THE TEACHING OF THERAPEUTICS AND PHARMACOLOGY FROM THE EXPERIMENTAL STANDPOINT.

INTRODUCTORY.  The most conspicuous tendency in the evolution of scientific instruction has been toward the introduction of laboratory methods; toward the substitution for authoritative statement, of direct observation, independent reasoning and a spirit of criticism. This method is particularly useful in medicine; for a student of the medical sciences is never merely a student, but by the very requirements of his calling he must be trained as an independent observer and thinker. The problems which his profession places before him can rarely be settled by reference to authorities, but must be approached by methods essentially similar to those employed by the experimental investigator. The training of a medical student should therefore be along experimental lines. Nevertheless, it is scarcely too much to say that teaching on an experimental basis is still in its infancy in medical schools. Reasons for this are not far to seek: Experimental medicine is of recent