628 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1035 



cine from the point of view of their rich, per- 

 sonal experience. 



The fourth group, the volunteer assistants, 

 should consist of younger men of ability of 

 the practitioners' class. Officially they should 

 work with and under the last-named group of 

 teachers, but suitable men should be admitted 

 for special purposes to the laboratories of the 

 scientific staff. Under certain proper circum- 

 stances one or the other man of this group may 

 be appointed to the staff of scientific assist- 

 ants. The appointment of volunteer assist- 

 ants should be for two years, and if after one 

 reappointment they are not found deserving 

 of advancement to the regular staff, they 

 should not be reappointed. 



As far as teaching is concerned, all parts 

 should work as a unit, regulated chiefly by the 

 head of the department. 



The necessity for reappointment will serve, 

 as stated above, as a valuable controlling fac- 

 tor; the power of appointment and reappoint- 

 ^saent should therefore be exercised with great 

 'care. I would suggest the following distribu- 

 "'tion of power. Heads of departments and full 

 iprofessors should be appointed, or reappointed, 

 hs the university; all other members of the 

 staff should be appointed or advanced by the 

 members of the medical faculty. In appoint- 

 ing and reappointing scientific assistants the 

 head of the department should have at least 

 three votes. 



A head of a department who does not wish 

 a reappointment, or is not reappointed, after 

 ten years' service, shall have the right to be 

 transferred to the practical department with 

 the title professor — unless there are potent 

 reasons against such a transfer. This, in 

 ■conjunction with the privilege of having some 

 private consultations at his own time during 

 his occupancy of the headship, will compen- 

 sate the head of a clinical department for the 

 failure to obtain an appointment for life. 



As to the relations of hospitals to the teach- 

 ing department I can be briefer. There must 

 be one hospital which is devoted exclusively to 

 the teaching and study of clinical branches of 

 medicine. While it may have laymen as trus- 

 tees and a medical superintendent with the 



necessary clerical staff for the conduction of 

 the business of the hospital, the actual man- 

 agement of its inside affairs should be exclu- 

 sively in the hands of the medical faculty, and 

 the inside affairs of each department should 

 be exclusively or essentially in the hands of its 

 head. This hospital should not have many 

 private rooms for well-to-do patients, and, as 

 stated above, they should not be used for pri- 

 vate patients of the head of the department or 

 any other member of the faculty. The income 

 derived from the treatment of well-to-do pa- 

 tients in private rooms should go to the funds 

 of tlie hospital. 



There ought to be at least one other hos- 

 pital at the disposal of the medical school 

 which may have many private rooms. Here 

 the practical staff of the school will teach at 

 the bedside — in addition to their right to send 

 patients to and teach at the school hospital — 

 and here the consultants and practitioners be- 

 longing to the school may treat their private 

 patients in the private rooms. 



The students of medicine will have then a 

 chance of learning predominantly modern 

 scientific medicine at the one, and predomi- 

 nantly practical medicine with a mixture of 

 art at the other, hospital. He will then be able 

 to make his selection as to his future career, 

 according to his natural inclinations and pre- 

 ceding impressions, whether it be scientific 

 medicine with its elevating atmosphere, or ac- 

 tive practise and all that goes with it. 



S. J. Meltzer 



eockefelleb institute for 

 Medical Eeseaech 



BESEABCS AND TEACHING IN THE UNI- 

 VEESITY-^ 



1. No verifiable evidence has been published 

 which proves how research affects the quality 

 of university and college instruction. 



2. I believe that research work usually im- 

 proves the teaching of the instructor, both in 

 the subject in which the research is conducted 



1 Answers to twenty-one questions addressed to 

 the writer by Messrs. William H. Allen and E. C. 

 Branson, directors of a survey appointed to re- 

 port on the work of the University of Wisconsin. 



