The time was, and but recently, when the history of medicine was regarded as the classic introduction to a text book upon medical practice. It was the subject of a regular course of lectures in many institutions of medical learning and, in some, it was even assigned to the guardianship of a distinct chair. With the rapid growth of the medical sciences and with the multiplication of essential branches of instruction, it has been crowded out of the curriculum. Whether wisely or unwisely, in but a very few schools is its study still maintained.
This is a loss certainly, and one to be deplored, if the student of medicine does not acquire that loving reverence for his calling which will lead him to investigate its past; if he has not sufficient taste for the literature of his profession to win him to make its history a voluntary part of his