August 19, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



235 



very best to have most complete studies of 

 the ease, and finally, that the chief in attend- 

 ance, compelled to do his -best at the risk 

 of his reputation, they would gladly open 

 their doors, even at the discomfort of the 

 few, but to the advantage of the many. In 

 short, the hospital should have teaching not 

 to oblige the medical school, but for its own 

 survival and regeneration. The benefits 

 the student derives by the object lesson of 

 an orderly hospital can not be estimated. 

 Will not every member of a hospital board 

 admit that his own character, his own sym- 

 pathies, have been benefited by his connec- 

 tion with the hospital, even though, per- 

 haps, he has not the advantage of an im- 

 pressionable age? Can he not see, there- 

 fore, how the youthful student can be influ- 

 enced in thought and character and feeling ? 

 He can not lightly toss aside this respon- 

 sibility, nor even hide it by putting the 

 onus of medical education on the teaching 

 hospital. Every dollar endowing a non- 

 teaching hospital robs the teaching hospital 

 which is engaged in this larger duty. 



It is true a class who are compelled to 

 have hospital attention may not sympathize 

 with this feeling. How can we obtain the 

 confidence of this class? Let us organize 

 such association of prominent people in our 

 teaching centers who will agree to have any 

 operation, any feature of disease witnessed 

 by medical students, at the judgment of 

 their attending physician. It would be 

 well if the individuals of such an organiza- 

 tion would agree, first, to undergo hospital 

 treatment; second, to be the object of ob- 

 servation by students; third, to have an 

 autopsy performed in case of untimely end. 

 Such association would rob hospitals of 

 their terror and teaching of its dread. No 

 one can deny that on the whole the public 

 would be benefited from whatsoever point 

 of view we look at it. Indeed, the public 

 ought to learn that disease is an enemy to 

 themselves and their country. Just as we 



make sacrifices in time of national warfare, 

 so we should be willing to make sacrifices 

 in the daily battle for life. Just as aristo- 

 crat and plebeian, landlord and tenant, 

 fight side by side in the former, so they 

 should array in solid phalanx in the latter. 



But there are hospitals willing to admit 

 students, and yet the privilege is not availed 

 of. This arises because the teaching force 

 of the medical college is not willing to sink 

 its personality and allow the student to go 

 wheresoever he will for his instruction. 

 Courage and some sacrifice is required per- 

 haps. But, when one thinks of the mighty 

 opportunity and the frightful waste, it is 

 saddening. Every hospital should be a 

 school. The fourth year should be so ar- 

 ranged that the student could avail himself 

 of the advantages of hospitals in the imme- 

 diate vicinity. Let each teaching body 

 have the student understand what he must 

 see and do, and trust you the true student 

 will see it at the best place and with the 

 best men. He must be accountable, of 

 course, with a rigidity that means the exact 

 acquirement of knowledge. To this end 

 the first two years could be well spent in 

 the properly equipped laboratory univer- 

 sity, whether in town or country, the third 

 in the authorized hospital of the school, the 

 fourth in extramural hospital work. 



Is it not anomalous that the hospital 

 boards give to the nurses who are to act as 

 aids to the physician the highest opportuni- 

 ties, and yet deny it to those who are to 

 give orders to the nurses ? This, of course, 

 arises because training schools are the prod- 

 uct of modern thought and have not been 

 trammeled by tradition. 



But all this talk of the primary educa- 

 tion avails bxit little if we do not see to it 

 ourselves that education is continuous ; that 

 from the day of our graduation, forwards, 

 we do naught but toil, toil, toil. It should 

 go without saying, as a mere business 

 proposition, that unless we unceasingly 



