THE COLUMBUS MEDICAL JOURNAL

VOL. XXX.

FEBRUARY, 1906.

No. 2.

MEDICAL EDUCATION.

ADDRESS OF STARLING LOVING, M. D., LL. D.

On taking the Chair as President of the State Association of Medical Teachers, Dec. 26, 1905, Columbus, Ohio.

The existing medical law of this state is the concrete expression of the will of the majority of the medical profession thereof, who labored many years before they secured its passage by the Legislature. Its object is to have the medical profession of the commonwealth composed of men with good common and thorough medical education-to place their membership on equality with their brethren of other civilized countries. The law is perhaps not precisely what it might be. It is somewhat oppressive on young men, especially those of limited general education, who desire to enter the profession of medicine, but on the whole it has proved, and will continue to prove, beneficial both to the medical body and the community. It has, I think, been leniently and impartially administered by the State Board of Medical Registration, and though in force but a few years the results hoped for by those who secured its passage are shown in the greatly improved training of the young men who have been licensed under its provisions.

While the school to which I am attached has sustained serious pecuniary loss through the operation of the medical law, I shall, as heretofore, so long as they administer it fairly, continue to support the Board of Medical Registration in the execution of their duties.

There are many young men with ambition but defective

general education, some of them with slender purses, who desiring as did many of their class before the present medical law was enacted, to enter the medical profession, naturally regard that law with disfavor. I sympathize with the class but feel that it is better for them to accept the situation and save themselves lifelong humiliation; better that they find other employment rather than endeavor by subterfuges and evasions to enter a profession in which they can never attain even medium fame. The Board of Medical Registration at a recent meeting passed a resolution rescinding extra privileges heretofore granted candidates for the study of medicine holding academic degrees. It reads thus: "Resolved, that after 1905 advanced standing which has been given for A. B. and B. S. degrees be not recognized by the Board unless the candidate to whom it has been given has during the academic course done the science work in the first year of the medical course." The wording of the resolution is confusing, but its meaning is plain enough. The custom which the Board abolished by that resolution is injurious to those who gain advancement by it and therefore wrong. Men who get advanced standing by A. B. and B. S. degrees take position in the second and sophomore grade in medical schools and, having imperfect or no knowledge of the essential branches taught in the first freshman year in those schools, are constantly embarrassed, obliged to perform harder labor until the close of their pupilage, and often fail in final examinations. If successful in obtaining licenses they seldom attain great success because of defective knowledge of anatomy, physiology and materia medica.

The medical curriculum embraces for the first year the study of Anatomy, general and descriptive, Physiology, Materia Medica, Chemistry, Histology, Biology and Bandaging, the first four being absolutely essential-the ground work of medicine, and each of itself the work of a lifetime. From the great scope and importance of those studies I think, until the literary colleges enlarge equipment and add specially trained teachers to their faculties, the proposed combined baccalaureate and medical course will be impossible. There is not a college of the state, the State University not ex

cepted, prepared to give adequate instruction in the medical curriculum of the first year; the Universities of Cincinnati and Cleveland, having regular medical departments, excepted. Physiology, chemistry and biology, and perhaps histology, are sufficiently taught at the State University, but human anatomy, unless in a general way, is not taught at all; and there is no teacher of materia medica. The student may learn from the teachers of botany and pharmacy something concerning the origin and physical properties of drugs, but he gets nothing concerning their effects or the indications for their use in disease. Other colleges are not so well equipped, and I think I am correct in stating that they do not attempt to teach more than chemistry and biology with what may be called High School anatomy and physiology, and much less thoroughly than those essential branches are taught in medical schools. Until their facilities have been increased and they have secured teachers properly trained, I think the Board of Medical Registration should refuse to grant advanced standing on their degrees. It would be equally fair for medical schools to certify to attainments in astronomy or the Anabasis.

It may be urged that as the academic graduate has learned what is of equal if not greater value than what he has gotten from his books-how to study, how to think, that he should have advancement on those grounds. He has those advantages, and in addition, if he has followed the traditional course, some knowledge of Latin and Greek. He is better prepared for the study, but he knows nothing of medicine and is really but little better prepared for the study of that profession than the graduate of the High School. He will comprehend technical terms (some of them) without being obliged to consult his dictionary; will more easily grasp what is said by his teachers and may have less trouble, but deserves advanced standing no more than the man from the High School.

I feel like honoring young men who present college degrees as evidence of preliminary qualifications. Every one should honor them. I feel that they are earnest and that they will continue as they have begun, and I shall have no

trouble with them, but I say to them, "You will begin with Gray or Foster." There is nothing in common between the academic and medical courses of study and they can not be made to mingle. Any change which may be made in either with such view will in my opinion result in harm to both. We shall have less accomplished Masters of Arts and less competent physicians. I have men apply for advanced standing because they are poor, the sons of physicians, or widows, or clergymen, or they have a year's experience in drug stores or as hospital stewards, have studied pharmacy, veterinary medicine, have attended a college for a half term, or have a degree, and have uniformly found such men lacking in knowledge, even of the subjects in which they claim to have received instruction, and that they have imperfect conception of what they are about to undertake, or that they wish to obtain a license to practice medicine with the minimum of labor, and have come to the conclusion that advanced standing should not be granted except upon actual professional knowledge, and that the course of study should not be shortened on any pretext.

Finally, I am in favor of following the example of the University of London and Virginia. Let the student acquire knowledge as he may, in or out of schools, and at the end of four or six years present himself before a properly constituted board to be examined for fitness and, except for character, no matter what his antecedents, if qualified, he be granted the degree of Doctor of Medicine.

With the January issue the Alkaloidal Clinic comes out in new dress and considerably enlarged, under the name of the American Journal of Clinical Medicine. Added to the editorial force are Dr. Wm. J. Robinson of New York City, and Dr. Emory Lamphear of St. Louis. We hope for the Journal, under its new name, a long career of usefulness.

The January meeting of the Seneca County Medical Society was held at Tiffin, Ohio, Jan. 18, 1906. Papers were read by Drs. G. P. Williard, Tiffin, on "Six Latest Reliable Drugs," and M. W. Ubenoth, New Riegel, on "Treatment of Pneumonia." The meeting was enjoyable and well attended.

THE ADVANTAGES AND PURPOSES OF A STATE OR

GANIZATION OF MEDICAL TEACHERS.*

BY JAMES U. BARNHILL, PH. D. (WOOSTER), M. D. Chairman of Executive Committee for the Organization of a State Association of Medical Teachers.

There are, in Ohio, about two hundred and twenty-five medical teachers of professorial rank. They are engaged in the highest type of work that can fall to the lot of members of our profession. From the time of Hippocrates, the great teacher of Cos, down to the present, medical teachers have been the leaders of the profession. They have been the authors of medical text-books, the inventors of new instruments, the discoverers of new methods, the promoters of medical ethics, the examplars of the noblest traits of the profession. The great majority of them have been practicians as well as teachers; each activity the complement of the other; observation, reading and practice furnishing the resources for successful work in teaching. With the extension of the course the fundamental branches are taught by men who devote all their time to teaching, yet these teachers, to be successful, must keep in touch with the needs of the active practician. With most of us teaching and practice are not two professions, but dual activities of one. To give dignity, prominence and success to our work as teachers is assuredly a proper object of effort.

The highest achievements have been made where organization has been most perfect. This is true in case of individual schools, but to a greater extent in the case of organization which brings into contact the faculties of different schools.

The semi-official organization of the several schools of London, together with their associated hospitals, has given

Read before the meeting of Medical Teachers at which the State Association of Medical Teachers was organized.