July S, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



45 



with the University of Missouri at Colum- 

 bia ; with that they ought to be content for 

 the time being. 



2. The middle Atlantic states comprise 

 for our purpose New Tork, New Jersey, 

 Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and the 

 District of Columbia. Their population 

 grows at the rate of 300,000 annually, for 

 whom 200 doctors can care; 230 more 

 would fill one half the vacancies arising 

 through death: a total of 430 needed. 

 Available universities are situated in New 

 York City, Syracuse, Philadelphia, Pitts- 

 burgh, Baltimore. The situation is in 

 every respect ideal ; the universities located 

 at New Tork, Philadelphia and Baltimore 

 are strong and prosperous; those of Syra- 

 cuse and Pittsburgh, though less developed, 

 give good promise. Without sacrifice of a 

 single detail, these five university towns 

 can not only support medical schools for 

 the section, but also to no small extent 

 relieve less favored spots. The schools of 

 Albany, Buffalo, Brooklyn, Washington,^ 

 would, on this plan, disappear — certainly 

 until academic institutions of proper cal- 

 iber had been developed. Whether even in 

 the event of their creation they should for 

 some years endeavor to cultivate medicine 

 is quite doiibtful. Appreciation of what 

 is involved in the undertaking might well 

 give them pause. Meanwhile, within the 

 university towns already named there 

 would be much to do : better state laws are 

 needed in order to exterminate the worst 

 schools; merger or liquidation must bring 

 together many of those that still survive. 

 The section under consideration ought in- 

 deed to lead the union; but the indepen- 

 dent schools of New Tork and Pennsyl- 

 vania are powerful enough to prove a 

 stubborn obstacle to any progressive move- 



^ Except Howard University, which, patronized 

 by the government, is admirably located for the 

 medical education of the negro. 



ment, however clearly in the public in- 

 terest. 



3. Greater unevenness must be tolerated 

 in the south;" proprietary schools or nom- 

 inal university departments will doubtless 

 survive longer there than in other parts of 

 the country because of the financial weak- 

 ness of both endowed and tax-supported 

 institutions. All the more important, 

 therefore, for universities to deal with the 

 subject in a large spirit, avoiding overlap- 

 ping and duplication. An institution may 

 well be glad to be absolved from responsibil- 

 ities that some other is better fitted to meet. 

 Tulane and Vanderbilt, for example, are 

 excellently situated in respect to medical 

 education ; the former has already a con- 

 siderable endowment applicable to medi- 

 cine. The state universities of Louisiana 

 and Tennessee may therefore resign medi- 

 cine to these endowed institutions, grateful 

 for the opportunity to cultivate other fields. 

 Every added superfluous school weakens 

 the whole by wasting money and scattering 

 the eligible student body. None of the 

 southern state universities, indeed, is wisely 

 placed: Texas has no alternative but a 

 remote department, such as it now supports 

 at Galveston ; Georgia will one day develop 

 a university medical school at Atlanta; 

 Alabama, at Birmingham — the university 

 being close by, at Tuscaloosa. The Uni- 

 versity of Virginia is repeating Ann Arbor 

 at Charlottesville; whether it would do 

 better to operate a remote department at 

 Richmond or Norfolk, the future will deter- 

 mine. Six schools are thus provided:^ 

 they are sufficient to the needs of the sec- 

 tion just now. The resources available 

 even for their support are as yet painfully 



" The south includes eleven states, viz., Virginia, 

 Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Flor- 

 ida, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, 

 Arkansas, Texas. 



' A seventh, Meharry, at Nashville, must be 

 included for the medical education of the negro. 



