October 13, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



461 



for the practitioner. A time came, how- 

 ever, when many discoveries in nature's 

 processes were made and great leaders 

 arose. Those leaders precipitated, as it 

 were, long suspended and hitherto unper- 

 eeived elements of knowledge so that 

 orderly truth seemed to crystallize in the 

 twinkling of an eye out of what had ap- 

 peared hitherto but a cloudy mass of facts. 

 Men of this class are not born in every gen- 

 eration ; in none are they numerous. Theirs 

 are the master minds. In a strict sense 

 these men are pupils of no masters, but at 

 first they stand alone in expounding new 

 theories. Such men as Virchow, Darwin, 

 Pasteur, Metehnikoff and Ehrlich laid 

 the foundation of rational medicine and 

 brought into the curriculum the considera- 

 tion of a vast number of topics unknown 

 to their predecessors. These subjects could 

 not be taught by word of mouth only, and 

 consequently laboratories with delicate and 

 expensive apparatus supplemented lec- 

 tures, and clinics with a great array of 

 instruments of precision were substituted 

 for cases in private practise. Again, to 

 understand the meaning and to profit by 

 these aids the student must be prepared by 

 a training in and a knowledge of the basic 

 sciences. These changes have come about 

 in less than a half century and the lives of 

 men now living span this great epoch- 

 making period. 



"With the introduction of new subjects 

 and new methods of teaching, the cost of 

 instruction increased. The schools without 

 the equipment can not meet their obliga- 

 tions, nor can they procure the equipment 

 and provide the instruction with the fees 

 that students pay. This is an important 

 fact in higher and professional education 

 everywhere. Many elements enter into 

 this increased cost, the most important of 

 which are expensive equipment and the 

 inability to teach large classes or sections 



of students and the consequent necessity 

 of providing for units of small numbers. 

 The budgets of our large imiversities show 

 that it actually costs for every student from 

 two to three times as much as the highest 

 tuition charged, and when the maximum 

 efficiency is attained the expense will be 

 much greater than at present. Recently 

 the president of one of our best technical 

 universities told me that it cost them $450 

 a year for every man they graduated. It 

 costs our best medical schools from $500 to 

 $1,000 and some of them more a year for 

 every student, and no thoughtful person 

 will assert that efficient veterinary educa- 

 tion will cost much if any less. The college 

 which I have the honor to represent ex- 

 pends over $300 annually for every student 

 in addition to the cost of instruction in 

 histology, embryology, chemistry and ani- 

 mal husbandry given by the university, 

 and even with this outlay my heart and 

 head are sorely troubled to satisfy the 

 reasonable demands of the faculty for as- 

 sistance and equipment with the funds 

 available. 



The difficulties involve not only ques- 

 tions of financial support, but also efficient 

 methods for teaching the newer subjects. 

 It often seems that in the development of 

 efficient educational systems the greatest 

 difficulty is the formulation of methods and 

 the enlistment of suitable men for teachers. 

 Some years ago I accepted a position carry- 

 ing with it the responsibility of teaching 

 pathology and bacteriology in a veterinary 

 college. I went from a research laboratory 

 where I had grown up with the technique 

 and knowledge of certain phases of the 

 subjects. I labored, as have many others, 

 under the delusion that the essential ele- 

 ments could be easily taught. There was 

 no difficulty in securing the interest of the 

 students, but the pangs of disappointment 

 were mine when these same interested men 



