762 



SCIENCE. 



LN. S. Vol. XVII. No. 437. 



For many years the association showed 

 its interest in and attempted to influence 

 the elevation of the standaid of medical 

 education through a committee on medical 

 education. The ' Transactions ' of the asso- 

 ciation of the earlier years show many re- 

 ports of this committee, which display much 

 thought and effort on the part of the asso- 

 ciation to improve the status of medical 

 education at that period of time. James 

 R. "Wood, as chairman of the committee, 

 in the year 1858, recommended that the 

 various medical colleges of America be re- 

 quested to send delegates to a convention 

 of medical colleges, to consider the matter 

 of medical education. This movement 

 finally resulted in the formation of the 

 Association of American Medical Colleges, 

 which thereafter represented, to a degree 

 at least, the American Medical Association 

 in its efforts to improve medical educa- 

 tion. Later, the Southern Medical College 

 Association was formed. Together these 

 associations represent about 80 per cent, of 

 the regular medical schools of the country, 

 and these colleges have, in a general way 

 at least, fulfilled the minimum requirements 

 prescribed by the rules of the associations 

 in regard to the preliminary education of 

 students, the length of the college course, 

 and the character of the curriculum. 



About twenty-five years ago the Illinois 

 State Board of Health, through the splendid 

 efforts of Dr. J. H. Ranch, its secretary, 

 made a report on the number and character 

 of the medical schools of the coimtry. This 

 board adopted a minimum of requirements 

 of medical schools as a necessary step 

 toward the recognition of their diplomas 

 by the State Board of Health of Illinois. 

 This minimum requirement of the State 

 Board of Health was gradually increased 

 from time, with the result that many of 

 the medical schools were obliged to raise 

 the standard of medical education to en- 



able their graduates to obtain licenses to 

 practice in Illinois. Other states followed 

 Illinois in requirements for better methods 

 of medical education, with the result that 

 the standard of education in the country 

 was very much improved. 



MEDICAL SCHOOLS OF THE COUNTET. 



In the earlier days of our country, the 

 need of physicians was met by the organ- 

 ization of medical schools which were, as 

 a rule, proprietary in character. These 

 schools attempted the education of physi- 

 cians on the then existing conditions of 

 medicine by teaching in a didactic way the 

 principles and theories of medicine and 

 surgery. The branches usually taught at 

 that time consisted of anatomy, physiology, 

 chemistry, materia medica, obstetrics, the 

 practice of medicine and of surgery. But 

 little opportunity was offered in the great 

 majority of the schools for extensive, prac- 

 tical teaching in anatomy or chemistry, and 

 but a moderate amount of clinical work in 

 the so-called practical chairs. The course 

 of medicine in the college consisted of two 

 annual sessions of four or five months. 

 The course was not graded. The student 

 attended all the lectures and clinics taught 

 during his first year, and the second year 

 was a repetition of the first. This class 

 of schools was rapidly increased in the 

 course of time. The chief reasons therefor 

 were the fact that it was recognized that 

 a connection with a medical school was 

 profitable, directly and indirectly. The 

 prestige which the teacher enjoyed among 

 the graduates and the laity brought him a 

 remunerative consultation and private prac- 

 tice. In most of the states it was easy to 

 incorporate and obtain a charter for a med- 

 ical college. It cost comparatively little 

 to conduct and maintain the institution. 

 Lecture rooms were obtained at trifling 

 cost. The dissecting room was not worthy 

 of the name of a laboratory, and the chief 



