The Monmouth inquirer., 1923-12-06
MEDICAL SCIENCE
is FAR ADVANCED
Highly Developed Laboratory
Technique 0utstrips the Pres
emf Method of Instruction.

Baltimore, Md.-The growth Of
medical science in the last so years
has radically changed the prere-
quisites, subject matter, methods,
duration and cost of medical educa-
ton, declares an article on training
physicians in a report issued by the
Rockefeller Foundation
knowledge and the technique of its
application have increased enormous
ly. Demands on the time and energy
of teachers have grown heavy and ex-
acting. Expenses for laboratories,
teaching hospitals, salaries and sup
plies have mounted rapidly.
Under the new conditions the earlier
apprenticeship system has disap-
peared, although close association be-
tween student and teacher is valued
and is retained In the best contem-
porary schools.
The proprietary medical college
manned and managed by group Of
practicing physicians has been unable
to maintain itself in competition with
privately endowed or publicly sup
ported schools Private practitioners,
however, still constitute the great
body Of clinical teachers in most med
icaI schools the world over.
The new conditions, according to
the article, have produced the typical
modern center for teaching and in
vestigation the unified university
medical school, in q stimulating sci
entific and cultural environment, con-
trolling its laboratories and hospitals,
under the direction of full-time stats.
To Back Medical School.
Few university schools in the world
have reached or Appropriated this
standard The tendency, however, in
all advanced countries Is toward this
university type Traditional precon-
ceptions, the vested interests Of prac-
titioner professors unfamiliarity with
new ideas and methods and lack Of
funds are the more obvious obstacles
to progress. A leading aim of the
Rockefeller Foundation, it says, is to
further the development of medical
schools of the university type by diff
fusing information, training personnel
and, in important centers, by making
appropriations toward endowment or
buildings, or both
Predicts Change in Methods.
To attempt to teach the medical
student all that is known about health
and disease is, on the face of it, alb
surd, the writer points out. There is
complaint already that too much is
being forced upon him and that he
has no time to think for himself. 1t
Is agreed that an undergraduate med
ical course should not seek to give a
complete education but to ground the
student in fundamentals of knowledge
and technique and to inspire in him
scientific spirit and sense Of social
obligation. These necessary limita-
lions are resulting in the development
of graduate teaching. The time is
coming, the writer predicts, when all
surgical and other specialties and adj
vanced laboratory work will be taught
as graduate subjects.
New Problems Arise.
The raising of standards, with con-
sequent lengthening of the medical
course and its increased cost to both
individual students and to society,
gives rise to a number of serious
questions, the article sets forth. Some
advocate shortening the combined ele-
mentary and secondary school period
by two years, to reduce the age at
which a physician may begin his
career Another suggestion is that
more scholarships be granted to prom
Using students. There is agitation for
a shorter, less expensive type of train
ing to maintain the supply of general
practitioners, on the theory that many
specifically trained doctors win settle
In rural districts which now lack resi-
dent physicians. Many foresee a sys-
tenn of local hospitals serving sur
rounding areas by outpost dispensaries
and visiting nurses.
While some differentiation may be
expected between physicians who go
into general practice Immediately and
those who pursue graduate studies in
the specialties, there is no reason to
suppose that In advanced countries
standards OF medical education will
be lowered. The tendency at present
is in quite the opposite direction.