Page images
PDF
EPUB

CHAPTER XXVIII.

PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION.1

COMPARISON OF PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS.

Theological schools lack but 1 of numbering 150, while medical schools number 1 more than 150. Law schools are about half as many, 72, and dental schools about

one-third, 45.

There are more than twice as many students of medicine as of either law or theology-medical students, 22,887; law, 8,950; theological, 8,050. These figures show an increase in the number of medical students of 1,085, of law students 1,639, of theological 392.

According to the statistics, the number of law students has nearly doubled in the last five years. It is probable this increase is attributable to the fact that when young men now begin the study of law they are no longer content with the desultory instruction of private offices, where so frequently they can obtain only a superficial knowledge of law, but they now seek the doors of a regular law school, where instruction is given systematically to a group of young men who receive fresh inspiration from the pursuit of a common purpose; where there is an esprit de corps giving constant stimulus to delve into the labyrinths of jurisprudence. There was an increase of about 1,200 in the number of dental students-from 4,152 to 5,347.

There were 1,413 women engaged in the study of medicine, a variation of only 6 from the number of the previous year, and 65 studying law.

Although there was an increase of about 1,100 in the number of medical students, there was a decrease of 306 in medical graduates. This decrease in the percentage of graduates is due to the lengthened course, and will probably become still more noticeable in the future when several other schools shall have lengthened their courses, a step they have already determined upon.

The whole amount of endowment funds of theological schools was $16,083,683. While theological schools probably have relatively larger endowments than any other class of institutions whatever, unless the colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts should be excepted, medical and law schools have practically no endowments. The funds of all the medical schools combined, so far as reported, do not equal that of Chicago Theological Seminary alone, or of Princeton Seminary, or of Union Theological Seminary, New York. The same is probably true of the law schools.

It is true that both medical and law schools sometimes receive benefits from the funds of the universities to which they may be attached, but these are to some extent incidental benefits, the donors of the funds bestowing them on the universities with perhaps little thought of helping the professional schools, and the university officers dispensing them a share with a grudging hand.

Probably one reason why medical and law schools receive so few benefactions is the already crowded condition of these two professions. One thinks, why should aid be given to these institutions, when there is already a superabundance of lawyers and doctors who must contend against sharp competition and who find the struggle to maintain themselves in their vocations becoming harder each year, and when the number of students is still constantly increasing. If there are so many now, the bestowment of benefactions would only increase the number. But when medical schools shall have elevated their entrance requirements, and law schools shall have adopted courses equaling those of medicine, the number of candidates will probably be smaller, or at least the number completing the courses will probably be smaller. In respect to libraries the contrast is nearly as great. The whole number of volumes in theological libraries was 1,089,897; in medical libraries, 87,259; in law libraries, 188,645. Of the 151 medical schools, only 21 can really be said to possess libraries at all, and only 6 of these have over 5,000 volumes. The medical department of the University of Pennsylvania is the only one having 10,000 volumes;

[blocks in formation]

Hahnemann Medical College, of Philadelphia, has 8,000; the University of Michigan medical school, 6,000, and Johns Hopkins University medical school, Nashville Medical College, and the University of Buffalo medical school have each about 5,000 volumes. It should be remembered, however, that medical libraries are not so important, for, on account of the constant variation in medical treatment, it is more important that physicians have access to current medical periodicals rather than to antiquated volumes of a library.

Union Theological Seminary, New York, has the largest library of any seminary, viz, 65,716; Hartford Theological Seminary, Connecticut, comes second with 63,000, and Princeton Seminary third with 57,203. Fifteen other seminaries have libraries of over 20,000 volumes each. Eighteen other seminaries have between 5,000 and 20,000 volumes.

Volumes in theological libraries.

Union Theological Seminary, New York.....
Hartford Theological Seminary, Connecticut.
Princeton Theological Seminary, New Jersey

Seminary of the Reformed Dutch Church in America, New Jersey.

Divinity School of the University of Chicago.
Drew Theological Seminary, New Jersey.
Rochester Theological Seminary.

Meadville Theological Seminary.

Theological Seminary of St. Sulpice and St. Mary's University, Baltimore.

Divinity School of Harvard University.

General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church, New
York

Concordia Theological Seminary, Missouri.

Western Theological Seminary, Allegheny.

Theological Seminary of St. Charles Borromeo, Pennsylvania.

Auburn Theological Seminary

Newton Theological Institution..

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Presbyterian Theological Seminary, South Carolina.

65, 716 63,000 57, 203

42, 750 40,000

32. 138

28, 034

27,000

27,000

26, 013

25, 900

25,400

25,000

23,000

22.352

20, 600

20,000 20, 000

Law schools also, with a few notable exceptions, show a great deficiency in regard to libraries. Of the 72 law schools about one-third have libraries. Harvard University law school heads the list with 33,000 volumes, and is spending about $6,000 annually in enlarging and improving its library. Columbia College law school comes second with 25,000 volumes. The law school of Cornell University has a larger number of volumes than most other schools, viz, 23,400. "The famous library of the late Nathaniel C. Moak, of Albany, N. Y., which was reputed the finest private law library in the United States, was purchased and presented to the Cornell law school by the widow of the Hon. Douglass Boardman, the former dean of that school." But if medical colleges have no endowments and no libraries, yet when we consider the number of professors and instructors the tables are turned completely; medical colleges rank far ahead of theological schools in this particular. If an institution has no productive funds, only rented buildings, and but few students, it can fill up the catalogue with names of professors of all kinds of subjects. This is easily done with little or no cost in medicine, where there are so many young men seeking a practice and who see in a professorship a stimulus to medical study, and who hope that in trying to instruct others they themselves may acquire some knowledge (docendo discimus), and that a college professorship will give them some of that practice they stand in such need of. On the other side there are great hopes, strengthened by occasional hints, that each professor will endeavor to secure the attendance of at least two or three students. But this expectation is sometimes disappointed, for in some cases there are more professors than medical students.

Chicago Theological Seminary, with an endowment of over $1,250,000, has only 15 professors; the same number reported by a medical school with an even dozen of students. Seventeen medical schools, with less than three dozen students each, have as many professors as Princeton or Union Theological Seminary, with endowments of over $1,000,000.

MEDICAL EDUCATION.

Of the whole number of 22,887 medical students, over one-third are to be found in the three cities, Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia. St. Louis and Baltimore also have large numbers. Chicago has a larger number of medical students than any other city in the United States, viz, 2,856, post-graduate students being included. New York comes second, with 2,726, followed by Philadelphia with 2,339; and St. Lonis with 1,399, and Baltimore with 1,293. It may cause some surprise that the list is not headed by New York, the great metropolis of America, with the largest

[blocks in formation]

ED 9539*

HOMEOP. MED.

DIAGRAM 1.-Showing number of professional students for five years.

3000

2000

1000

population within its narrow confines of any American city, where there is no longer room for growth except on the tops of houses, not to mention the immense population in its vicinity, all of which really make one great city, divided only by arbitrary civic lines, with numerous hospitals unsurpassed in the United States, and furnishing abundant material for clinical instruction, as well as providing many openings for resident physicians in hospitals.

It is perhaps probable that New York would have the largest number of medical students if it were not for the restrictions upon matriculation in medical colleges in the State of New York. Medical schools in other cities have restrictions by State boards upon graduation, but none of them have to contend against restrictions upon the entrance of students like we find in New York. Although the qualifications required by the State board in New York for entrance to medical colleges are not at all difficult, they no doubt keep away many young men on account of their uncerTOTAL MEDICAL.

[blocks in formation]

732

DIAGRAM 2.-Showing number of students in 1894-95.

tainty as to what is required, and also because determination to enter a medical college is frequently deferred till the last moment, when it is too late to investigate requirements.

That the matriculation requirements of the State board deter students from attendance in New York is to be inferred from comparison of the number of students in the different cities now and in 1888-89, before the requirements were made (students in post-graduate schools being omitted):

[blocks in formation]

In 1888-89 the medical schools in New York enrolled nearly one-seventh of the whole number of medical students in the United States (students in post-graduate schools not being included); in 1894-95 they enrolled only about one-eleventh of the whole number. If, however, the medical schools in New York shall give a better training than those in other cities they will eventually attain superior results in attendance. Moreover, if the New York schools have better student material, young men of higher preliminary attainments than other schools, they will undoubtedly be able to graduate students with better medical attainments, and especially with better qualifications for continued progress in medical knowledge. Whether these results shall be attained or not is a question which time alone can determine.

It must be remembered that it was a Chicago medical college which first took the advance step of requiring three annual courses of lectures, arranged on a graded system, and since then continued progress has been made in still further lengthening the courses and providing equipment for laboratory and clinical instruction. As there seems to be no deficiency of financial resources necessary to consummate many stupendous enterprises, its medical schools will probably fare as well in this regard as those in any other part of the country. The Illinois State medical board will furnish an effective stimulus to the highest medical instruction, for although it does not require an examination of graduates of certain recognized institutions, it has possibly accomplished more in elevating the medical standard than any other State

board.

But one of the most favorable conditions to a large attendance of students at Chicago is its central location. Not only from more eastern States will it gather students, but on the western side the limit is only reached at the Pacific, while on the south extends to the Gulf of Mexico the vast territory with a larger proportion of youth than in any other section of the Union.

"No pent-up Utica contracts our powers;
The whole boundless continent is ours.'

This probably explains to a larger extent than otherwise the growing number of students at Chicago, and this same condition of centrality will operate to swell the number still larger for several years to come.

Although it may be said that in these days of rapid transit, of flying vestibules and palace cars, the East and West are brought closer together, and that for a few extra dollars the medical students of a far Western State can easily reach the metropolis of the East, yet the barriers of distance are still not entirely annihilated. There is always a larger acquaintance with the conditions and opportunities, educational or other, to be found in the nearer city of nearly equal importance, besides the many ties of friendship and business intercourse.

It should occasion no surprise to see a university with its many departments grow in the number of students in attendance until it reaches one or two thousand or even three thousand; nor even to see so many students in a literary college, where a general education is being sought by young men, who go up higher, from the many thousands in the secondary schools, afterwards to branch out into every calling. But it is a matter of surprise to see the large number of students in some medical schools, all of them preparing for the same kind of work, especially when consideration is had of the numerous medical schools to be found on every side.

If the number of medical students continues to increase during the next few years as it has of late there will soon be some medical schools with more than 1,000 students. Already the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania has reached an attendance of 818 students, and the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia follows closely with 726. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Baltimore, the Harvard medical school, and Bellevue Hospital Medical College have each nearly 500 students. But in medicine, as in everything else, "Westward the star of empire takes its way," and we must go to the great metropolis by the Lakes to find the largest medical concourse. Rush Medical College, of Chicago, a department of Lake Forest University, has a larger number of students than any other medical college in the United States, namely, 810. This, too, notwithstanding the fact that in Chicago there are 10 medical schools, besides several post-graduate schools.

MEDICAL STUDENTS TO POPULATION.

Much has been said about the large number of medical students to population in this country as compared with the number in other countries-England, France, Italy, Brazil, etc.-as if it were something to be greatly deprecated. It was partly on account of the large number of medical students in this country that the course in medical colleges was lengthened to three years, and when this did not diminish the number of students it was lengthened to four years, and now the matriculation requirements must be elevated for the same reason.

It is not to be denied that the proportion of medical students in this country is

« PreviousContinue »