Am.  Jour.  Pharrn.  \ 
April,  1902.  j" 
Notes  and  News. 
207 
promote  the  universal  introduction  of  the  metric  system  with  the  least  confu- 
sion and  expense. 
Resolved,  That  the  national  government  should  enact  such  laws  as  will 
ensure  the  adoption  of  the  metric  system  of  weights  and  measures  as  the  sole 
standard  in  its  various  departments  as  rapidly  as  may  be  consistent  with  the 
public  service. 
The  Value  oe  a  Coei,EGE  Education. — R.  T.  Crane,  of  Chicago,  recently- 
set  out  to  discover  by  practical  means  what  is  the  real  value  of  a  college  educa- 
tion. He  addressed  inquiries  to  the  presidents  of  a  number  of  universities,  to 
nearly  1,600  university  graduates,  and  to  100  or  more  business  men  who  have 
had  large  opportunities  for  observation.  The  testimony  gathered  thus  from 
the  most  varied  sources  is  brought  together  in  book-form,  and  it  includes  many 
interesting  expressions  of  opinion.  No  conclusion  which  is  at  all  absolute 
is  reached,  and  this  must  be  reckoned  to  be  impossible  in  the  very  nature 
of  the  case.  Nevertheless,  it  is  very  satisfactory  to  know  that  some  prog- 
ress has  been  made  in  the  discussion  of  the  old  subject,  for  Mr.  Crane 
seems  to  have  found  no  one  who  really  thinks,  as  some  formerly  did,  that  a 
college  training  is  a  hindrance  to  a  young  man. 
Commercialism  and  Medicine. — In  an  address  at  the  formal  opening  of 
the  Mercy  Hospital  Operating  Amphitheatre,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Chi- 
cago Medical  Society  and  Northwestern  University,  Dr.  John  B.  Deaver,  Phila- 
delphia, said:  "A  spirit  of  commercialism  is  one  of  the  greatest  enemies  of  a 
medical  school.  A  large  production  at  a  cheap  rate  may  be  a  good  enough  aim 
for  a  business  house,  but  this  spirit  is  fatal  to  a  medical  school.  Too  many 
schools  seem  to  take  pride  in  their  large  enrollment  of  students,  forgetting  at 
the  same  time  that  tea  chers  and  clinical  material  are  entirely  inadequate  for 
the  proper  instruction  of  so  large  a  body  of  men." 
Licenses  eor  Nurses. — The  question  as  to  whether  trained  nurses  should 
not  be  licensed  and  all  others  forbidden  by  law  to  practice  came  up  at  a  recent 
meeting  of  a  woman's  club,  according  to  the  New  York  Everting  Sun.  One 
member  opposed  this  proposition  so  vigorously  that  she  was  asked  to  take  the 
floor  and  give  the  reason  for  her  opposition.  She  declared  that  many  young 
women  took  up  nursing  while  better  fitted  for  any  other  vocation  on  earth, 
while  there  were  those,  on  the  other  hand,  whose  experience,  acquired  only 
through  performing,  gratuitously,  services  for  neighbors  and  friends,  showed 
such  natural  aptitudes  that  they  were  always  in  demand.  She  said  such  were 
often  driven  through  force  of  circumstances  to  adopt  the  calling  of  a  nurse,  and 
would,  if  the  license  law  were  passed,  be  unjustly  debarred.  "  Sensibility  and 
fine  feeling,"  said  the  woman,  "are  as  necessary  in  caring  for  the  sick  and 
convalescent  as  training,  and  a  woman  not  'trained,'  but  with  all  the  qualifi- 
cations of  a  nurse,  was  more  valuable  than  a  trained  nurse  without  these  nat- 
ural qualifications."  The  woman  then  illustrated  her  meaning  by  an  anecdote. 
"The  children's  ward  of  a  hospital  in  one  of  our  Western  cities  had  been  given 
a  globe  of  gold  fish.  The  little  patients  took  great  pleasure  in  watching  the 
fish  darting  in  and  out  among  the  aquatic  plants  and  seemed  to  forget  for  a 
time  sickness  and  suffering.  One  of  the  nurses,  wishing  to  use  the  table  on 
which  the  globe  of  gold  fish  stood,  put  it  on  the  radiator.  A  small  patient 
called  out  in  alarm  that  the  fishes  would  be  roasted.    The  nurse  only  laughed. 
