September 6, 1901.] 



SCIENCE 



365 



the medical student's elementary chemistry 

 should be at least as thorough as that of 

 the student in liberal arts. It seems absurd 

 to think that a man preparing, possibly, 

 for law or theology or commerce, or study- 

 ing without thought of any specialty should 

 be made to acquire a fuller, more accurate 

 knowledge of chemistry than that expected 

 of the future medical man. If chemistry is 

 of value at all, it certainly is to the doctor, 

 rather than to the preacher, lawyer or man 

 of business, yet in the United States in the 

 last fifty years, the doctor's training in 

 chemistry has been, on the average, less 

 exacting than that of the other classes 

 mentioned. If any one is disposed to doubt 

 what I say let him compare the numerous 

 'Essentials of chemistry for the medical 

 student ' with the text-books used in other 

 schools in the same science. It is anoma- 

 lous that the doctor's chemistry should be 

 usually the weakest of all. 



But we are gradually emerging from this 

 "discouraging situation, and the improved 

 condition is mainly due to the recognition 

 of this fundamental truth, that there is not 

 one kind of elementary chemistry for the 

 doctor, another for the lawyer and a third 

 for the preacher. There is no royal road 

 to the acquisition of the necessary ground- 

 work, and the medical man's elements 

 must be learned through the same kind of 

 patient effort that is required of other men. 

 In the best of the medical schools of the 

 country to-day chemistry is no longer 

 taught by practitioners of medicine, and an 

 honest effort is being made to present the 

 subject as it is presented to beginners in 

 schools of science. Such a course of labora- 

 tory and recitation work should require at 

 least ten hours each week through a year of 

 eight months to cover the work preliminary 

 to the proper study of medical or physiolog- 

 ical chemistry in the second year. 



This leads me to explain what I consider 

 the minimum work in preparatory chem- 



istry for the medical student, and the char- 

 acter of this work. First, he should have 

 the usual lecture or recitation course of 

 about seventy-five lessons in general and 

 inorganic chemistry, with especial attention 

 paid to the theoretical groundwork. A 

 discussion of the common inorganic salts is 

 of less importance. This work should be 

 followed or accompanied hy a laboratory 

 course in experiments, including the prepa- 

 ration of a few pure substances. In most 

 of our schools the value of preparation 

 work has not been sufiiciently recognized, 

 the time which might be spent there going 

 usually to qualitative analysis which I 

 believe is correspondingly overestimated. 

 Inorganic qualitative analysis for most stu- 

 dents becomes a mechanical routine in 

 which the important element of discipline 

 is wanting. As in the future work of the 

 physician this branch of analysis finds little 

 or no application, I believe the time given 

 to it in preparatory medical work may be 

 greatly curtailed. During the past twenty 

 years, in which I have given instruction to 

 medical students, I have had abundant op- 

 portunity to observe this fact, that men 

 who have entered with training in experi- 

 ments and preparations and no qualitative 

 analysis make as a rule far better progress 

 than do those whose laboratory work has 

 been wholly analytical. Many of our col- 

 leges still begin their laboratory work 

 with qualitative analysis, which, perhaps, 

 is a relic of concession to the old utili- 

 tarian notion, and I am convinced that 

 for the average student the time so spent 

 is largely wasted. On the other hand, 

 volumetric analysis may be made a 

 medium of imparting important knowl- 

 edge in fundamental principles, and I be- 

 lieve it should find early presentation in 

 all our courses, general as well as medi- 

 cal, that it should precede rather than fol- 

 low gravimetric analj'sis as is customary. 

 In the case of the medical student the im- 



