SESQUICENTENNIAL

From the humble beginnings of John Warren and Benjamin Waterhouse, one hundred and fifty years ago today, the Harvard Medical School has developed, in close step with the profession it perpetuates, into an institution whose direct services to mankind are among the chief glories of the University. Just as it has given its knowledge and facilities to Boston, so have its graduates applied its teachings in nation-wide practice, its spirit in epoch-making discoveries.

The Medical School has always borne in mind its two distinct functions: that of producing doctors for the community, and that of discovering and studying the science of which medicine is made. It has been charged recently with merging the first, its primary duty, into the process of the second, whereby instead of general practitioners, specialists emerge, as the by-product of an intense program of research. The thousands of completely educated and competent graduates who have braved the financial and social rigors of general family practice, especially in rural districts, testify to the falsity of this accusation. Vanderbilt Hall, the Medical School's own House Plan, is another proof that the School's curriculum is centered about the student, not the laboratory. Lastly, the free access which the School has to three of the finest hospitals in America, represents not only the appreciation of Boston for the collected wisdom of the school, but also singularly important instruction in everyday medicine.

Despite the ever-quickening strides of science along the various frontiers of modern medicine, it will be the teaching rather than the research function, which will have to be reinforced and elaborated to meet the pace of modern life. A new frontier for medical advancement has been opened in America; the social and economic field. The depression has pointed out the vast gap between the poor farmer's purse and the metropolitan specialist's price for advice or operation. Scientific treatment in developing from the nightmare practices of early medicine, has also become expensive.

Medical practice has become a problem in price and distribution aimed at the greatest good for the greatest number. The complete socialization of medical treatment, including national health insurance, is an inevitable part of the planned economic life which seems to be in store for America. It has succeeded in Europe to a large extent through the cooperation of the medical schools and their attendant hospitals. But underlying the success of this radical change, there must be a new conception on the part of the young doctor, whether in the country clinic, city office, or hospital ward, of his duty to the community. It will be the chief work of the medical school to teach him this outlook.