Excerpt from Medical Education: An Address Delivered Before the Harvard Medical Alumni Association, June 26, 1894

Your President was kind enough, in his note ask ing me to be present on this happy occasion, to pro pose thati should speak on the subject of Medical Education. It is possibly a well-worn theme, espe cially before you, who have such elaborate reports, and I am glad to say such encouraging reports, fromyear to year Of the progress of this great School; but there are still some points of value, it seems to me, which we can consider here. I remember very well indeed, in the days of the elder Gross, hearing da' nansemn of medical education and the progress that we ought to have, bushels of talk and thimblefuls of action; but, after all, when you consider it, these discussions, though they led at that time to very meagre action, were not without their results, and great results, too. They were slowly leavening the whole lump of the profession. They gradually made the profession the support of all the progress that we have seen; and I am sure that the medical schools, even, I believe, Harvard University itself, would never have taken the remarkable steps in advance which have been taken in the last few years, were it not for that very constant talk, that very constant working of the leaven throughout the profession. [applause] I trust the profession. I trust them profoundly. They have ever been better in that re spect than the schools till of late. [applause] There has been certainly a remarkable wave Of progress passing over this country in the matter of medical education in the last few years. It has been demonstrated, first of all, by the creation of State Boards of Health, and especially by the noble Illinois State Board of Health, a body which has done more for medical education than any other, I believe, in this country [applause], because it fixed an advancedstandard. These boards now have been established in almost all the States; and they have been followed by a still more notable advance, namely, the estab lishment of State Boards of Medical Examiners, wholly independent, as they ought to be, of the med ical schools themselves. Again, another very remark able indication is that our universities and colleges all over the land are establishing distinct courses leading up to those of the various professional schools, medi cine among them. And what does this mean but that the medical schools want better men, and that the colleges are going to furnish them? In addition to this, another important indication in the same di rection, which Dr. Langmaid has just alluded to, is the establishment for the first time of a section of Medical Pedagogics in connection with the Pan American Medical Congress. I hailed with great delight another similar indication in the programme of the American Surgical Association last month in Washington, on seeing that one of the leading papers by the distinguished gentleman who will address you later, our friend Dr. Billings, of Washington, was enti tled Methods of Teaching Surgery. It developed what to my mind was one of the most fruitful, and to me personally one of the most useful, debates that was held in that body.

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