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leads to objection3 being raised t) the legitimate exercise ofthe authority of the master and matron in the arrangementsconnected with the sick wards. The Board consider that
so long as these establishments are constituted as at
present the nurses should ba responsible to the medical
officer for the treatment of the patient, but should clearlyunderstand that in other matters they must defer to theauthority of the ma,ter and matron." From the views
expressad by the recent Departmental Committee on Nursingit woutd appear that the Board is not now quite so sure ofthe advisability of leaving a free hand to the master and
matron as regards nurses. Perhaps in course of time it
may recognise that the medical officer, too, has feelingsworthy of consideration.
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SCIENCE IN BOYS’ SCHOOLS AND MEDICAL
EDUCATION.
AT no time probably since the introduction into this
country of compulsor.v school attendance has more generalinterest been taken in the question of the subjects andmethods of education than at the present moment. Wehave left behind us, we hope for ever, the controversy as tothe practical utility and absolute necessity of some form ofeducation for every one of our fellow subjects. We are now
entering upon what bids to be even a more prolonged con-troversy as to the matter and manner of education whichshall prove most efficacious in fitting our race to performits allotted functions. Now that it is recognised thateducation is for all it is being questioned whetherthe methods of instruction in the past may not be im-
proved upon. Doubt as to the perfection of our methodsextends through every department of learning from theboard school to th university. To our shame, but also
perhaps to our advantage at the present time, other countrieshave recognised the need of reform before us and havemade experiments in various directions from which if we arewise we may profit. As in medicine so in education, theempirical method is not always the best means of testingefficiency. It is not easy to estimate the influence of all thefactors in the environment and because good men are turnedout from our public schools it does not follow that the
character of the education in those institutions does not need
improvement. It is not only by watching the result ofdifferent forms of education that we can tell which is
the most desirable. Thoughtful consideration of the
objects to be attained by education and of the probableresults of different measures may often lead to prac-tical reforms, just as researches in the laboratory andthe contemplations of philosophical pathologists have oftengiven the clue to effective methods of treating cases
which have baflied practical physicians. In tryingto ascertain the particular scheme of school education
most suitable for an intending student of medicine it
is not sufficient even if it were possible to contrast the
respective merits of medical practitioners submitted to rivalmethods of scholastic treatment. Statistics could be put tono more futile use than to estimate the percentage ofsuccesses in final medical examinations achieved by candi-dates educated on the classical and modern sides respec-tively of our chief public schools. Nevertheless, those whoare engaged in medical education must necessarily take thekeenest interest in the preliminary instruction of their
pupils and they are generally supposed to hold strong viewsupon the much-vexed qaestion of the role of science in
school education. The belief that teachers of medicinewould naturally desire that their pupils should havestudied science at school arises from a false assump.tion as to the chief objects of a boy’s education againstwhich a strong current of opinion is now setting. The
tyranny of the examination system is causing a revolt
against the view that the acquirement of knowledge isthe main object of education. Systems of educationdominated by examinations tend to become little else thanmethods of storing facts in students’ brains, since it is thesuccess of this process which is most readily estimatedby the examiner. If a teacher of medicine desired his
pupil to be handed over to him with his brain well storedwith facts upon which subsequent knowledge could be builtthere is no doubt preference would be given to one who hadbaen instructed in a school in which natural science wasfully taught. But teachers of medicine, in common withall those whose duty it is to import instruction to
youths who have completed their school curriculum, findthat their best material is characterised not by knowledgebut by brain power. The facts which a boy has acquiredat school are of little importance compared with the
effect that the school training has had upon his intellectand his morals. A boy of high moral sense, well trainedto observe and capable of logical reasoning, will make a
better medical student though he has never had the leastsmattering of so-called Ecientific education than an un-
observant boy with an illogical brain stuffed with facts con-nected with elementary chemistry, physics, and biology.Recognising this fact the medical profession should use itsinfluence to secure that the course of study in preparatoryand public schools should be that bast suited to develop aboy’s senses and intellectual faculties regardless of the sub-sequent uses to which the facts acquired may be put.Schoolmasters are already too much harried by those,whose sole idea of education is that it shall provideuseful knowledge. Science is more or less on its
trial as a subject of education in schools and it is believedby some to be a very unsuitable subject. It would beunfortunate if the supposed needs of- the medical student ledto the retention in the school curriculum of a subject whichfailed to promote intellectual development, inasmuch as thepure science which a medical student requires can easily beprovided after school is over. There are some who are
disposed to give great credit to the medical profession forsuch share as it has had in encouraging the establishment ofscience laboratories in secondary schools. It is a questionrequiring the most thoughtful and careful considerationwhether such laboratories are of real value and in helping tosolve this problem the medical profession must not regard
, the matter from a selfish or utilitarian point of view.
ALBUMINURIA IN THE NEWLY BORN.
If is well known that the urine passed shortly after birthdiffars in several details from that passed later, notablyin being of low specific gravity, turbid from uric acid andepithelial cells, and of darker colour. Dr. Ssesenowski of
St. Petersburg has investigated the urine of infants in thefirst few days after birth with especial reference to the
presence of proteid substances and has recorded his observa-tions in the Wrasehebneia Gazette, No. 21, 1903. He-finds that in the first six days after birth traces of albumin
can be detected in 22 per cent. of the cases and traces ofmucin in nearly every case. On the first day after birth albu-min can be demonstrated in as many as 30 per cent. It i&
found more frequently where labour has been protractedand is thus more common in first-born children. The less
the absolute body-weight of the infant, and the greater therelative diminution of this in the first days of life, the morefrequent is the presence of albumin ; moreover, its presenceappears to depend to some extent upon the temperature ofthe infant. The presence of mucin is most constant on thefirst day after birth, when it can be demonstrated in 96 percent. of the cases. It gradually lessens, so that on the sixthday it can only be found in 50 per cent. Tracer of uric acidare found in 60 per cent. and both this substance and
