THE STUDY OF MEDICINE 73 



are the ones not already discussed which were formerly required for 

 the bachelor's degree, and which are now considered by some to be an 

 essential part of a good education. Three full years of college work 

 which have included such courses as have been recommended, and 

 which have led to the bachelor's degree, will be accepted as a good 

 preparation by any medical school in the United States. 



The Value of the Bachelor's Degree. — The value of the bachelor's 

 degree for students of medicine is now generally recognized. A few 

 medical schools require it and many recommend it. Students should, 

 however, be warned against believing that the degree may be earned 

 by two years of college work. This low standard, thinly disguised by 

 the fact that the degree is not given the student until he has spent 

 two years in the medical school, has been adopted by many colleges 

 and is sometimes announced with considerable satisfaction, as follows: 



The incalculable advantages of such a combination course must commend 

 themselves at a glance, alike to would-be medical students who realize the value 

 of an academic degree to the physician, and to candidates for an academic degree 

 who contemplate a medical career and hesitate before the length of time 

 demanded by its preparatory work. 



Not only should protest be made against reducing the college work 

 to two years, but much might be said in favor of four years, leading 

 to the master's degree. In the Harvard Faculty of Medicine there 

 are fifteen men who graduated from college since 1890. Two of these 

 are doctors of philosophy ; of the remaining thirteen doctors of medicine, 

 six are masters of arts. The positions held by the six masters of arts 

 and the seven bachelors of arts, respectively, are as follows : 



A.M. A.B. 



Professors 2 — 



Assistant Professors 4 2 



Demonstrators and Instructors — 5 



Since this list happens to include few practitioners, it may be noted 

 that the college classes of '88-'90 supplied the faculty with six members, 

 all practitioners ; five of the six are masters of arts. 



Not long ago, American medical schools received freely students 

 with no college training. Scattered through the classes there were 

 some who, without being required to do so, had obtained a college 

 degree. The success of these men has been so notable that the require- 

 ments for admission are rapidly becoming more stringent. At Columbia 

 University the effect of demanding one year of college work has been to 

 eliminate that stratum of medical students described by Professor Wood 

 as the submerged tenth. 3 Most of the good schools now require two 

 3 Professor Wood advocates a low entrance requirement in the following 

 remarkable statement. " The poor man, who has neither time nor money for 

 long preparation, can enter and compete on an equal footing with the children 

 of the rich. ... If he does not survive the first year, well and good, no great 

 harm has been done. . . ." 



