OCTOBEE 17, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



561 



ting an adequate conception of, and training 

 for dealing with, the mass of nervous and 

 mental disorders which is encountered in gen- 

 eral practise. 



When it is realized that the proportion of 

 insanity is greater than 1 : 300 of the general 

 population, it is a matter for wonder, and one 

 which those interested in the proper prepara- 

 tion of and training of medical men should 

 study carefully, that the medical schools do 

 not offer adequate means for the acquirement 

 of knowledge along these lines. When, to the 

 number of insane there be added those whose 

 mental conditions are not sufficiently abnor- 

 mal to order their detention in a hospital for 

 the insane, the wonder grows that the grad- 

 uate of medicine is able to do more than to 

 appreciate the fact that something is wrong 

 with these patients when they consult him. 

 In relation to the quantity of the physical 

 diseases of the population, i. e., total days of 

 illness, it must be kept in mind that the pro- 

 portion of the mental diseases is larger than 

 1 : 300, for this relation holds for three hun- 

 dred and sixty-five days in the year. In view 

 of the large proportion of insanity, and to this 

 should be added the non-insane mental dis- 

 orders and the nervous affections, it is not an 

 exaggeration to say that the courses on in- 

 sanity and neurology in medical schools are 

 inadequate in time and usually quite unfit in 

 character to prepare the student of medicine 

 for this difiicult part of his practise. The 

 student is not prepared to appreciate what 

 mind is, nor the conditions of its alteration, 

 because his preparation in this particular is 

 composed of a few didactic lectures regarding 

 the forms of mental disease, perhaps a few 

 clinical exercises in which patients are shown, 

 and, if the conditions for teaching in hospitals 

 for the insane are good, each student may 

 have an opportunity to talk with a few cases 

 of marked mental disease. At present the 

 teaching of psychiatry appears to be in an 

 earlier stage than surgery was in the two- or 

 three-year course in medicine twenty years 

 ago. How much longer will the medical 

 schools keep psychiatry, neurology and psy- 

 chology in these dark ages? 



4. Is there any correlation or cooperation be- 

 tween the department of psychology in the aca- 

 demic department and the department of neurol- 

 ogy and psychiatry in the medical school! 



Three schools failed to answer this question 

 in any manner ; three others did not answer it 

 because they were " two-year schools," but by 

 their failure to answer for this reason indi- 

 cated plainly that there was no cooperation or 

 correlation between the medical work and the 

 department of psychology in the college of 

 arts and sciences. Eighteen other schools re- 

 ported that they had no academic connections ; 

 thirty-three definitely reported no cooperation ; 

 one gave an unqualified positive answer and 

 the remaining thirteen answered with more 

 than a brief affirmation by giving indications 

 of the character of the cooperation. Of the 

 52 schools which have alfiliations, close or re- 

 mote, with academic departments, only two 

 sevenths report any form of correlation or 

 cooperation with the department of psychol- 

 ogy. Extracts noting the character of the 

 cooperation between the department of psy- 

 chology and the medical school follow: 



"Men from the department of psychology . . . 

 attend lectures and clinics of the professor of 

 psychiatry"; also lectures on diseases of the 

 brain {!). 



Next year an instructor in psychiatry "is to 

 give lectures on psychopathology in the academic 

 department . . . otherwise, cooperation is unoffi- 

 cial though fairly strong" (3). 



"The department of psychology . . . delivers a 

 series of lectures in conjunction with the depart- 

 ment of medicine and presents clinics at the in- 

 sane hospital" {If). 



"In the psychological department students take 

 some work in the clinics" (5). 



"Some coordination" but no cooperation (6). 



' ' The department of psychology has aifiliated 

 all related branches in the medical department 

 with a view of developing the fields cognate with 

 the subject" (i. e., irregular children) {11). 



"The department of psychology . . . offers a 

 special course for the medical students" {21). 



"The psychology and physiology of the special 

 senses is taught by a professor in the academic 

 department" (S'J). 



"None except to borrow apparatus" (-^5). 



