research,[1] between which it is necessary to establish a modus vivendi. But that problem has nothing to do with the point now under discussion,— viz., as to how much education or intelligence it requires to establish a reasonable presumption of fitness to undertake the study of medicine under present conditions.
Taking, then, modern medicine as an attempt to fight the battle against disease most advantageously to the patient, what shall we require of those who propose to enlist in the service? To get a somewhat surer perspective in dealing with a question around which huge clouds of dust have been beaten up, let us for a moment look elsewhere. A college education is not in these days a very severe or serious discipline. It is compounded in varying proportions of work and play; it scatters whatever effort it requires, so that at no point need the student stand the strain of prolonged intensive exertion. Further, the relation of college education to specific professional or vocational competency is still under dispute. It is clear, then, that a college education is less difficult, less trying, less responsible, than a professional education in medicine. It is therefore worth remarking that the lowest terms upon which a college education is now regularly accessible are an actual four-year high school training, scholastically determined, whether by examination of the candidate or by appraisement of the school.
Technical schools of engineering and the mechanic arts afford perhaps an even more illuminating comparison. These institutions began, like the college, at a low level; but they did not long rest there. Their instruction was too heavily handicapped by ignorance and immaturity. To their graduates, tasks involving human life and welfare were committed: the building of bridges, the installation of power plants, the construction of sewage systems. The technical school was thus driven to seek students of greater maturity, of more thorough preliminary schooling, and strictly to confine its opportunities to them. Now it is noteworthy that, though in point of intensive strain the discipline of the modern engineer equals the discipline of the modern physician, in one important respect, at least, it is less complex and exacting. The engineer deals mainly with measurable factors. His factor of uncertainty is within fairly narrow limits. The reasoning of the medical student is much more complicated. He handles at one and the same time elements belonging to vastly different categories: physical, biological, psychological elements are involved in each other. Moreover, the recent graduate in engineering is not at once exposed to a decisive responsibility; to that he rises slowly through a lengthy series of subordinate positions that search out and complete his education.[2] Between the young graduate in medicine and his ultimate responsibility—human life—nothing interposes. He cannot nowadays begin with easy tasks under the surveillance of a superior; the issues of life
- ↑ See page 55.
- ↑ It is interesting to observe the tendency towards conferring only a bachelor's degree in engineering at graduation instead of the degree of C.E., etc. The bachelor in engineering usually goes to work at laborer's wages; he is years reaching the degree of responsibility with which the graduate in medicine usually begins.
