MEDICAL SCHOOL. The matter of greatest interest at the Medical School, since the last number of the Graduates' Magazine, has been the action of the Faculty in voting that: "In and after June, 1901, candidates for admission to the Medical School must present a degree in Arts, Literature, Philosophy, Science, or Medicine, from a recognized college or scientific school, with the exception of such persons, of suitable age and attainments, as may be admitted by a special vote of the Faculty in each case. All candidates, whether presenting a degree or not, are required to satisfy the Faculty that they have had a course in theoretical and descriptive (inorganic) Chemistry and qualitative analysis sufficient to fit them to pursue the courses in Chemistry given at the Medical School." This move was actively championed by President Eliot at the last meeting of the Harvard Medical School Alumni Association (see September number, pp. 57-59), and the final action of the Faculty was in response to this suggestion. The general feeling seems to be that the move is in the right direction; that the personnel of the School will be improved, and that there can be no doubt that so large a number of college graduates will be attracted by the opportunity to associate with men of the broadest possible education, that the numbers will be kept intact. Harvard is the first unendowed medical school to adopt such a course. By another recent vote, the Faculty has done much to improve the standard of the School. From this time on, all "students who have passed no first-year examination will be dropped from the School." That is to say, that the Medical School does not want, even for the next five years, men who have shown no fitness for a place on the School rolls, even though they may have been able to pass the entrance examination. By the will of the late John Wilkins Carter, '65, the School has come into the possession of a bronze replica of the Pompeian Seated Hermes. — The work in Surgery under the new four-years' course has been much more systematized than was possible under the old three-years' course. The department is under Dr. Warren, Professor of Surgery, and Dr. Porter, Professor of Clinical Surgery. In the second year a beginning is made by a series of recitations by Dr. Burrell at the City Hospital. A careful syllabus has been prepared of the subjects which are to be recited upon, and preparation is made by the student from the American Text-Book of Surgery, and the value of the exercise is increased by the presence of patients illustrating the subjects. Later, similar recitations are held by Dr. Cabot from Warren's "Surgical Pathology and Therapeutics." This exercise is held at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and the pathological conditions of the day's work are illustrated from the clinical material of the hospital. During the first half-year Dr. Scudder gives the class, in sections, a demonstration course in surgical apparatus and bandaging, which includes instruction in the application of splints in cases of fracture and joint disease, and the preparation and arrangement of antiseptic dressings for wounds, and, finally, the directions for emergency work. This is supplemented, in the second half-year, by a course also given to small sections by Dr. Mixter, who demonstrates the use of various instruments used in surgery, explaining the reasons for peculiarities of form, etc., which are so apt to be puzzling to the beginner. Instruction in both the theory and practice of etherization is to be included in this course. In the third year, Dr. Warren continues his work and Dr. Porter begins his. The former gives a course of systematic lectures twice a week, the first part being surgical pathology and general conditions, and the second part being devoted to regional surgery. These are illustrated by specimens from the Museum, by the large collection of diagrams, both new and old, and by occasional lectures, where the introduction of the stereopticon makes almost a clinical demonstration. A third lecture is given at the Massachusetts Hospital, in which it is attempted to collect groups of cases and to demonstrate results of certain operations, such as resections or amputations, together with the various prosthetic apparatus devised for overcoming the deformity caused by the operation, and this exercise is continued by Dr. Cabot in the second half-year. At the bedside, small sections of students are instructed by Dr. Scudder in careful study of fractures, each man being allowed to assist in reducing, setting, and applying splints in cases of recent fracture, thus supplementing the course of surgical apparatus of the second year. In the department of Clinical Surgery the class are expected to attend, in sections of eight or ten men, the out-patient departments of the two hospitals, three weeks at each hospital, there to see cases and to act as assistants in the minor operations. Then there is the Clinical Lecture and the Clinical Conference, where the men read reports of cases which they have worked up, and are questioned and criticised by their classmates, and the paper and criticisms finally reviewed by Dr. Porter. The old surgical visit at the Massachusetts Hospital is now divided into three sections, one going with each of the members of the staff, and the students are thus brought into much closer relation with the patients, and have a chance to see and appreciate much of the modern surgical therapeutics. The fourth year is entirely under the charge of Dr. Porter. The clinical lecture is continued and there is an exercise in clinical diagnosis, where the students have a chance to come face to face with surgical disease, and thus be made to appreciate the difficulties of surgical diagnosis. In the evenings small sections are detailed to visit the accident rooms of the hospital, so that they may see the method of dealing with fresh wounds, fractures, and other emergencies. At the School, Dr. Porter gives his course in operative surgery. This course is then repeated by the students in groups of four upon the cadaver, under the immediate supervision of Dr. Porter, who is assisted by Drs. Monks, Mixter, Conant, Scudder, and C. A. Porter. The idea of the Department will be seen to be, to have each particular student see and handle for himself all the ordinary surgical conditions, and know about the various instruments, and forms of apparatus, and surgical dressings, that are necessary for their proper treatment. A. K. Stone, '83. PLAN FOR A UNIVERSITY CLUB AT HARVARD. During the summer and early autumn the discussion of Harvard's social needs became so general that it was deemed expedient to take some action on it. Accordingly, the following circular was sent out to Harvard men in and near Boston: BOSTON, MASS., Nov. 26, 1895. DEAR SIR, So considerable a number of Harvard graduates have expressed an interest in the project of organizing at Harvard a large and comprehensive club, which shall do for Harvard what the Unions at Oxford and Cambridge have done for those universities, that an informal meeting to discuss this matter will be held at the University Club, 270 Beacon Street, Boston, on Tuesday, Dec. 3, at 8 P. M. The rapid growth of Harvard, and its transformation from a college into a university, have been accompanied by the formation of many small societies, in spite of which the majority of students have no social affiliations, and there is a general feeling of social disintegration. A Union founded on broad and hospitable lines, which should serve to unite the various athletic, intellectual, and social interests of the students, and should afford a meeting place for graduates who visit Cambridge, would prove of great benefit to the University. You are cordially invited to attend the meeting to consider what steps, if shall be taken. any, CHARLES F. ADAMS. WM. E. RUSSELL. CHARLES C. JACKSON. WILLIAM LAWRENCE. WM. A. BANCROFT. WM. R. THAYER. At the meeting, which was well attended, Henry Parkman, '70, was appointed chairman, and Wm. R. Thayer, '81, secretary. After the chairman had called on Mr. Thayer for a fuller statement of the purposes of the meeting than was contained in the call, there followed a general discussion, lasting two hours. Among those who took part in it were President Eliot, '53; Bishop Wm. Lawrence, '71; Charles Francis Adams, '56; G. C. Lee, '95; H. E. Warner, '82; Prof. I. N. Hollis, of the Scientific School; T. C. Thacher, '82; W. H. Wade, '81; Prof. A. B. Hart, '80; and Dr. W. L. Richardson, '64, Dean of the Medical School. Finally, on motion of C. F. Adams, '56, it was voted that the chair appoint a committee of five to investigate the matter and report at another meeting. The chair appointed C. F. Adams, '56, Wm. R. Thayer, '81, H. E. Warner, '82, T. C. Thacher, '82, and Wm. Endicott, 3d, '87. On Jan. 13, 1896, an adjourned meeting was held at the University Club, Boston. C. F. Adams, '56, presided, and the secretary presented the following: REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIVE. At a meeting of Harvard men in Boston, on Dec. 3, 1895, the undersigned were appointed to report on the need and desirability of establishing a large University Club for students and graduates at Harvard. Your Committee report as follows: — Owing to the great success of Harvard as the leading American University, her growth has outstripped all expectation. Ten years ago she had 1,662 students; this year she has 3,600, of whom 2,897 are registered in the departments in Cambridge. As the College population is renewed every three years, the pouring in of nearly 1,000 new-comers a year would, of itself, make social relations difficult; but not mere numbers explain the present social disintegration. The Elective System has broken up Class feeling, and the development of the Professional Schools has rapidly crowded on the supremacy of the College proper. Thus the Academic Department, which was not long ago preeminent in numbers, has now a minority of the students in the University; and of the students in Cambridge, it has only about sixty per cent. There are registered in Cambridge this year Nearly 250 of these students do not reside in Cambridge, but are day scholars, coming from places as remote as Danvers and Abington; 1,200 occupy College dormitories; 1,400 live in private halls and lodging-houses, often distant from half a mile to a mile and a half from the College Yard. The decentralizing effect of such a scattered residence on intimacy is apparent. Numbers also inevitably prevent meal-time at Memorial Hall from being an agreeable occasion for social intercourse. As 1,150 men dine in the Hall, and there are seats for but 750, those who come first have to hurry to give place to those who are hungrily waiting; an arrangement as little conducive as a city lunch counter to sociability, good manners, or digestion. On examination, your Committee find that among the students themselves there has been no increase in facilities for social intercourse at all proportionate to the growth in population. The two largest societies, the Hasty Pudding and Pi Eta, have together a membership of about 125 from each Class. Besides these, there are half a dozen small clubs, which take in from 8 to 12 from a Class, and the Sophomore "Dickey," with its outer shell, the Institute of 1770. Since all the members of these clubs and societies are practically included, by their Senior Year, in the Hasty Pudding and Pi Eta, it follows that at any one time less than 300 men (10 per cent.) have social affiliations. Moreover, the existing societies take no account of the men in the Professional Schools and Freshman Class, so that only 1,150 out of 2,900 students in Cambridge may be considered as socially eligible, and of these less than 300-about 25 per cent.—are actually served by the existing organizations. Outside of these societies there is no recognized meeting-place for social intercourse, beyond two public billiard saloons and a sandwich counter, where some students congregate. In fact, the students do not meet; and the result is what may be expected. Unless a fellow comes from a large preparatory school, or has special advantages, he may never enjoy that good-fellowship which is one of the most important formative influences, as it is one of the dearest memories, of college life. Class feeling, as we have stated, is obsolete, inevitably destroyed by the Elective System: two classmates, whose names fall together alphabetically, may sit side by side at their entrance examinations, and never meet afterward in their four-years' course. Will College feeling-will devotion to Harvard go too? - In order to get at the views of the students themselves, your Committee asked, through the Harvard Crimson, for a frank expression of opinion. It also had books placed at convenient points to be signed by such students as needed and would join a University Club. In less than four days 1,010 men signed. The signatures represent every Class, School, and set in Cambridge, popular leaders and "society men" being proportionately as numerous as non-society men, and the contingent of those who live most economically being notably large. Thus, 144 of the 350 who board at the Foxcroft signed the book there. |