New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-10-07
THE NEEDS OF MEDICAL SCHOOLS,

The remark was made the other day by a
well known college president, who knew where
of he spoke, that to the single medical faculty
at Strasburg, not to mention those at other
great seats of learning, the German Govern
ment paid a yearly subsidy greater in amount
than the income from subsidies and endow-
ments of all the medical schools In the United
States. The remark was coupled with a re-
minder of the fact that significantly large
proportion of the discoveries and advances In
medical and surgical science are nowadays
made in German laboratories and hospitals.
The circumstances thus disclosed are not
lightly to be overlooked. They directly con-
Germ American scholarship American profes-
siOnal proficiency and the health of the Ameri-
can people. Time was when American ply
sicians and surgeons were easily the peers of
any in the world, and when the great American
schools Of medicine, such as those of New
York, Boston and Philadelphia We're as thor
ough and as progressive as any others in the
world We are not prepared to say that such
is not still the case But it may we'll be asked,
most seriously, how long the schools and the
profession of America can merit this rank In
the face of the formidable foreign competition
we have described For 1t is fact neither to
be concealed nor ignored, that the study of
medicine as indeed of other sciences, is be-
coming year by year more costly That is be-
cause OF the vast expansion of the science it
self. There is much more to learn than
there was a few years ago. There are plenty
of practitioners still in active service who re.
member that when they studied medicine and
received their degrees electro therapeutics were
unknown, and bacteriology and other important
departments Of the healing art We're not vet
even dreamed of, The development of these
and other branches of medicine and surgery
has compelled a lengthening of the course of
study and has made the equipment and con-
duct of medical schools vastly more expensive
than before
The result is that whereas medical colleges
used to be self-supporting and even profitable
with no other incomes than the fees of the
students. such is no longer the case Some of
the best institutions in this country are at the
present time seriously embarrassed for want of
FUNDS. They have no subsidies, no endowments
and no incomes save from fees. and the latter
are already insufficient and are year by year
becoming more insufficient to meet running ex-
penses. 1t is not that the fees are diminishing
but that the legitimate and necessary EXPENSES
are increasing. The colleges are therefore
called upon either to increase the fees, which
would be mpracticable, since it would make
them prohibitOry, or to neglect essential de-
partments Of instruction and research which
would be rulnous, since 1t would make the col
leges unworthy of the exalted cause which
they serve. The principle of State subventions
to seats of learning has not yet been widely
adopted in the United States. The alternative
which from many points of view seems more
desirable, is found in generous private endow-
ments And 1t is doubtful if the cause of hui
mainly can be much more efficiently served in
any other direction than in enabling worthy
schools of medicine to keep in the forefront of
scientific enterprise, instruction and research.