between him and a really intelligent grasp of the principles and bearing of pathology. One is not surprised to find the instruction once more heavily inclined to the didactic side: 72 out of 144 hours at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Chicago; 90 out of 140 at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore.[1]
Bacteriology—the last of the sciences concerning which there is even a pretense—fares in general rather worse. At the Medico-Chirurgical of Philadelphia the subject is the best developed of all the scientific branches; elsewhere it is a mere tag to pathology. Sterilizers, incubators, and culture-tubes are of course common enough; this is the orthodox equipment, stipulated by the state boards. But the subject cannot be intelligently studied without animals,—cats, rabbits, or guinea pigs. In general, one finds no arrangements to care for animals either before or during experimentation.[2] As a rule, "they are too difficult to keep;" at Creighton, Oakland (California), the Cleveland College of Physicians and Surgeons, the University of Vermont, Georgetown University (Washington), they are "got as needed," —elsewhere, often not even then. "I think I am not violating any confidence," says Dr. Victor C. Vaughan,[3] "when I say that there are certain men who teach bacteriology who start at the beginning of their lectures with a lot of tubes already made. They do not know enough about bacteriology to make cultures. They hold up these tubes and say, 'This is a diphtheria culture; this is a culture of tubercle bacillus,' and if by any chance a culture goes bad, they send and get another."
(3) There yet remains for our consideration the third variety of school on the high school or equivalent basis, namely, those described as basely mercenary. In point of equipment and teaching methods these schools are not substantially different from institutions on a still lower basis.[4] Some of the latter institutions show, indeed, a better spirit: the University of Alabama, at Mobile, the College of Physicians and Surgeons and the School of Medicine, at Atlanta, the Medical College of the State of South Carolina, at Charleston, are not without traditions and a certain present dignity. Educationally, however, subject to certain exceptions to be specified from time to time, they may without violence be considered together; for limitations of one kind or another—now of equipment, now of intention, again of both—make the effective teaching of any of the laboratory sciences frankly impossible. They are for the most part cramming establishments, in many of which it is freely admitted that the students do not even own the regular textbooks. Their main weapon is the quiz-compend. Such laboratories as they have cannot be effectively used; of teaching accessories—books, museum, modern charts, or models—they are generally devoid.
- ↑ At the Johns Hopkins, out of a total of 400 hours, 40 are didactic; at Minnesota, out of 456, 146; at Wake Forest, out of 195, 50.
- ↑ The College of Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore, operates a Pasteur plant, but animals are only slightly used in teaching.
- ↑ Third Annual Conference, Council on American Medical Education, American Medical Association, held in Chicago, April 29, 1907, p. 59.
- ↑ Those in the south and elsewhere asking two years of a high school, or less
