810 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1119 



Mem and the desire to make a trial of it. 

 Such a student will be very sorry when his 

 clerkship in the clinic comes to an end. 



"Were the time of undergraduate medical 

 study longer, the student could profit by at- 

 tending special courses on clinical medicine 

 in which a single group of diseases is inten- 

 sively treated, say those of the digestive 

 system, etc. Such courses should be offered 

 in every medical center. They should be 

 optional for medical students, not obli- 

 gatory, and should be opened to physicians 

 that apply to the medical clinic for "con- 

 tinuation courses." It may be that, some- 

 time, as Professor Ewing has advised, we 

 may add a fifth year to the medical curric- 

 ulum, in order that more of this training 

 may be given. 



During his first year of clinical work, the 

 student should study carefully a text-book 

 of clinical methods of investigation ; during 

 his second year of clinical work he should 

 study a good text-book of medical practise, 

 in which both the diagnosis and treatment 

 of internal diseases are dealt with. Such 

 texts replace, to a large extent, the formal 

 systematic lectures that formerly were 

 given on medicine in the medical schools. 



Above I have dealt only with the devel- 

 opment of the teaching of the science and 

 art of diagnosis. The teaching of clinical 

 medicine includes, of course, that of 

 therapy, and it, in my opinion, should be 

 taught in a similar way, that is to say, first 

 by a thorough education in the principles 

 and technical methods of therapy, general 

 and special; and, second, by first-hand ex- 

 perience in the application of these methods 

 to the actual treatment of patients during 

 the clinical clerkship. Unfortunately, the 

 medical wards of our hospitals are all too 

 often mere diagnostic institutes, unprepared 

 for the teaching and application of ther- 

 apeutics. It seems to me very desirable that 

 each university medical clinic should have 



associated with it, not only an institution 

 for clinical diagnosis, but also an institute 

 for therapy, in which the methods of mod- 

 ern therapy may be systematically taught 

 and applied. 



Lewellys F. Barker 

 The Johns Hopkins TJniversitt 



OUR UNIVERSITIES 1 



Such an organization as the American Phil- 

 osophical Society represents a body of men 

 who are keenly interested in the important 

 problems that confront our universities. In 

 my judgment, among the most significant 

 problems we are facing to-day are the follow- 

 ing: (1) the relation between instruction and 

 research; (2) the relation in research of pure 

 and applied science; and (3) the relation be- 

 tween university work and the modern com- 

 mercial doctrine of efficiency. I wish to 

 formulate a statement which wiU involve these 

 three questions. 



The research function of a university is its 

 greatest function. In biological terminology 

 it may be said to represent the central nervous 

 system of the university organism. It stimu- 

 lates and dominates every other function. It 

 makes the atmosphere of a university, even in 

 its undergraduate division, differ from that 

 of a college. It affects the whole attitude 

 toward subjects and toward life. This devo- 

 tion, not merely to the acquisition of knowl- 

 edge, but chiefly to the advancement of knowl- 

 edge for its own sake, is the peculiar posses- 

 sion of universities. 



This does not mean that teaching is not 

 also an important university function; but it 

 means rather that teaching is to be made most 

 effective in an atmosphere of research. The 

 university investigator not only lives on what 

 may be called the " firing line " of his subject, 

 but he is training group after group of re- 

 cruits to continue the conquest of the un- 

 known. To extend the boundaries of human 

 knowledge, and to multiply oneself in genera- 



1 Eesponse to the toast "Our Universities" 

 given at the annual banquet of the American Phil- 

 osophical Society, April 15, 1916. 



