THE STUDY OF MEDICINE 65 



THE PREPARATION POP THE STUDY OP MEDICINE 



By FREDERIC T. LEWIS, M.D. 



HARVAKD MEDICAL SCHOOL 



Those who intend to study medicine are advised hy the Medical Faculty 

 to pay special attention to the study of Natural History, Chemistry, Physics, 

 and the French and German languages, while in College. 



This sentence of advice is contained in the catalogue of Harvard 

 University issued in 1874. Thirty-two years later, at the dedication of 

 the new buildings, it found more vigorous expression in the address of 

 President Eliot. 



Medical students should therefore have studied zoology and botany before 

 beginning the study of medicine, and should have acquired some skill in the 

 use of the scalpel and the microscope. It is absurd that anybody should begin 

 with the human body the practise of dissection or of surgery; and, further- 

 more, it is wholly irrational that any young man who means to be a physician 

 should not have mastered the elements of biology, chemistry and physics years 

 before he enters a medical school. The mental constitution of the physician 

 is essentially that of the naturalist; and the tastes and capacities of the 

 naturalist reveal themselves, and, indeed, demand satisfaction long before 

 twenty-one years of age, which is a good age for entering a medical school. 



It is here assumed that these special studies form a part of the 

 work for a bachelor's degree in arts or science, which the student has- 

 obtained before beginning his medical studies. Two groups of com- 

 petent teachers of medicine dissent from this advice — those who be- 

 lieve that the bachelor's degree is unnecessary, since two years of 

 special college work are sufficient; and those who consider that the 

 degree should be required, but as a result of studies in literature, art, 

 history and philosophy, rather than in biological science. Some physi- 

 cians, therefore, send their sons to college with the advice, " Study 

 nothing which bears upon medicine: you will have enough of that 

 later"; and of those who have followed these directions, some have 

 succeeded notably, both as practitioners and scientists. Because of this 

 difference of opinion, an explanation of the relation of certain college 

 courses to the study of medicine may be helpful to students. 1 



Zoology. — It has long been recognized by the public that zoology is 

 not medicine. When Harvey studied the circulation of the blood, 

 " he fell mightily in his practice." " Had anatomists only been as 

 conversant with the dissection of the lower animals as they are with 



1 In preparing this account, assistance has been received from Drs. W. B. 

 Cannon, L. J. Henderson, W. C. Sabine, E. E. Southard and L. W. Williams. 



VOTi. lxxv. — 5. 



