Miscellaneous Intelligence. 97 



III. Miscellaneous Scientific Intelligence. 



1. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Learn- 

 ing. Bulletin JV~o. 6. Medical Education in Europe ; by Abra- 

 ham Flexner, with an Introduction by Henry S. Pritchett. 

 Pp. xx, 357. New York, 576 Fifth Avenue, 1912.— Some two 

 years ago (see this Journal, xxx, 94) the Carnegie Foundation 

 published a report by Dr. Abraham Flexner criticising with much 

 frankness the unsatisfactory condition of much of the medical 

 instruction in the United States. This report is now followed by 

 a second publication by the same author detailing the conditions 

 as regards instruction in this subject in foreign countries, includ- 

 ing particularly Great Britain, Germany, France and Austria. 

 An introduction at length is given by President Pritchett. The 

 conclusions reached are by no means flattering to the methods 

 employed in this country. The absence of any adequate clinical 

 facilities in many of the medical institutions, even those situated 

 in states where the general standard of instruction is high, is the 

 feature that is justly most condemned. President Pritchett says : 



" Scandals in medical education exist in America alone. In no 

 foreign country is a medical school to be found whose students do 

 not learn anatomy in the dissecting-room and disease by the 

 study of sick people. It has remained for the United States and 

 Canada to confer annually the degree of doctor of medicine upon, 

 and to admit to practice, hundreds who have learned anatomy from 

 quiz-compends, and whose acquaintance with disease is derived not 

 from the study of the sick, but from the study of text-books. 

 These scandalous conditions are less widespread to-day than they 

 were a decade ago ; yet they are still to be found in almost all 

 sections of the country, even in the most cultivated." . . . 



Furthermore, as regards examinations, for example, written 

 papers are often alone required, making it possible for a student to 

 pass who has had neither laboratory nor clinical instruction. The 

 development of numerous types of medical sects known by 

 different names, which is practically unknown in Europe, is 

 believed to be due to the fact that in America " sectarian medi- 

 cine can be practised on lower terms than scientific medicine." 



That the best of American medicine and surgery is on a very 

 high plane indeed is well recognized, but this fact does not remove 

 the evils so often present due particularly to the causes discussed 

 at length in this report. 



2. The proposed Expedition to Crocker land. — It is announced 

 by the committee in charge that the Crocker Land Expedition, 

 which was to have started this summer under *the leadership of 

 George Borup and D. B. MacMillan, has been postponed to the 

 summer of 1913, on account of the death of George Borup on 

 April 28. It is proposed to carry forward the enterprise without 

 essential change as to the main objects although some reorganiza- 



Am. Jour. Sci.— Fourth Series, Vol. XXXIV. No. 199. -July, 1912. 



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