Am.  Jour.  Pharm.) 
March,  1920.) 
Editorial. 
145 
THE  FAULTS  OF  MEDICAL  EDUCATION. 
In  this  number  of  the  Journai^  we  repubUsh  the  paper  of  Hobart 
Amory  Hare,  M.D.,  on  the  "Teaching  of  Therapeutics,"  published 
in  the  Journal  of  the  American  Medical  Association. 
Our  purpose  in  repubHshing  this  article  is  twofold.  First,  it  is 
a  frank  statement  by  an  eminent  authority  of  a  great  fault  in  the 
current  medical  education.  The  neglect  of  the  medical  schools  to 
impart  to  their  students  a  sufficient  medical  education  that  will 
enable  them  to  intelligently  practice  their  important  profession  is  a 
serious  indictment  of  the  educational  methods  employed  in  colleges 
of  medicine. 
Many  pharmacists  no  doubt  could  relate  instances  of  the  lack  of 
knowledge  of  materia  medica  and  practical  therapeutics  exhibited 
by  physicians,  and  by  their  experiences  attest  the  truthfulness  of  the 
criticism  of  Prof.  Hare  that  many  of  the  young  physicians  entering 
medical  practice  have  no  clear  understanding  of  posology  and  the 
true  significance  of  a  dose.  The  examples  he  gives  in  this  article  of 
the  lack  of  acquaintance  with  official  titles  are  duplicated  in  a  great 
many  of  the  prescriptions  presented  for  compounding. 
It  is  unfortunate  that  this  arraignment  of  the  lack  of  kno^vledge 
on  the  part  of  many  physicians,  and  the  faulty  methods  of  teaching 
in  vogue  in  medical  schools  is  true. 
The  need  for  a  more  thorough  and  a  more  practical  method  of 
training  the  medical  student  to  prescribe,  and  the  plan  suggested  for 
correcting  this  defect,  should  receive  the  merited  consideration,  and 
likewise  the  necessity  for  having  instruction  imparted  by  those  who 
have  gained  the  knowledge  they  wish  to  impart  through  actual  prac- 
tice. 
Our  second  purpose  in  republishing  this  paper  is  its  applicability 
likewise  as  a  lesson  to  pharmaceutical  educators.  To  a  more  or  less 
degree  the  same  faults  in  the  method  of  imparting  knowledge  by 
teachers  utterly  lacking  in  experience  is,  likewise,  evidenced  in  many 
of  the  schools  of  pharmacy.  Post-graduate  courses  in  medicine  or  in 
pharmacy  should  be  based  on  a  comprehensive  knowledge  and  prior 
education  in  the  fundamental  branches  of  these  practices  and  re- 
served for  specialists  who  will  not  only  apply  the  knowledge  acquired 
in  post-graduate  work,  but  extend  the  existing  knowledge  in  these 
fields  through  their  further  practice  and  research  therein. 
It  is  not  our  purpose  to  cast  any  reflection  upon  our  friends  of 
