May 4, 1900.] 



SGIENGR 



695 



the work of fifteen pairs of students, and 

 the experience in the anatomical and patho- 

 logical departments was of a similar sort. 



EXAMINATIONS. 



Closely connected with the questions of 

 method of instruction and of distribution of 

 work is the subject of examinations. With 

 regard to these tests of our educational 

 methods, opinions vary even more widely 

 than with regard to the methods them- 

 selves. There is only one point, as Profes- 

 sor Exner has remarked, on which teachers 

 are practically united, and that is, " that 

 an examination is a necessary evil. " Every 

 examiner knows only too well that an ex- 

 amination is but a very imperfect test of 

 knowledge, but few are ready with any 

 suggestion of a substitute. Much of the 

 confusion which prevails in the discussion 

 of this subject would be removed if the ob- 

 jects to be secured by an examination were 

 more clearly apprehended. Professor Ex- 

 ner * points out that examinations may be 

 broadly divided into two classes, viz, the 

 Controlpriifung, to test the faithfulness with 

 which the student has performed his daily 

 tasks, and the Eeifepricfung to determine 

 the amount of his permanently acquired 

 knowledge of medical subjects. 



The examination, which, at the end of 

 the year, covers the whole ground of the 

 previous twelve months' instruction and 

 which is so common in our schools, belongs 

 to neither of these two classes and is really 

 a concession to a very natural wish of the 

 students to get the examination ' out of the 

 way ' while the subject is still fresh in their 

 minds. Having little justification from an 

 educational point of view we may hope to 

 see it abandoned when the extension of 

 laboratory methods provides in the note- 

 book and graphic records of each student 

 the evidence of his daily work, and thus 

 either renders a further examination un- 



*1. c, Eeprint. 



necessary or prepares the way for a final 

 test of his fitness to receive his diploma 

 of M.D. "Whether the written or the oral 

 examination affords the better method of 

 applying this test is a question about which 

 opinions vary. The fact that some per- 

 sons can write more readily than they can 

 talk, while others can talk more readily 

 than they can write, seems to be a reason 

 for providing a mixed method of examina- 

 tion in which each individual may have an 

 opportunity of appearing to the best ad- 

 vantage. 



CONCLUSIONS. 



If the views here presented are well 

 founded we may expect that a medical 

 school of the first rank will, in the imme- 

 diate future, be organized and administered 

 somewhat as follows : 



I. It will be connected with a university 

 but will be so far independent of university 

 control that the faculty will practically de- 

 cide all questions relating to methods of 

 instruction and the personnel of the teach- 

 ing body. 



II. It will offer advanced instruction in 

 every department of medicine, and will 

 therefore necessarily adopt an elective sys- 

 tem of some sort, since the amount of in- 

 struction provided will be far more than 

 any one student can follow. 



III. The laboratory method of instruc- 

 tion will be greatly extended, and students 

 will be trained to get their knowledge, as 

 far as possible, by the direct study of na- 

 ture, but the didactic lecture, though re- 

 duced in importance, will not be displaced 

 from its position as an educational agency. 



IV. The work of the students will prob- 

 ably be so Arranged that their attention 

 will be concentrated upon one principal 

 subject at a time, and these subjects will 

 follow each other in a natural order. 



V. Examinations will be so conducted as 

 to afford a test of both - the faithfulness 



