The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-11-05
NEW MEDICAL SCHOOL.
Harvard Will Soon Have Group of
New Buildings.

Boston. Mass. Nov 1.-THE new med
zeal school OF Harvard university. Tor
which the plans. carefully considered
during the last FIVE or six years, are now
practically finished and accepted by the
building committee. will soon add beau
tiful new group OF buildings TO the Ia
nous Back Bay district OF this city, and
will also unquestionably mark an epoch
In the history of American medical in
struction TIE New Harverd school.
which naturally suggests comparison
with Johns Hopkins. will be the latest ex-
preston Of the ideal inaugurated by that
institution. namely a perfect adaptation
of Laboratories. hospitals and lecture
halls TO the purpose of exact and scien-
tifc instruction. And the erection or the
new plant. moreover, will make il pos
sible for the Cambridge university TO put
Immediately in practice system OF med
lea! instruction that is the elimination
Of thirty years of progress by our own
most important schools of medicine, the
medical departments of PennsylVanla'
Johns Hopkins and Harvard universities
and the New York school of Physicins
and Surgeons.
To understand the scope and possible
future meaning OF this latest forward
stem I'm medical teaching one must glance
brieHy at the history Of American meci-
cine during the last half century. Fltty
years ago dissection was still frowned
upon by the general public as a rather
demoniac way of gaining knowledge al
though anatomy. even under this general
,rei,,dice. was the one subject not taught
en,irev bv lectures and textbooks At
tvnical medical school of the period the
attendance Of students was merely h"iii-
nal requirements for graduation incluoeo
less than one-quarter Of the subjects now
deemed necessary. and the obvious WEAK
ness Of the whole system Is strikingiy
evident in the fact that every great name
IN The medical science Of the time IS that
~ a man who had broken the shachies
~ ire education method and had DE-
voted himself to Individual scientific re-
~eareb The modern system, with ITS
grsfe1 courses OF study. its compulsory
e,a-,fua,ions and as a later development.
its constant laboratory experiment.
view Of medical instruction hrst akeh
bv Harvard at the cost Of consideratI
temporary loss OF students-Tas intro
duced only in the '7os- The older nethoa
obviously required little endowment ana
no. much in the way OF buildings or
eo,,ipment: under IT even the most imPor-
tant Of our schools OF medicine were pTac-
ticaIlv private academies. managed y
their respective fscult IS as a source Il
direct private income
The reform first Instituted by Harvard
was aimed. therefore. AGAINST oournsr-
clallsrn now admittedly incompatible with
any university II placed the faculty II
the medical department on the university
-sv-oil made all student fees directly
navable % the university. substituted en-
course OF study IN place Of unrestricted
admission and a system by which TIE
Studen; followed his Own inclination. sHa
trusted 10 time and the succe7s Inherent
g. The change 70 oounteracf the iemp5T-
arr loss Of Students IBstrvcsiou. ho~-
ever. with the single exception ~ anat-
er.v ssH command almost ent rely %
Lectures and textbooks Sincp that trns
he advance q laboratory study from
-.b-elucation has mad three tHirEs g.
s~haoi Il medicine: drst. adequate labor A.
.crv satliarnent for the earlier forms =
st,.se-. investigation. -ecund. a hupi ~
system for The intimate stu5y o. actual
disease. finally. teachiag force sueh ~
cs- only D. gathered where hqsp'tsi IA
r.litiss Offer TO every islresf&sztoT the
ho-. q constantly increaslrg kn9E.s'dse
These three requirements are ;he Sc
q, asuur-a - Iooe7s &zu =7l lEul syn
s-.-ri,- .n the eo7npIetest paEsitas nan