west, and thirty-one require one year, 

 of these, nineteen being in the middle west 

 or west. 



The Council on Medical Education just 

 mentioned, of which Dr. Bevan is the ener- 

 getic and efficient chairman, has entered as 

 a strong force for the elevation of standards 

 of medical education in this country, and, 

 while it has not the power of the British 

 General Medical Council to make effective 

 its recommendations, it can exert a most 

 beneficial influence. It is significant that 

 at its first conference, held in 1905, it 

 recommended as the minimum preliminary 

 requirement to be generally adopted by 

 our medical schools an education sufficient 

 to enable the student to enter the freshman 

 class of a recognized college of arts or a 

 university, and now it recommends that in 

 1910 to this shall be added a year's study 

 of physics, chemistry and biology, with one 

 modern language, preferably German. The 

 time has gone by when it is necessary to 

 emphasize before an audience such as this 

 the importance of laboratory training in 

 physics, chemistry and general biology as 

 fundamental to the successful study of 

 medicine. 



While it is not feasible to exact the pre- 

 liminary study of the ancient classics, save 

 some acquaintance with Latin, I feel that 

 they are of value to the physician and that 

 a liberal education and broad culture raise 



