Cornell University Medical College - Samaritan Yearbook (New York, NY)

Page 8 text:

E DED1cATE the 1948 SAMARITAN to the late Dr. Henricus Stander, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, in warm appre- ciation of the thoroughness of his teaching and his sincere interest in our welfare. DEDICATIO 1 1 1 t 4 A celel be 2 recti It is invo PIQS1 fact be hopj may prob g Tl frenu poli of Q1 here the tl In

Page 7 text:

SAIIIAIIIIAII FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY I898-I9A8 ' A, i i CORNELL UNIVERSITY MEDICAL COLLEGE I3OO YORK AVENUE, NEW YORK 21, NEW YORK Editor RICHARD HORACE GRANGER Bafinen' Manager NANCY MARIE PETERS Secretary DOUGLAS A. HADDOW Treasurer JAMES WHITE SAYRE Photography Editor BERNARD RODIER

Page 9 text:

if YEARS NY FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY is an occasion for celebration. In the case of a medical school it must also be a time for a recapitulation and re-evaluation of the di- rection taken by the school in its half-century of existence. It is perhaps presumptuous for us, as senior students still involved in the processes we are discussing, to attempt to present our analysis of these trends. But we feel that the fact that we are still engaged in the business of learning to be physicians certainly entitles us to our opinions. We hope that these, carefully weighed and deliberately delivered, may prove to be of some use to those who would study the problem in all its aspects. I ,The present essay is intended as a comparison of the trends in medical education between 1898 and 1948. The political and financial struggles surrounding the founding of Cornell are recounted elsewhere in this book. We are here primarily concerned with the philo-sophical climate of the times. In 1898 there were few university-affiliated medical schools in the country. There were, rather many proprietary schools owned by their faculties, supported solely by tuitions and fees, casually located, and inadequately staffed and supplied. Some of them-in large cities, near large hospitals, with famous physicians on their staffs-obviously offered superior medical education to others which were in smaller towns with only a few teaching physicians. The entire method of education was primitive. Students followed a physician on rounds of his patients for a given period of time-a year or two-and then were admitted to a series off lectures to which they purchased admission. They sat through the jojo same series of lectures for two successive years and then were given a short oral examination after which they were allowed to practice. The calibre of lectures and examinations varied greatly with the location and dignity of the individual school-so, obviously, did the calibre of the men attracted to their staffs and student bodies. The smaller schools, dependent for survival on the fees paid by the students had to keep admitting a sufficient number or fail to survive. They could not afford to be fussy about the kind of men they took in and later graduated as doctors. The larger, endowed schools were much more careful but still required no more than a high school education or its equivalent for admission. The highest level was that of the few un-iversity schools-Harvard, Columbia, johns Hopkins and Pennsyl- vania among the most widely known. . more richly In the 1890's Osler at Hopkins initiated a revolutionary method of medical education. The course was lengthened and bedside instruction of medical students on the wards of the hospital was introduced. The students followed a gradated course beginning with the more fundamental, pre- clinical subjects and progressing through these to the actual study and practice of bedside medicine. Not only were patients brought into the amphitheaters, but the students vis-i-ted the wards, examined the patients and followed their course. The men who founded Cornell were imbued with the spirit of this innovation. They foresaw its tremendous in- fluence on all medical education and had endeavored to in- stitute at least some of its principles in the school they ran