322  The  Teaching  of  Physiology,  {Am'jJu°iy"'i904arm- 
TEACHING  OF  PHYSIOLOGY  IN  MEDICAL  SCHOOLS. 
By  Dr.  H.  P.  BowdiTch, 
Professor  of  Physiology,  Harvard  University. 
In  bringing  the  congratulations  of  a  sister  institution  on  the 
occasion  of  this  important  step  taken  by  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania in  the  advancement  of  medical  education,  it  may,  perhaps,  be 
appropriate  for  me  to  dwell  upon  the  proper  relation  of  the  sciences, 
so  sumptuously  installed  in  these  new  buildings,  to  the  general  work 
of  medical  education. 
With  regard  to  the  methods  employed  in  giving  instruction  in 
physiology,  the  great  change  which  has  recently  taken  place  in 
all  our  large  medical  schools  cannot  fail  to  strike  even  the 
most  superficial  observer.  This  change,  which  has  been  quietly 
going  on  for  the  last  ten  or  fifteen  years,  consists  mainly  in 
the  great  development  of  the  laboratory  method  of  instruction. 
This  is  but  a  logical  result  of  clearly  apprehending  the  fact  that 
physiology  is  merely  the  physics  and  chemistry  of  living  matter 
and  of  applying  to  that  science  the  methods  of  instruction  already 
adopted  and  approved  by  the  physicist  and  the  chemist.  The  ex- 
tension of  the  laboratory  method  is,  however,  also  to  be  regarded 
as  a  reaction  against  the  too  exclusive  use  of  the  so-called  didactic 
method  of  instruction,  as  a  result  of  which  students,  getting  their 
knowledge  wholly  from  lectures  and  text-books,  often  failed  to  realize 
that  physiology  is  just  as  truly  an  experimental  science  as  either 
physics  or  chemistry,  and  were  thus  insensibly  led  to  depend  upon 
authority  instead  of  upon  the  direct  observation  of  nature. 
Of  the  great  educational  importance  of  this  reaction  and  of  the 
changed  attitude  of  the  student-mind  determined  by  it  there  can  be 
but  one  opinion.  Whether  we  consider  that  the  most  important 
object  of  medical  education  is  to  "  train  for  power  "  (to  use  Presi- 
dent Eliot's  phrase)  or  regard  the  imparting  of  information  as  the 
chief  end  to  be  sought,  the  laboratory  method  has  distinct  advan- 
tages over  all  other  methods.  Contact  with  the  phenomena  them- 
selves and  not  with  descriptions  of  them  trains  the  mind  of  the 
student  for  power  by  teaching  him  to  observe  carefully  and  reason 
correctly,  while,  as  a  means  of  imparting  information,  the  laboratory 
method  has  the  great  advantage  of  giving  the  best  of  all  knowledge, 
viz.,  that  which  comes  from  personal  experience.  So  valuable  to  the 
physician  is  the  habit  of  mind  thus  cultivated  that  it  may  well  be 
