ON THE STUDY OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY AS A PART Of the MedICAL CURRICULUM. By HARRISON ALLEN, of Philadelphia, Pa. IF I am correctly informed, the meetings of this Association prove valuable to its members not only by reason of the facilities afforded for the announcement of discoveries, but also by the opportunities presented to teachers and others, interested in education, to discuss the best methods of conducting courses of instruction in natural science. It occurred to me in this connection that a short account of an experiment in teaching comparative anatomy to medical students might not be unwelcome, particularly since the experiment was conceived upon the didactic plan, and is now finished. I desire to emphasize the didactic nature of the experiment, for it is not likely that a similar series of lectures will again be given, at least while the drift of opinion for demonstrative teaching conjoined with laboratory work continues to be so influential.

Comparative anatomy was founded by John Hunter, a practising physician and surgeon. The researches of this remarkable man tended at all times toward his own profession. With him the study of the structure of animals was a part of the selfimposed task, the performance of which made him not only the great comparative anatomist and physiologist, but the great surgeon as well. No name is more revered in the annals of English medicine than that of Hunter - Harvey alone excepted. It is doubtless largely owing to this circumstance that comparative anatomy has so long held a place in the medical curriculum of the British schools, and that the institutions in this country, based upon the British model, early introduced it. The University of Pennsylvania, which imitated the University of Edinburgh,-in its early history essayed such a course of instruction, but subsequently abandoned it. The McGill University, at Montreal, naturally imbibed the English methods of teaching. It yet continues to exact of her candidates for the medical degree satisfactory proof that they possess a fair knowledge of the anatomy of the lower animals. In our colleges efforts have from time to time been made to introduce comparative anatomy but without the exercise of any great vigor. As a rule it may be said its claims have been ignored, and indeed, for various reasons actively attacked. The objections thus

far urged have come from three separate directions. First, from the teachers in the preparatory schools, who claim that the study of animal structure and habit should be completed before the student matriculates in medicine. Second, from physicians interested in comparative anatomy, who do not believe that the subject is of sufficient importance to take the time of the student who is preparing for the difficult practical art of healing, and who is already overworked. Third, from those who believe that the medical man is all the worse for possessing the knowledge, and should under no conceivable circumstances be encouraged in getting it. In the second group of the objectors, I may place the name of my friend Professor Wilder,1 and in the third that of Professor Huxley. I hope the experience to be recorded here will satisfy the objectors mentioned under the first and second heads, and possibly receive qualified sanction from the stalworth nihilist included under the third.

In 1865, Dr. George B. Wood, of Philadelphia, founded a chair of Medical Zoology and Comparative Anatomy in the University of Pennsylvania. It was particularly enjoined by its founder that these subjects should be taught with special reference to their medical relations. The course was not to be a part of a preparatory training to medicine but one coincident therewith. Dr. Wood had been a distinguished professor in the medical department,— having held the chairs of Materia Medica and Practice of Medicine. He wished special attention to be given to the parasites of man and to the articles of the materia medica procured from animals. Acting upon this instruction, I gave an outline of the animal kingdom, and elements of medical zoology in each course of lectures, giving in all between the years 1865 and 1879 thirteen courses of lectures, of thirty-six lectures in each. I made prominent in the lectures the features already mentioned -- but added thereto expositions of the great generalizations that have been from time to time announced in general anatomy and biology. Thus separate lectures were given upon the subjects of Bilateral Symmetry; on the meaning of the terms "generalization" and specialization;" on Homology; on Evolution. Attention in addition was directed in extenso to the tendencies exhibited by

1 New York Medical Journ. Oct. 1877, 33, concluding paragraph.

2 Professor Huxley in America. N. Y. Tribune Extra, 1876, No. 36, p. 10.