THE MEDICAL SCHOOL

Nine men of the class of 1912, the one hundred and fifteenth to be graduated from the Medical School, received the Doctor's degree on April 23, at Commencement exercises held in common with the graduating classes of the Thayer and Tuck Schools. This first consolidation of the commencement exercises of the three schools proved peculiarly felicitous, and the continuance of the plan should serve as an active influence toward the further development of the existing community of interest and endeavor among the graduate departments of the College.

During the session of 1911-12 the total enrollment of students in the school was thirty-six, a decrease as compared with previous years and a reminder of the fact that the increased entrance requirements established in 1910 have been rigidly enforced. The decrease is, of course, most marked in the totals for the first and second-year classes, the second-year class containing seven studnts, the first-year, eight. For the session of 1912-13 there will be a slight increase in the number of entering students and it appears probable that the low point in student enrollment has now been reached, and that a gradually increasing number of men may be expected to register. The six-year combined course has not thus far attracted the number of men that had been thought probable, this partly from the rigidity of the outlined course, a consideration that has prevented its election by many men desirous of taking it, and partly from the heavy demands made by it upon the' student's time and energy during the two years of actually combined study. The first difficulty will become less operative as the course becomes better known among the men about to enter college, since such men will be able to meet the need for an immediate election of the necessary preliminary courses immediately upon their entrance into the academic department. As to the second, it would be of great advantage to the successful working out of the plan could some re-arrangement of credits be made such that certain courses of the early medical curriculum now refused academic credit might- be accepted as counting toward the hours necessary for the Bachelor's degree. As to the class-room results of the increased entrance requirements in force, the men entering the school under the requirements have developed an earnestness of purpose and an ability for patient and careful application that cannot fail to be of value during the later years of their course in the school as well as in the actual practice of their profession.

The record shown by the graduates of the school continues at its former excellence. The men just graduated have been able to secure coveted positions in some of the best hospitals in New England, including the City Hospitals of Boston and Worcester, and the Rhode Island General Hospital of Providence. Data collected and published by the Council on Medical Education of the American Medical Association shows that of a total of twelve Dartmouth graduates of the classes from 1907 to 1911, inclusive, examined by the licensing board of five states during the past year, none of the candidates failed to. pass the examinations. This record was equalled by only thirteen others from the total of 119 medical schools in the United States.

For the coming year there is every indication that the work of the school may be carried on under increasingly better conditions. The new library is being provided with the representative current medical journals, while every endeavor is being made to place upon its shelves the standard text and reference books dealing with the various sides of medicine. The movement has been aided through the contribution of books by several members of the faculty, and the library is expected to grow rapidly into a well-equipped storehouse of modern books and periodicals. The proposed addition of a new wing to the present hospital building is a most encouraging sign of the continued growth of that institution. Work is to be begun immediately upon the new structure, which will add twenty-eight beds to the forty now maintained, and will comprise a maternity ward, a children's ward, and an additional general ward, as well as some private rooms. This increase of seventy per cent in the present capacity of the hospital will add greatly to the clinical resources of the school, and will provide for the students of the two upper classes a correspondingly larger opportunity for the observation and study of the actual patient under ideal hospital conditions.

On the 11th, 12th, and 13th of September there will be held in Hanover the First General Reunion of the alumni of the school. All men attending the school during only a part of their medical course as well as all academic graduates taking their medical degrees elsewhere have been asked to participate, and many men have ahead. signified their intention to be present. It is planned that meetings of a formal character shall take place no more than is absolutely necessary, the main endeavor being rather to call the graduates together for a few days of relaxation which shall provide an opportunity for the renewal of former comradeships, the enjoyment of out-of-door sports popular in student days, and, in general, a re-inoculation with the spirit of the old College.