THE DARTMOUTH MEDICAL SCHOOL

The medical department of Dartmouth College was established by the trustees in 1798. Since that time it has continuously graduated classes in medicine and is the fourth oldest medical college in the country.

The enrollment for the past year was forty-one, a decrease as compared with recently preceding years. The reasons for this decrease are to be found in two facts: First, the rapidly increasing requirements for admission (the last of which went into effect, at the beginning of the past year), being the demand for two years of preparatory college work. Many schools still admit with only high school preparation and many more demand but one year of college work. The young man, with the tendency of the age to hasten to material achievement, is prone to take the shortest cut; and when a school advances its requirements beyond that of its natural competitors it inevitably, for a time, suffers in numbers.

The second cause of decreased enrollment is due to the fact that fewer men than heretofore are studying medicine throughout the country; the number having diminished between 20 and 25 per cent in the last five years.

Under the present arrangement a college undergraduate may enter the Dartmouth Medical School at the beginning of his junior year and thus secure two degrees in six years, his B.S. at the end of four years, and his M.D. at the end of the sixth year. The medical course, with the necessary hospital work following it, constitutes today the longest, hardest, and most expensive road to any of the professions. The first two years of the medical course as now arranged are practically all pure science, and as definitely cultural and developmental in character as any of the electives in science. In view of these facts the trustees and faculty have felt that when medical electives are taken at the beginning of junior year the work may properly point towards both degrees.

Dr. Gilman D. Frost is transferred from the department of Anatomy to that of Theory and Practice of Medicine, and Dr. Franklin W. White of Boston is added as lecturer on Practice. Dr. Fred P. Lord comes from the University of lowa to the department of Anatomy. Doctor Lord is a son of Professor John K. Lord and has taught anatomy in lowa for eight years. Dr. J. M. Gile is transferred from the department of Practice to that of Surgery.

The library room in the new Medical Building is being equipped with stacks and reading tables; the books of the medical department will be moved to it from the college library and it will be ready for occupancy in the fall. The operating room at the hospital has been entirely remodelled and has been rendered most perfect in equipment and appointment. The number of hospital patients has steadily increased, 873 having been treated during the year just closed. These have provided ample clinical material for students, and. the close proximity of school and hospital has rendered it so easily available that it has been used to most excellent advantage. Plans are now under way for making addition to the hospital to meet increasing demands for its service.

Graduates of the School, almost without exception, secure , excellent outside hospital appointments, some of the best appointments in .New York City, Boston, and Worcester having been won in competitive examination by the class recently graduated.

In steadily raising the standard of admission and curriculum the faculty and trustees have taken the step that they believe the future of medical education demands, and though the number may be temporarily decreased, their belief is that the wisdom of the step will speak for itself in the long reputation of an already old and honored school.