THE CORRELATION OF LABORATORY AND CLINICAL TEACHING IN SURGERY

No one can come into close contact with medical students without becoming impressed by the constant complaint that the laboratory subjects are not taught from the practical standpoint. Many of the students who have just completed academic courses in which much that has occupied their time has, to their minds, had no direct economic value, enter the professional schools with a determination to employ every moment to best advantage. They are restive under the restraints of the first two laboratory years. For example, many feel that much time in anatomy is wasted, and unfortunately they are too often strengthened in this opinion by the expressed views of some of the less thoughtful teachers in the laboratory and clinical branches. It is the failure to demonstrate to the student the real value of the subject taught, and the failure of the teachers to appreciate the importance of the subject-matter itself, which