March 3'-', 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



317 



notion that he knows the bulk of anatomy, 

 when lie has acquired a very general con- 

 ception of the bones. Of course, his ideas 

 are silly and childish, and have to be cor- 

 rected ; but we must take human nature as 

 we find it, and, if possible, turn its very 

 weaknesses into useful channels. Now, with- 

 out having the smallest disposition to belit- 

 tle the advantage of an accurate knowledge 

 of the skeleton, it has long been a convic- 

 tion with me that visceral anatomj^ should 

 be ranked first in tlie list of topics, consid- 

 ered from the purely utilitarian point of 

 view : that the subject of which our stu- 

 dents generally know least is precisely that 

 of which they ought to know most. They 

 come to us in order to be equipped as prac- 

 titioners. Whatever maj' be their callow 

 aspirations, however much they may be 

 dazzled and charmed by the brilliant per- 

 formances of surgery, we and all of our 

 colleagues know that the enormous ma- 

 jority of them must be general practitioners, 

 doing almost no surgical operations, except 

 the strictly minor ; having a great many 

 obstetric cases ; seeing a multitude of sick 

 infants, a good many ailing women, and not 

 a few acutely ill adults of both sexes. What 

 is the greatest anatomical need of such men? 

 Is it not undeniable that, for one case de- 

 manding in them a knowledge of bones, 

 muscles, blood vessels or nerves, they have 

 at least a score in which they must know 

 something definitely about the sti-ucture of 

 lungs, heart, stomach, bowels, liver, kid- 

 neys, uterus or brain? If, then, visceral 

 anatomy far surpasses all other portions of 

 the field in importance to the enormous ma- 

 jority of practitioners of the healing art, it 

 should be placed first chronologicallj^ in the 

 course of systematic anatomy, so that it 

 shall be taught at the time when the 

 learner's mind is most eagerly receptive 

 and most faithfully retentive — provided, of 

 course, that this assignment of position does 

 not conflict with the rights of other things. 



Unless mj- argument has utterly miscarried, 

 it is established that the proposed order not 

 only does not sacrifice anjthing on the 

 physiological side, but is even of conspicu- 

 ous advantage to it ; and I have been un- 

 able to discover any way in which it can 

 affect unfavorably the welfare of anj' depart- 

 ment whatsoever. There is no occasion for 

 anxiety lest the jjostponement of osteology 

 will result in its being ignored or slighted. 

 The flxcilities for its study are so compara- 

 tively abundant, the conventional concep- 

 tion of its importance is so deeply rooted, 

 and the natural and mevitable attraction 

 which it exercises on the student is so strong 

 as to insure the bestowal upon it of a suffi- 

 cient share of his attention.* 



With me the order advocated is not 

 merely a theory : it is a long accomplished 

 fact. For about fifteen years I have had 

 the plan in practical operation, and have 

 not yet observed a single thing which has 

 caused me to regi-et the change from the 

 ancient sj^stem. It appears to me now, as 

 in the beginning, to be the most rational, 

 economical, fiicile, attractive and useful 

 succession of topics. During tliis prolonged 

 trial of the order I have had as fellow- 

 members of the Bowdoin faculty in the 

 chair of physiology three gentlemen, of 

 whom two, Drs. B. G. Wilder and C. D. 

 Smith, are members of this Association, and 

 can testify as to the usefulness of the plan. 



* It would be foolish to disparage the cultivation 

 of any portion of tlie lield of human anatomy ; the 

 more thoroughly the physician knows every part of it, 

 the better equipped will he be as a practitioner. 

 Vast! J' more blunders than are ever recognized depend 

 upon ignorance of easily known facts of structure. 

 But the tremendous insistence upon the supreme 

 value of osteology, which characterizes the method of 

 some teachers of anatomy, seems to me to demon- 

 strate a lack of sense of proportion, which, while 

 easily enough accounted for by the student of mediciil 

 history, who appreciates also the dominating (some- 

 times almost domineering) influence of habit and 

 suggestion upon the mind, is none the less peculiarly 

 unfortunate in its effect. 



