368 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 349. 



discussion of what the course in physio- 

 logical chemistry should be in medical 

 schools. At present this often consists of 

 a laboratory course in urine analysis only, 

 along with a few lectures on subjects be- 

 longing to materia medica, pathology or 

 practice rather than to chemistry. In 

 many of the larger and more progressive 

 schools this work is broadened out so as to 

 include experimental studies in the sugars, 

 the fats, the albumins, the processes and 

 products of digestion and the examination 

 of milk, blood, the gastric juice, bile, etc. 

 There is a great diversity of opinion as to 

 how much of this work may profitably be 

 taught in the medical school. It is my own 

 view that it is all out of place if it is not pre- 

 ceded by the proper drill in general chem- 

 istry to enable the student to really under- 

 stand what he is doing. Without this 

 clear understanding the laboratory course 

 in physiological chemistry, which looks so 

 well on paper, and which fills a good 

 amount of space in the college announce- 

 ment, degenerates into a mere mechanical 

 routine, and becomes as valueless from the 

 standpoint of discipline as is the justly con- 

 demned ' test-tube drill ' in qualitative 

 analysis. If the student is so illy pre- 

 pared for his work that the operation of 

 stirring a heated mixture of alkali solution 

 and fat means simply ' making soap,' he 

 might just as well spend his time in turning 

 a grind-stone, as far as intellectual benefit 

 is concerned. Unless he can connect this 

 operation with many similar ones, and with 

 the other processes of splitting fats, the ex- 

 periment fails of its object. I am firmly of 

 the opinion that the explanation of the low 

 value placed on chemistry by many medical 

 men may be found in the fact that in their 

 own student days they have been forced 

 through this kind of a routine course lack- 

 ing the preliminary knowledge that would 

 enable them to comprehend it. I maintain 

 then that unless the student has been 



properly and systematically prepared in the 

 elements of organic and inorganic chemis- 

 try, much of the matter presented to him 

 in physiology and physiological chemistry 

 must remain practically meaningless. As 

 Professor Eemsen well says : " It is diffi- 

 cult to see how, without some such general 

 introductory study, the technical chemist 

 and the student of medicine can compre- 

 hend what is usually put before them under 

 the heads of applied organic chemistry and 

 medical chemistry." (Preface to ' Organic 

 Chemistry.') But, on the other hand, sup- 

 posing that the medical student has been 

 successfully prepared in an elementary pre- 

 liminary course such as I outlined above, 

 there is much indeed that he can really 

 master in physiological chemistry proper. 

 It is not necessary that he should be able 

 to make many elaborate quantitative ex- 

 periments. Most of the really important 

 reactions in the study of the fats, the sugars 

 and the proteids may be mastered with the 

 aid of comparatively simple qualitative and 

 a few volumetric tests. He will be able to 

 demonstrate understandingly the essential 

 facts connected with most of the diges- 

 tive and other ferment changes, and to fol- 

 low variations in excretion corresponding 

 to variations in food consumption, or de- 

 pending on pathological conditions. This 

 carries the medical student as far as he is 

 ordinarily called upon to go. Anything 

 beyond this naturally belongs to the spe- 

 cialist, and besides would consume more 

 time than can be usually spared from the 

 medical course. 



From a perusal of many of our text- 

 books on physiology and physiological 

 chemistry, the student is very apt to draw 

 erroneous conclusions as to the nature of 

 some of the reactions in this department of 

 science. For simplicity in didactic presen- 

 tation the teacher or writer is too apt to 

 show everything in an ideal way. A great 

 many dogmatic assertions are made, for 



