564 



SCIENCE 



[N. a. Vol. XXXVIII. No. 981 



' ' The demands of modern medicine require an 

 elementary course in medical psychology to be 

 given in the medical department . . . (to) be 

 carried out under the direction of the department 

 of nervous and mental diseases. ... in the second 

 year after the work in anatomy and physiology of 

 the nervous system" (16). 



' ' Psychology is of such importance in medicine 

 that a course in general psychology should be 

 recognized as one of the fundamentals, and should 

 be required as a part of the college work required 

 for entrance. Further instruction in applied psy- 

 chology should form a part of the clinical work in 

 connection with mental and nervous diseases ' ' 

 (17). 



"I believe that special instruction in psychology 

 should be given medical students . . . (not) the 

 traditional introspective aspects of the subject 

 . . . but psychology for medical students ought to 

 be as conerete and objective as possible" (21). 



' ' I am decidedly of the opinion that students 

 should receive instruction in normal psychology 

 . . . such instruction should be given as part of 

 the course in physiology in those institutions in 

 which one of the professors in physiology were 

 sufficiently familiar with the subject" (58). 



It should also be noted that 10 medical 

 schools have already introduced (or plan to 

 introduce next year) psychology into the cur- 

 riculum or require it for entrance, and one 

 advises students to take a course in psychol- 

 ogy in the preparatory premedical years. 

 Quotations from these replies follow : 



"In the . . . second year the students are to be 

 given a course in psychology as an extension of 

 their anatomical and physiological course in the 

 medically important topics of psychology ... in 

 the . . . third year a course of . . . lectures and 

 demonstrations covers the essentials of experi- 

 mental and clinical psychopathology " (5). 



"Psychology is recommended as preparatory to 

 the study of medicine" (15). 



' ' Beginning next year, psychology prescribed 

 during second of the two collegiate years required 

 for entrance" (29). 



' ' Instruction in psychology is given to students 

 in their second year of collegiate work. We hope 

 to have a course in medical psychology for senior 

 students" (SO). 



"Psychology has been removed from the second 

 premedical year and placed in the second year of 

 medical work" (49). 



' ' A full course in physiological psychology ex- 

 tending throughout the year is given to the sopho- 

 mores. . . .The course prepares the students for 

 the instruction in neurology and psychiatry" (56). 



' ' Ours (i. e., course in psychology) is given 

 during the latter part of the session, but it seems 

 to me that a large (part of the) time that is 

 devoted to pharmacology and materia medica could 

 be more profitably spent in neurophysiology and 

 psychology" (62). 



"1 give the students a preliminary course of 

 normal psychology and then take up pathological 

 psychology" (64). 



"We have a course, 32 hours to sophomores, in 

 psychology" (65). 



' ' I have been teaching applied psychology . . . 

 for the last three years . . . not . . . the usual psy- 

 chology taught in academic departments, but psy- 

 chology as it applies to the normal and then to 

 the neurotic. ... In my own opinion most of the 

 so-called psychological courses given are worthless 

 . . . purely academic in nature, and no applica- 

 tion whatever is made to their every-day uses ' ' 

 (70). 



Of the 49 schools which indicated their 

 belief that psychology should be introduced 

 into the medical curriculum, 4Y have also 

 indicated the position that such work should 

 occupy. Of these schools, 27 advise that it be 

 placed in the medical preparatory years or in 

 the first two years of the medical courses, and 

 the other 20 stated that it should be given in 

 the final years. Most of the latter insisted 

 that its place was a part of, or as a special 

 preparation for, the work in nervous and men- 

 tal diseases. Of the 27 schools which advised 

 the introduction of psychology into the fi-rst 

 part of the course or into the years of medical 

 preparation, 12 refer, explicitly or by implica- 

 tion, to the dependence of psychology upon 

 the facts of anatomy and physiology, and 

 advise its introduction at a time when the 

 courses in the anatomy and physiology of the 

 nervous system are being given or after they 

 have been completed. Although admitting its 

 value, 4 would dismiss psychology by in- 

 cluding it as a required course in the pre- 

 medical years. The other 11 schools advise 

 that a second course be given during the third 

 or fourth years in addition to the require- 



