January 14, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



61 



The failure is due to the demands of an 

 overcrowded inflexible curriculum and an 

 inadequate elective system. During only 

 one trimester, a period of a little more thau 

 ten weeks, in the fourth year, has the 

 undergraduate any freedom in the choice 

 of work and in this period the total of 

 hours that may be given to purely elective 

 work is so small that sustained investiga- 

 tive work is impossible. A few enthusiastic 

 students have occasionally attempted to 

 utilize Saturday afternoons and odd hours 

 during the week, but with, as was to be ex- 

 pected, no very definite results. As a mat- 

 ter of fact, during the five years the de- 

 partment has been in existence only one 

 piece of work by students, deserving of pub- 

 lication, has been completed, and this rep- 

 resented student labors during a summer 

 vacation period. The summer climate of 

 Philadelphia, however, is not conducive to 

 close laboratory work and students desir- 

 ing medical work in the summer are in- 

 clined to seek fields demanding less ardu- 

 ous efforts than those of the research lab- 

 oratory. 



Our experience, then, has demonstrated 

 the futility, in the absence of a liberal elec- 

 tive system, of attempting to interest stu- 

 dents in independent investigation. Our 

 present attitude is to recommend to those 

 seeking such that they take the special 

 elective courses which we have already de- 

 scribed. These at least give a first-hand 

 knowledge of experimental methods and 

 some idea of the problems of medicine, and 

 this is about all that can be accomplished 

 in the small amount of time our students 

 have for elective work. 



The situation in regard to the practi- 

 tioner of medicine is quite diiferent. Dur- 

 ing the five-year period under analysis, 

 about fifteen practitioners have entered 

 the department for the purpose of carry- 

 ing on definite investigative work, and of 



these, nine, either working alone or in col- 

 laboration with members of the regular 

 staff, carried to completion a total of fif- 

 teen researches. In part these researches 

 had a close relation to clinical methods and 

 problems, but in a number of instances they 

 were fundamental investigations in experi- 

 mental pathology. All these workers have 

 expressed the liveliest satisfaction at the 

 opportunity afforded them and in many in- 

 stances have continued an interest in the 

 research side of medicine. These were, for 

 the most part, younger men, with their 

 hospital interneship back of them, who 

 were starting the practise of medicine and 

 wished to divide their spare time between 

 dispensary and research work, or, as in 

 some instances, to devote it entirely to in- 

 vestigative work. We have felt that a de- 

 partment for research in medicine could 

 use its resources in no better way than to 

 encourage such aspirations and for this 

 reason every effort has been made to guar- 

 antee to these men accomplishment with- 

 out undue loss of time or effort in petty 

 routine work. Naturally such men do not 

 remain for any great length of time° be- 

 cause of the demands of practise, hospital, 

 dispensary and other clinical work, but if 

 they carry into the latter the spirit of the 

 investigator and utilize the hospital labora- 

 tory in the study of clinical problems, the 

 time and effort given in their behalf by the 

 research laboratory is not entirely lost. 

 If the progress of medicine depends, as we 

 like to think it does, upon the spirit of in- 

 vestigation, young men entering upon the 

 practise of medicine should devote a part 

 of the post-hospital period to methods of 

 exact observation and experiment, and if a 

 university possesses a department of re- 

 search in medicine, one of its first duties 



8 One man remained with us four years and 

 another two years: the others averaged about six 

 months each. 



