1897.] Biology and Medicine. 765 
ment. The practice of the healing art is a far more scientific 
and rewarding pursuit now than formerly. The great discover- 
ies relating to the agency of micro-organisms in the causation 
of disease have given a firm basis to preventive medicine, 
which has as yet been able to utilize only a relatively small 
part of the available knowledge. 
To the new conditions medical education has as yet only 
imperfectly adjusted itself. The great need of our medical 
schools is the establishment of thoroughly equipped and well 
organized laboratories and these require endowments which 
none in this country possess to any adequate extent and few 
possess at all. 
While the primary aim of a medical school is to train prac- 
titioners of medicine and surgery, a great medical school 
should also advance the science and art of medicine. This art 
is becoming in increasing degree applied science, and it cannot 
be fully acquired without training in the biological medical 
sciences. I think that in a four years medical course, the 
first two years should be devoted to the study of the funda- 
mental medical sciences, such as human anatomy, physiology, 
physiological chemistry, pharmacology, and pathology, and 
the last two to strictly professional training in practical medi- 
cine, surgery and obstetrics. It is one of the most important 
problems of medical education to maintain the proper balance 
between the purely technical training in the medical art and 
the study of the medical sciences. The cultivators of pure 
science in this or any other university need have no fear that 
the introduction of a medical department, organized in accord- 
ance with the present state of medical science, and to meet the 
existing needs of medical education, will bring any elements 
unsuited to the highest university ideals. 
A suitably endowed medical school united with a university 
has to-day in this country unequaled opportunities to achieve 
success, and to confer a great service upon medicine and upon 
humanity. The need of such schools is everywhere recognized 
by the medical profession which would give to their establish- 
ment enthusiastic support. 
