cratean, both of St. Louis, at the Western Eclectic (Kansas City), or at the College of Physicians and Surgeons (Denver). The Littlejohn School of Osteopathy (Chicago) was in the throes of rebuilding to accommodate the growing classes that seek its superior advantages: every "laboratory" but that of chemistry was dismantled; there was no prospect that they could be again set up for months, but the teaching of "science" went on just the same.[1]
Chemistry is the "star" laboratory course of these schools—"medical chemistry," of course. It never rises above a fair high school level and often falls far below it. At Chattanooga the students could not follow the subject, however simply presented. The laboratories are of the most elementary description,—sometimes active and in good order, as at Mobile and Augusta, at the Illinois Medical College, and at the Eclectic Medical College of New York; oftener in utter disorder, as at the Maryland Medical College (Baltimore). At the University of Oregon (Portland) and Willamette (Salem, Oregon) there is no running water at the desks; at the North Carolina Medical College (Charlotte) a single set of reagents is provided for the entire class; at the University Medical College, Kansas City (Missouri), instead of individual reagent sets, huge bottles are provided for general use.
Almost, but not quite all the schools dissect. At Meridian (Mississippi), for example, anatomical material is too difficult to get. In Chicago they have learned how to teach anatomy practically without dissection. At the National Medical University the teacher dictates, the students learn; this process is kept on, night after night, from October until the middle of April. So far there had been no dissection at all, but there would be ultimately, in "May or June," though there were no cadavers at hand as yet. At the Jenner Medical College—also a Chicago night school—a similarly enlightened pedagogy was employed: "the subject is taught by lectures, with dissection from May 15 until the close of the session." The same methods are practised at Pulte—the Cincinnati homeopathic school—where dissection had not yet begun on December 14: “the anatomy teaching goes on independent of dissecting." At Kirksville, Missouri, in the American School of Osteopathy, anatomy is taught with a textbook the first year; lectures, demonstrating, and dissecting are postponed to the second year,—and the whole course takes but three years, all told. The Central College of Osteopathy, Kansas City, Missouri, holds that the student should know anatomy before he dissects: "he will get more out of it." On November 8 there was no cadaver in the school: they already had had one and "will get another in February." At the Bennett Medical College, Chicago, there was witnessed a quiz in anatomy in a room without a skeleton, bone, or chart. At the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Denver, it was impossible to find any evidence of active dissecting; and it was admitted that material was scarce: "there had been two bodies this year, ten men on each."
- ↑ These schools are generally quite devoid of teaching aids,—charts, modern models, etc. The rooms are bare. What they have is out of reach of the students: "if it were not locked up, it would disappear,"—a significant indication of the sort of students gathered in by low standards.
