The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-07-13
Medicines New Horizon.

ieW eulCdIlOndl horizon, leu us note the
development in medical training. When
Walter Reed, the most distinguished
medical graduate Of the University of
Virginia, left his alma mater, he carried
with him his degree obtained after
single years medical study. He made
remarkable contributions to science,
and wrote large his name in the annals
of sanitation, but the school which sent
him forth was willing to indorse him
with precisely one-fourth the equip
ment, in length of study, which it now
demands of it's students! Surely this is
a commentary on the progress of
medical education.
But the change does not stop here.
A generation ago, the medical student
was drilled in anatomy, physiology,
pharmacology, materia medica, obstet-
RIGS, medicine and surgery. Then came
the era of Koch's great work, and
pathology and bacteriology were added
to the course. Yet the physician was
trained primarily to cure disease.
To-day the emphasis has been changed,
and the medical student is being
equipped above all else to prevent
disease. He is drilled in his bacteri-
ology and is taught how the preventable
diseases of the race are spread. He is
taught to Identify the typhoid bacillus,
and is told where to look for it. He is
made to see that he is a social servant,
rather than the practitioner of mystic
healing art. And, better still, the
fundamentals of the science which he is
to master are being taught the children
in the preparatory schools, in order
that they, too, may apply the saving
principles of prevention.
Broader University Training.
Again, our universities have
broader horizon, and are doing a work
of infinite more service to the world
than ever before To understand this
we must appreciate the fact that true
progress in original investigation is
dependent, not upon good teacher only,
but upon ample facilities. The we'll
equipped laboratory and the we'll
stocked library are prime necessities,
which must be had before university
can give graduate instruction worthy
of the name Indeed, many Of our best
educational authorities claim that no
school should attempt to do graduate
work unless it has an endowment
running into the millions and faculty
large enough to give each instructor
not more than half a-dozen pupils.
Yet even with these tremendous
exactions upon them, there are a num-
Der of schools in the South prepared to
give graduate instruction in some of
the most important branches. Wisely
enough they limit their field, but they
give, for instance, to the young man
with leaning toward engineering
adequate courses in either civil,
mechanical, mining, chemical or cleo
trical engineering and put at his
disposal laboratories with all the facili-
ties he needs. The boy who wishes to
work in biology will find, upon entering
our universities for graduate work,
wide variety of subjects open to him
zoology, botany, plant physiology and
the like. In chemistry he will find
instructors who can lead him into those
distant fields Of experiment where the
wonders of modern science are being
wrought.
All Of this has undoubtedly contrib
uted to our broader horizon, and all has
played part in making us see that
education means more than the ground
ing of boy or girl in the wel-worn
fundamentals of a commonplace knowl-
edge. The South, in fact, is daily
seeing its opportunities for the more
efficient training of its young people,
and is preparing to give to them the