Medical degree

“ Statesmanship as well as professional ability is expected of physicians in the leading European cities, more particularly of those connected with health departments. There it is not felt that a medical degree is of itself a qualification for sanitary or health work. After the professional course, physicians must take courses in preventive hygiene and in health administration. Medical courses include such subjects as vital statistics, duties of medical officers of health, sanitary legislation, state medicine. ”

“ In spite, however, of his flattering prospects in the direction of law, he soon began to turn his attention to natural science and finally to medicine, taking his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1858 ”

“ No person shall be admitted as a candidate for said Degree unless he shall have regularly attended the lectures of the following Professors: of Anatomy, Surgery, Institutes, Practice and Clinical Medicine, Materia Medica, and of Chemistry. ”

“ ADVANTAGES OF SPECIALTIES.
By thorough organization and a perfect system of subdividing the practice of medicine and surgery in this institution, every invalid consulting us is treated by a specialist—one who devotes his undivided attention to the particular class of diseases to which his or her case belongs. The advantage of this arrangement must be obvious. Medical science offers a vast field for investigation, and no physician can, within the limit of a single life-time, achieve the highest degree of success in the treatment of every malady incident to humanity. ”

“ Every person who obtains a medical degree or diploma in any university or college mentioned in art. 3,972 is entitled to such license without examination as to his medical knowledge or skill, provided such diploma has only been given after four years of medical study from the date of admission to study and according to the requirements of the act ”

“ In Europe, the shortest period of study required for a physician's degree is four years, and at least ten months of each year must be spent in attendance upon the course of instruction. This course comprises not only lectures on the different branches of medicine, but thorough practical study of chemistry, botany, anatomy, etc., in the laboratory, gardens, museums, etc. Attendance on the hospitals is also required, where, for several years, the student is occupied with subordinate medical and surgical duty. ”

“ With regard to those who are to receive the degree of doctor in medical science, it must be especially observed that all those seeking the degree shall have heard lectures in all the books of this same science which are usually required to be heard by similar students at the University of Bologna or of Paris, and that this shall continue for seven years. ”

“ It is unlawful for any person to announce himself as a practitioner of medicine, surgery, or obstetrics, or to practise as such, who has not received in a regular manner a diploma from a chartered medical school, duly authorized to confer upon its alumni the degree of doctor of medicine. ”

“ Each person intending to offer himself as a Candidate for the Degree of Doctor of Medicine, shall, on or before the 10th day of March of the year in which he offers himself as a Candidate, signify such intention in writing to the Dean, and shall, one week at least before the time appointed for his examination, deliver to the Dean a Thesis on some Medical Subject, which subject shall have been approved by the Professors. ”

“ Whereas, finally, in our Institution, holding the rank of a University, the very name of which implies universality of instruction, it is highly desirable that provision should be made for teaching all the sciences an acquaintance with which is in a greater or less degree essential to a complete and thorough medical education ”

“ So also should due weight be given to the advancement of knowledge and education in the world in general, and in the medical profession in particular. In an early English case, one of the judges remarked that not as much knowledge and skill could be expected of a surgeon or physician in a sparsely settled country district as in a city, and that he was at a loss to know what degree of knowledge and skill should be required of such a person. ”

“ In the report for 1908 of the United States bureau of education of 71 schools, which report the number of their students having an arts degree, it is stated that a degree was held by only 15% of the candidates in medicine. ”

“ The qualifications for the first degree, or that of bachelor in medicine, were a competent acquaintance with the Latin language, and with those branches of mathematics and natural philosophy which were deemed necessary prerequisites to a good medical education; the serving of a sufficient apprenticeship with some reputable practitioner of physic; a general knowledge of pharmacy; and finally, an attendance upon at least one complete course of lectures, and on the practice of the hospital for one year. ”

“ At Cambridge, Eng., the candidate for this degree must be a Bachelor of Physic of five years' standing, must have attended hospital practice for three years, and passed an examination satisfactory to the Medical Professors of the University,
At Oxford, an M.D. must be an M.B. of three years' standing. The exercises are three distinct lectures, to be read on three different days. In American colleges the degree is usually given to those who have pursued their studies in a medical school for three years; but the regulations differ in different institutions. ”

“ Early left fatherless he had only an ordinary school education, and after attending medical lectures in the University of Pennsylvania began practice with an M. B. degree when only twenty-one, gaining patients by his talents and his handsome face and winning ways. ”

“ It is required that such students as have not taken a Degree in any College shall, before admission to a degree in Physic, satisfy the Trustees and Professors of the College concerning their knowledge in the Latin tongue, and in such branches of Mathematics, Natural and Experimental Philosophy as shall be judged requisite to a medical education. ”

“ The case of medical students who have not advanced so far has recently engaged the attention of the Ministers of War and of Education, and of the General Staff, with the result that arrangements have been made by which medical students from the ranks may attend special courses of lectures and eventually obtain credit for them when they seek a civil degree in medicine. ”

“ It seems to us that physicians or surgeons practising in small towns, or in poorly or sparsely settled country districts, are bound to possess and exercise at least the average degree of skill possessed and exercised by the profession in such localities generally. ”

“ After the year 1910 most of the large universities in this country will not admit further students to their medical departments unless they have a college degree or its equivalent, that is, unless they have devoted four years to college undergraduate work. It is generally understood, that in the last year of his undergraduate course the student who intends to take up medicine may elect such scientific studies in the college department as will obtain for him an allowance of a year's work in the medical school. ”

“ Justice to the public and to the candidate for the degree , require that more time be given for the acquirement of medical knowledge and a far more searching investiga tion made as to the qualifications of those furnished with authority to take charge of public health . ”

“ The idea of winning a doctor’s degree gradually assumed the aspect of a great moral struggle, and the moral fight possessed immense attraction for me. ”

“ In point of fact it would appear from the early records that, as was anticipated, comparatively few of the primary graduates ever applied for the doctor’s degree, and even these bore no proportion to the whole class of students in attendance, most of them going into active service without the evidence of qualification. With regard to the system of degrees established, Dr. ”

“ They seem to imagine if they hear lectures upon Anatomy only, the branch which I have first mentioned in my discourse, that they can easily make themselves masters of all the other branches of medicine by reading. I blush for those who thus expose either their ignorance or their avarice. Why are they not equally contented with such a share of knowledge in anatomy, as they can gain from books, since this science can be better painted to the eye, than some of the other branches of medicine, which are altogether as necessary to be known by a physician? ”

“ Medical Science is one whole, of which all the branches I have enumerated are the several parts. They may be considered as the links of a chain that have a mutual connection with one another. Anatomy, Materia Medica, Botany, Chymistry, and the Institutions, are only the ladder by which we are to mount up to practice. A general knowledge, at least, in each one of them, is useful to both Physician and Surgeon; particularly to the former, who in proportion as he is more intimately acquainted with them all, will become more skillful in the healing science. ”

“ Such medical testimony must be convincing of their efficacy as well as conveying the satisfactory assurance of their freedom from any medicine in the slightest degree injurious to the constitution, Medical Men being well aware of the deleterious effects of many preparations, which in Pulmonary Affections do but mask the symptoms for a time, and afford only temporary relief, while perhaps the constitutional disease is aggravated, or at least unsubdued. ”

“ Examinations may be wholly or partly in writing, and shall be of an elementary and practical character, embracing the general subjects of anatomy, physiology, chemistry, materia medica, pathology, pathological anatomy, surgery, and obstetrics, but sufficiently strict to test the qualifications of the candidate as a practitioner of medicine, surgery, and obstetrics. ”

“ Nearly every ailment known to the medical faculty is in a greater or lessor degree dependent for its appearance and its virulence upon a Disease of the Blood. Ulcers, Tumours, Scrofula Bunches, Fistula, Piles, Painful Eruptions, indeed all afflictions manifested upon the outer surface of the body are the consequences of diseased blood. ”

“ Qualification.—Every person practising medicine, surgery, or obstetrics, in any of their departments, if a graduate in medicine, must present his diploma to the State board of examiners for verification as to its genuineness. ”

“ The hospital education of the present day is mere craftsmanship, and should only be permitted in conjunction with a liberal university training. The man who knows medicine and surgery only, however well he may know both, has only half learned the business of a doctor. ”

“ Surgery calls for different powers and qualifications rarely uniting in one man. Are these then all to be blended with the apothecary, the botanist, and chymist, which ought to be, and are each of them separate and distinct in their very nature? Whilst we labour amidst such a variety of pursuits, all improvement must be at a stand. Whereas, let each cultivate his respective branch apart, the physician, surgeon, apothecary &c. the knowledge of medicine will be then daily improved, and it may be practiced with greater accuracy and skill as well as a less expence. ”

“ Yet we regard clinical medicine as illustrating art, and didactic medicine as representing science. What figure, think you, would the hospital professor make who should come before you with a patient, and be unable to determine with what disease the person was suffering, the organs affected by it, the nature of their functional disturbance, why some functions rather than others were disordered, how these various elements affect the issue of the attack, what that issue will probably be, and finally, what means should be taken to render it favorable? ”

“ With the power and authority , under the direction and sanction of the regents , to teach the science and practice of medicine in all its branches by lecture, experiments , demonstrations , clinical instructions and examinations , and to recommend for graduation therein such students as may attain the requisite proficiency in the knowledge and practice of medicine . ”

“ The students of Medicine, who almost exclusively support the Professorship of Chemistry, are induced to do so in consequence of its application to Pharmacy and the different branches of Medicine, viz., Physiology, Pathology, Therapeutics, Materia Medica, and the Practice of Physic. ”

“ It has done, and is doing, much to place the science of medicine on a firm basis. To the text-books of this school, every student who would qualify himself for medical practice must resort, to gain that knowledge upon which depends his future success. ”

“ In the same way the student must be taught to apply the knowledge gained in the lecture-room, and from books, to the practical duties of the physician. She must be taught how to practice medicine; and the care of the sick under supervision should be an essential part of the future physician's training. (Of course I include in the term medicine, the prevention of disease; the knowledge and application of hygienic law is essential to the education of a woman physician.) ”

“ One thing is proved beyond doubt, that the degree of intellectual thought depends upon the amount of Free Phosphorus in the brain, and just as the Phosphorus is unduly wasted, so does the brain power weaken.... ”