CHAPTER XII. PROFESSIONAL INSTRUCTION. The efforts made in several institutions to raise the standard of professional training in the United States, the discussions of the subject in professional journals and popular magazines, and its intrinsic importance give particular interest to the columns of the succeeding summary showing for the three classes of professional schools the number and proportion of students who had received a degree in art or science prior to entering upon their professional studies. Theology leads in this respect, having 23 per cent. of students who had taken degrees, as against 18 per cent. in law schools, 8 per cent. in the regular medical schools, and 9 per cent. in the homoeopathic. The statistics do not indicate to the full extent the advantage which theology has over the other professions in respect to the previous training of its students. As will be seen by reference to the detailed Table 65, Column 15, the theological schools of several denominations maintain courses from five to seven years in duration. In such cases three or four years are given to a course of study similar in character to that of classical colleges; the student passes from this to the special theological course, receiving a degree only at the end of the latter. Considering the country by geographical sections, it will be seen that the North Atlantic section surpasses all others in the relative proportion of students in all classes of professional schools holding degrees. The number of individual States which have a high showing in this respect is small, as will be seen by reference to the summaries, Tables 64, 66, and 68. The States in which fifty per cent. or more of professional students had taken a college degree are, for theology, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey; for law, Alabama and Massachusetts. As regards medical students, no State shows so high a percentage as fifty, considering the students of regular schools only. Massachusetts makes the nearest approach, having forty-five per cent. of graduates in the total of such students. Considering eclectic schools Illinois has 65 per cent. of graduates in the total number of students. In previous Reports reference has been made to the proposition of the academic council of Harvard University for the reduction of the college course for bachelors of art who propose to enter the professional schools and the graduate department. The proposition has been discussed at several meetings of the college faculty, but as yet they have not seen their way to recommend any definite action. Intimately connected with the question of the previous preparation of professional students is that of the extension and elevation of the professional courses themselves. The medical schools are at present the subject of the chief efforts in this direction. President Barnard, of Columbia College, reports that the final examinations in the medical school have been very searching the present year, and that arrangements have been made for enforcing equally vigorous entrance examinations in the future. He predicts that whatever may be lost in numbers by this course will be abundantly compensated in the improved character and respectability of the profession. The auxiliary faculty of medicine in the University of Pennsylvania materially increases the provision for a high order of professional training. This course supplements the customary course of medical lectures by lectures on collateral branches of science essential to the thorough education of the physician. It is essentially a post-graduate course. Matriculates must have entered at least upon the third year of medical study, and the second year in the auxiliary department is taken in connection with the fourth of the regular medical course. The need of endowment funds for professional schools is emphasized by the history of efforts already made for the improvement of medical education. President Dwight, of Yale University, in his report for 1887, calls attention to the fact that the raising of the standards of the school, an experiment which Yale was one of the first to make, has caused a diminution in attendance. "The great need of the school at the present time," he says "is an endowment which may furnish it with a sufficient income to supply its wants and to enable its professors, or some of them, to devote their whole time and effort to the work of instruction." H. P. Bowditch, dean of the medical school of Harvard University, in his report for 1887-88, says: "The improvement of the course of study has been a subject of grave consideration by the faculty. The establishment of a compulsory four-years' graded course has been formally recognized as desirable as soon as a proper financial basis can be assured. What this basis should be, or in other words, what loss the school would be likely to incur from making the change, is a question about which considerable difference of opinion prevails. A committee charged with the consideration of the subject reported that, in their judgment, a subscription income of $20,000 a year for five years would justify the establishment of such a coursé. As it was evidently impossible to obtain a sufficient guaranty fund, the action of the faculty was limited to making certain changes in the course of instruction." That the condition of professional schools with respect to endowments is far from satisfactory the statistics before us plainly indicate. Theological schools are most favored in this respect, sixty-one or 44 per cent. of the entire number reporting endowments to the total amount of $11,428,586. Of law schools only one reports endowment, and of medical schools seven. Of this number one is homeopathic and six regular, two of the latter being schools for women. One dental and one pharmaceutical school also report endowments. It should be borne in mind that professional schools included in a university foundation generally share in the endowment of the same. The chief particulars of the current record of the professional schools of the United States, as reported from the several States and Territories, are presented in the summaries, Tables 64, 66, and 68. Considering the country by geographical sections, the totals appear as follows: TABLE 62.-Summary of Statistics of Schools of Theology, Law, and Medicine, by Geographical Sections, for 1887-88. The following is a comparative statement of the number of schools of theology (including theological departments) reporting to this Bureau each year from 1873 to 1858 inclusive (1-83 omitted), with the number of professors and number of students: |