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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 880 



they dispense knowledge after the manner 

 of the "quiek-luneh" counter. 



On the contrary, no better reward can 

 come to the conscientious instructor than 

 in the very apparent, although verbally 

 unexpressed, appreciativeness on the part 

 of the class of his efforts to give the best 

 that is in him. This success may be at- 

 tained by giving the greatest amount of 

 personal attention to the class as individ- 

 uals, combined with general criticism, dem- 

 onstration and sharp questioning concern- 

 ing the occurrence of phenomena in the 

 course of close objective study. It is quite 

 remarkable how frequently a class of seem- 

 ing mediocrity may be spurred on to good 

 and reasonable endeavor by carefully ap- 

 plied methods for stimulating mental proc- 

 esses and awakening latent powers of ob- 

 servation. This leads usually to a develop- 

 ment of a healthy independence of mind 

 which is far removed from that mental type 

 that is content with a senseless cramming- 

 up of oftentimes dissociated bookish state- 

 ments of facts. 



Of the utmost importance is the attain- 

 ment of that open manifestation in the 

 student body of the fruits of a careful labo- 

 ratory training upon entrance on the clin- 

 ical period of study. For then it is that 

 the ready aid of an alert and reasoning 

 mind and a keen power of observation is so 

 necessary to the student, if he is to success- 

 fully solve the thousand and one enigmas 

 to be met daily in the dispensary classes 

 and ward rounds. The effects of a train- 

 ing such as has been described are destined 

 to last him throughout his career either as 

 an investigator or a practising physician. 



There may be some present who will be 

 inclined to disagree with me on this state- 

 ment; who already feel that our students 

 are so crammed full of "science" that the 

 laboratory training unfits them for ac- 

 quiring a due appreciation of clinical view- 



points and methods. In fact, I have heard 

 it time and again expressed, "We don't 

 want to turn out scientists, but practition- 

 ers of medicine ! ' ' Then, in Heaven 's name, 

 clinicians, go to, turn our youthful so- 

 called scientists into practitioners! The 

 matter of so doing lies in your hands, not 

 ours! To fail is to proclaim your own 

 inefficiency as teachers. For I can assure 

 you, out of an experience of some length 

 of service, that the bulk of student material 

 is to-day not worse than formerly, but bet- 

 ter; more alert, more discriminating and 

 more enquiring. He who would be their 

 teacher must himself arise with the lark! 



Another point redounding to the credit 

 of careful laboratory instruction ought to 

 be mentioned here. By the very processes 

 used to develop mentally robust students, 

 those to whom nature with niggard bounty 

 has allotted the amount or quality of nerv- 

 ous gray-matter are with sureness elim- 

 inated from the race. 



I maintain then that the laboratory justi- 

 fies most thoroughly the high place it now 

 occupies in the teaching of medicine, not 

 merely from the fact that it is one of 

 the great dispensators of knowledge, but 

 largely because, if wisely conducted, it is 

 the strongest of developmental forces in 

 the successful making of future disciples 

 of ^sculapius. 



III. It is almost needless for me to lay 

 emphasis on the importance of the labora- 

 tory as the place of applied science — I need 

 only mention the daily use in hospital serv- 

 ice of the microscope, polariscope, the X- 

 ray, radium emanations, the many clinical, 

 bacteriological and biological tests, and at 

 times even the procedure of the physiolo- 

 gist, to prove the value of the laboratory as 

 an indispensable adjunct to the practise of 

 clinical medicine. 



This appreciation of practical science is 

 again shown in the establishment by city, 



