New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-11-14
METZ. YORK as A MEDICAL CENTER.

phIa was Justly regarded as containing within
its limits the best medical colleges ana the
most distinguished physicians to be found III
America. But for twenty years past she mas
little by little been losing this prominence,
until now it may with truth be said that the
most thorough medical teaching and the most
enlightened, progressive, and successful physi-
clans and surgeons arc to be found not in the
city of Rush and Jackson and Chapman, but
in That of Hosack and Stevens and Valentine
Mott. The causes of this change are not dlih-
cult to discOyer-superiority III one thinS hat-
urally leads to advancement In Others, anu
large cities, especially commercial ones, are Joe.
of the suffering and disease upon which medical
science feeds. Hospitals, both general ana spe-
cial, spring up on every side; clinical teaching
reaches its maximum degree or efficiency anu
the most distinguished medical men from all
parts of the country are called to occupy Tue
chairs in the medical colleges, or having
reached prominent positions In smaller places,
come where there are wider fields for the ex-
ercise of their abilities Students, and espe-
cially medical students, are quick to perceive
the places which offer them the most advan-
tages, and for several years past, and particu-
larly this season, they have distinctly recog-
nlzed the prominent position Of New YORK as
center of medical instruction For while
Philadelphia, according to The Medical Times
published in that city, has only about SIX
hundred students in attendance on ITS TWO
medical colleges, New-YOrk at its three
schools of medicine numbers nearly twelve
hundred.
The great increase shown this Winter is due
not only to the efforts Of the eminent medical
gentlemen whose regulations cause their Ice
tIre rooms to be crowded, or to the freedom
with which the several hospitals can be VS.
tied, but to tho wise policy of the Commits
sioncrs OF Charities and Correction in apDOr-
tioning equally the clinical advantages OF
Bellevue Hospital among the three colleges.
Although this action may have worked to the
temporary disadvantage of one school, the
gam to New-York has been very decided; for
both the other colleges have been placed upon
a more equitable and advantageous basis, and
as a consequence their classes have been
largely increased. AS there is an obvious
element of fairness in the redistribution OF
the medical and surgical positions of the
vast Bellevue Hospital, and as the change has
given such general satisfaction to the profess
sion and the public, it is to be hoped that the
principle of equality in this respect will come
to be recognized as u settled policy. New
York cannot afford to give undue advantages
to any one of its great medical colleges.
Where all are laboring for the public good,
all should be treated alike by the public
authorities. Certainly no other line of action
will be so conducive to the practical carrying
9 Xor bo n
zeal metropolis of the world as it now is of
the Western Continent.
But another important element in securing
the exaltation of New-Yorll to the first place
among the cities of America which hold out
inducements to embryo physicians is the num-
Der and variety of its medical societies. In
addition to those (of which there are very
many) devoted to the study Of the whole
science and art, there is scarcely q specially
which has not its society, composed of earnest
and able labOrers, and doing an amount of
real valuable work which is telling daily upon
the progress of medical science. Thus, there
is q archaeological society for the skin and
its diseases, chronological for the throat, a
neurological for the nervous system, an
ophthalmological for the eye, an biological for
morbid anatomy and physiology of disease,
mcdco-legal engaged in the calculation of
questions connected with medical juriSpru-
dence, and micrOscOpical and an obstetrical,
the objects of which are sufficiently indicated
by their names.
The meetings of these societies, as well as
those of the County Medical, the Academy of
Medicine, and the Medical Library and Jour
nal Association Gan active and very excellent
society, are open freely to all physicians and
medical students who desire to attend, and thus
serve very materially to increase the attrac-
tons OF New-York for those who come here
in the pursuit of knowledge. 1t is at these So
ceties that the greatest progress is made i'll
the investigation of those great problems con-
nected with the mind and body of man, both
in health and disease.
AS regards medical journals, New-York Tex
cept in the one point of weekly, such as
those which give marked prominence to med
ical journalism in London and the large Con-
tinental cities, and this deficiency is, we
understand, about to be supplied) compares
very favoraOly with any other city in the
world. At the close of the late war there
was not single journal devoted to medical
science published in the city. Now there is
The Neu- York Medical Journal, a monthly;
The Medical Record, semi-monthly; The
american Journal Of Obstetrics q quarterly
The Psychological and MedicO-Legal, a monthly
The Archires Of OphthalmOlo9y and OtOlogy, q
semi-annual; New Remedies, quarterly; The
american journal Of Syphilography and Der
matology, q quarterly; The Archives Of Flee
trology and Neurology a semi-annual; The
Sopit1rj1u n monthly: The drchiues of Der