JANUAKY 14, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



57 



surgical research for the aid of its special 

 skill in peculiarly difScult operative pro- 

 cedures, on the department of pathology 

 for cooperation in problems demanding the 

 methods of immunology and frequently on 

 the department of physiological chemistry 

 for cooperative assistance in technical pro- 

 cedure. On the other hand, we have 

 given assistance in the solution of their 

 problems to the departments of medicine, 

 neurology, surgery and obstetrics. In the 

 case of each of the departments named the 

 cooperation has been successful inasmuch 

 as the combined efforts at investigation 

 have resulted in the publication of material 

 of benefit to the departments interested. 

 It has been our experience, moreover, that 

 the presence of departments for research^ 

 stimulates among the workers in various 

 other branches much discussion of border- 

 line problems, with the result that the 

 presence of one or more groups of men, 

 giving their time entirely to research, en- 

 courages doubtful or difficult ventures in 

 investigation that the teacher with his many 

 duties and limited time for research would 

 not attempt without the assistance of a 

 department interested in research only. 

 This is particularly true of the average 

 busy clinical teacher whose hazy views on 

 some theory or problem occasionally sug- 

 gest a workable basis for orientative ex- 

 perimentation. "With such views, in that 

 they do not always concretely set the 

 problem, the workers in the fundamental 

 sciences of medicine are usually somewhat 

 impatient. When, however, a department 

 for the general investigation of disease 

 exists, it can afford, in the hope of securing 

 better cooperation with the clinical side of 

 medicine, to sift and analyze sxich sugges- 

 tions, and if a possibility of profitable in- 



6 This refers not only to the department under 

 discussion, but as well to the department of surgical 

 research under the direction of Dr. J. E. Sweet. 



vestigation, or of definitely settling a moot 

 point, is seen, it is justified in utilizing a 

 certain amount of its time and funds in 

 thus assisting the clinical department. 

 And if in so doing it can persuade members 

 of these departments to actively cooperate 

 in the solution of the problems under con- 

 sideration, and thus stimulate the spirit of 

 exact investigation it is doing as much, if 

 not more, for research and the development 

 of clinical medicine than it would by re- 

 stricting its efforts to the hard and fast 

 lines of fundamental problems. 



This cooperative work with other depart- 

 ments, valuable as it is, is, however, as a 

 rule more or less incidental and without 

 definite responsibility on the part of either 

 party concerned. It does not represent 

 sustained cooperative effort, but rather 

 the coming together of two departments 

 when mutual need arises. "We have, how- 

 ever, with one department, that of the 

 theory and practice of medicine, developed 

 a community of interest and definitely co- 

 operative effort which we regard as a most 

 important experiment in medical education. 

 Three years ago an agreement was en- 

 tered into with the professor of medicine 

 (Dr. Alfred Stengel), and largely at his 

 suggestion, by which it was provided that 

 the two associates most intimately con- 

 cerned with him in the teaching of students 

 and the care of patients in the university 

 hospital, should give half their time to in- 

 vestigation in the department of research 

 medicine. In other words, two men in- 

 timately connected with the fundamental 

 instruction in clinical medicine were to 

 devote their mornings to the teaching of 

 students and the care of patients and their 

 afternoons to fundamental research in a 

 laboratory independent of the hospital. In 

 the absence of the "full time" plan in the 

 clinical departments of the school this 

 seemed an experiment with "full time" 



