REFORM IN THE GOVERNMENT OF 
MEDICAL SCHOOLS. 
BY 
ELEANOR M. IIIESTAND-MOORE, M.D., 
WOODBURY, N. J. 
From the Proceedings of the Twenty-first Annual Meeting, 
Alumnse Association of the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, 
May, 1896. REFORM IN THE GOVERNMENT OF MEDICAL 
SCHOOLS. 
By ELEANOR M. HIESTAND-MOORE, M.D., 
• WOODBURY, N. J. 
In opening the subject of reform in the government of medical 
schools, as a premise to this argument, I assume that the fallibility of 
all human institutions, however well established and dear to our affec- 
tions, is nevertheless freely granted. Nor do I anticipate any opposi- 
tion to the claim that in the higher evolution of schools for teaching 
the theory and practice of medicine the perfect type of this specializa- 
tion is not yet matured. Unfortunately, the law of natural selection is 
not freely operative in the perpetuation of professional schools. Poorly 
qualified students who are turned away from the front doors, guarded 
by an examiner, are by systems of probation and cramming smuggled 
in the back doors, and spurred upon a career for which they are 
manifestly unfit, or, being banished from one school, they fly to another 
less punctilious institution where diplomas are worried out of the fac- 
ulty with greater ease. By dint of such patronage it is not only the 
fittest that survive. On the contrary, is it not true that many schools 
where a rigorous examination is required for entrance and a high meas- 
ure of scholarship is the price of a diploma—is it not true that many 
such schools exist only because they are nourished by the full diet of 
private endowment ? It is with a knowledge of the honorable poverty 
of many institutions whose high aims have never been realized simply 
because there was no money for the purpose ; it is with deep sympathy 
for the irksome economies forced upon some of our best-intentioned 
faculties that I shall refrain from all cheap expressions of aspiration 
toward many of the splendid luxuries of science teaching which only 
a few of our more fortunate institutions can afford. Criticisms of that 
character can be dismissed with the rejoinder : Give us the money and 
we will give you the results. I shall, therefore, wait till the day of 
endowment dawns ere I say that we need better facilities for teaching, 
laboratories more completely appointed, not larger, but containing fewer 
students or more demonstrators ; that we need gymnasiums, endowed 
chairs for special science training, and many other things. 2 
It is my purpose to deal here with matters wholly practical, with 
reforms which depend for their accomplishment only upon a proper 
appreciation of their urgency and a desire for their fruition. In for- 
mulating the conclusions I am about to express, I have been guided by 
an experience of five years’ teaching in a medical school in the capacity 
of demonstrator and instructor. During this term of service I have 
considered well certain phenomena occurring within my range of 
vision, and I shall endeavor to interpret those phenomena, comparing 
them writh like manifestations elsewhere. In thus venturing to postu- 
late reforms indicated by my humble experience, I make bold to say 
that one holding such a position as I have held has a special coigne of 
vantage for observing the reactions of that complicated organism we 
call student’s mind, and that environment of knowledge of which the 
faculty is a concrete expression. 
The importance of this subject of reform in the government of med- 
ical schools must be manifest to all alumna?. I will leave to conscience 
an apprehension of the higher ethical grounds for our interest in this 
matter, and I shall speak only in defence of policy ; for, if we can 
find no other motive, is it not true that every step which a college 
takes toward power and fame sets a new seal of honor on the diplomas 
of its graduates ? Conversely, degradation of the alma mater would 
mean degradation to every graduate, and thus it is that in spite of 
passing years, in spite of the estrangement which absence and preoccu- 
pation too often foster, the interest of every medical graduate is indis- 
solubly united to those of the college from which she or he had her 
or his degree. 
In considering the relations of alumme to their colleges I have 
been impressed by the fact that the part of this particular association 
of alumnae is not performed as it should be. What do we do individ- 
ually or collectively to advance in a material way the interests of the 
college ? What action do we ever take in the administration of its 
affairs ? I have in- mind one particular sin of omission upon which I 
have often reflected and spoken. It has been a matter for much curi- 
ous speculation why it is that the college is so rarely made a beneficiary 
under the wills of charitable persons. The University of Pennsylvania 
accumulates endowments with enviable skill ; Jefferson and even the 
Medico-Chirurgical College have a genius for getting appropriations, 
while in other citias the instances are multiplied to hundreds. But in 
the many years we have existed as an institution, how few legacies 
have fallen to our lot! We have always struggled in the mire of pov- 
erty ; yet are we not in some measure to blame for our own impecuni- 
osity ? Perhaps there are not so many of our alumna; as yet in a posi- 
tion to confer great benefactions on their own account—perhaps there 
will be much to rejoice over when the wills of some of our graduates 3 
have been probated—but the needs of the present are urgent. Many 
women physicians who owe our alma mater an inextinguishable debt 
are called from time to time to attend upon rich patients with whom 
a word of suggestion would work wonders. How many of us have 
been sufficiently zealous to remind a generous testator of the existence 
of the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania and of its crying 
needs ? When we hear people talk of the superior advantages of this 
and the other school, at Paris, Vienna, Zurich, or elsewhere, why not 
mildly suggest that if we had the money we could do what they have 
done ? All things considered, the standard of a school depends more 
upon money than anything else. Does not the duty of securing 
money depend more upon the alumnae than upon anyone else ? Who 
will support our alma mater, if not her own children ? Moreover, we 
should, I think, have a more active part in the administration of col- 
lege affairs. At least two of the members of the Board of Corpora- 
tors should be alumna3. The most able and disinterested service of 
non-professional men and women can never accomplish singly the ends 
to be gained by association with individuals trained by experience to a 
point of view which can be attained only by persons having a med- 
ical education. The presence of two alumnae on the Board of Cor- 
porators would facilitate the advantageous settlement of many questions 
which could not otherwise be fully deliberated. The senior alumna on 
the Board should then be made ex officio a member of the Executive 
Committee, while the junior alumna should be empowered to act for 
her in her absence. The importance of this kind of representation 
has been generally recognized in literary colleges. The alumnae of 
Vassar College worked for fifteen years for representation in the Board 
of Trustees, and finally got it. This was at a time when the executive 
ability of women was still awaiting the demonstration now completed. 
If we had a Board of Corporators so constituted, it might be possible 
to secure a definition of its function, which seems now somewhat in 
dispute. As matters stand to-day, the faculty is constrained to dis- 
pose of much business, and the Corporators administer upon questions 
relating to the college-work. A better apportionment of duties might 
certainly be made if all matters relevant to the teaching of students 
and their graduation were left entirely to the Faculty, while the busi- 
ness was relegated to the Corporators. There is an immense amount 
of friction in the mechanism of a college, and it is a strain unfairly 
put upon those who carry the heavy weight of routine medical teach- 
ing. I am prepared to lay this down as a rule of general application. 
The faculties of medical schools have not the time, even if they have 
the ability, to attend to executive matters. The members of a med- 
ical faculty are men or women chosen for their ability and experience 
in special fields. These are the first and greatest requirements. Some- 4 
times it happens and sometimes it does not happen that the celebrated 
physician becomes a great teacher, but the presumption is not always 
favorable. I speak as one who was lectured to for ten years in four 
different colleges where my spirit was much chastened by speech. It is 
quite unreasonable to suppose, unlike other creatures, a professor can 
be all things to all men. Business ability may crown his or her higher 
gifts, or it may not. It is certainly a mistake to assume that it always 
will. But even if a college faculty were always certain to be thus 
doubly endowed, it is a mistake in mental economy to charge it with 
business affairs when every precious moment is necessary either for the 
actual work of teaching, or for the still more laborious task of getting 
ready to teach. It is difficult to express what an endless labor lies 
before the conscientious lecturer who wades through floods of contem- 
poraneous literature honestly endeavoring to keep up with the times. 
That such an one should be harassed to death by the re* augiuda domi 
of the college is certainly a mistake. Furthermore, if there were never 
any doubt within whose jurisdiction a matter properly fell, business 
would be more speedily executed ; questions would not be shuttle- 
cocked back and forth between the functionating bodies, and lost, as 
they sometimes are, in the swamp of executive etiquette. The order 
of precedence in faculties and boards of corporators is much more 
complicated than it is among the British peerage. A better state of 
affairs would certainly be brought about by leaving all matters which 
in any way concern the teaching of students, their grades, examina- 
tions, and the granting of diplomas, exclusively to the faculty. The 
election of professors and teachers should also devolve exclusively upon 
the faculty, inasmuch as they alone have the knowledge necessary to a 
wise choice. If, however, the existing methods continue, the presence 
of two alumnae on the Board of Corporators would loe a great gain in 
advantage. 
While touching upon this subject of the election of instructors, I 
desire to say that personally I am opposed to that form of indulgence 
which gives preference to any applicant for position on the mere ground 
that she is a woman and a graduate of our College. Should there at 
any time arise a contest so close that these points alone turn the balance 
of favor, it might be just to consider them, but under ordinary circum- 
stances such claims do not deserve serious recognition. What we want 
in our college appointments is the service of women or men who are 
best qualified to do the work they have undertaken, be they white or 
black, American or Sandwich Islanders. I am certainly in favor of 
encouraging women, and of honoring our own distinguished alumnae, 
but only so far as their merits warrant. If a man presents himself and 
he be better qualified to teach than another applicant who is a woman, 
let us by all means have the man. We cannot consider the glory of 5 
the incumbent more than the good of those who are to be taught. We 
have long insisted that there is no sex in medicine, and yet at this point 
we are tending to an apotheosis of the sex feminine which looks a little 
like vanity. Should not our pride forbid us to accept indulgence of 
this kind ? Our dignity as women physicians asks only for justice. 
We must beware lest the egotism of sex should blind us. To be truly 
worthy of our high calling, we must be like that Junius Brutus who 
condemned to death his own son, seeking only the glory of Rome. 
Suppose then that a teacher be fitly chosen, how shall he or she be 
remunerated ? Has it ever occurred to you that there is something 
repugnant to taste in the prevailing system of many colleges which 
grants to professors a percentage on every ticket sold ? It has always 
brought the mercantile idea so prominently before my mind that the 
lecturer dispensing tickets reminds me of a drummer selling goods on 
commission. This purely aesthetic objection is not, however, advanced 
as an argument for abolishing the custom and assigning to each pro- 
fessor a fixed salary. The system condemns itself by its manifest 
opportunities for abuse. Wherever it obtains, an increase of students 
means a raise in the salary of each professor, and vice versd. It is not 
to be supposed, therefore, that a faculty so maintained can give utterly 
unbiassed support or opposition to any measure involving the question 
of the number of students to be admitted. How could any human 
being legislate with perfect fairness against himself ? Suppose a pro- 
fessor in a department involving much descriptive teaching of an 
elementary character, should consider it advisable to relegate much of 
that work to a requirement for entrance. Could he be expected to 
advocate strongly a measure which would practically legislate him out 
of his chair ? Being honest in his aims, would he not prefer to be so 
placed in relation to his salary that no temptation of self-interest nor 
taint of suspicion could disturb him in the exercise of his judgment ? 
The system of ticket-tax as a revenue for professors should be abolished, 
moreover, because it discriminates unfairly against the more progressive 
members of a faculty. Consider once more the case of our professor 
of elementary science ; suppose that he is convinced that the greater 
portion of the work of the first year in his department should be done 
at a preparatory school, which would reduce the length of his course 
to one year, unless the scope of the course were extended. The rev- 
enues of this chair would be under such circumstances reduced one- 
half', because those students who formerly bought two tickets would 
buy only one. Thus that professor striving for the best advancement 
of the students would be made to suffer for his noble purpose. 
In some schools in which the useless reiteration of work done satisfac- 
torily elsewhere is abolished, and students are admitted on examination 
to advanced standing, these same students are, nevertheless, required 6 
to pay a fee for the course from which they are excused, or, in other 
words, they are required to pay for what they do not get. This curious 
practice is apparently peculiar to medical schools. What student en- 
tering the sophomore year, without conditions, would in any reputable 
literary college be required to pay for the freshman year he or she had 
passed ? This system does not impress one by its honesty. Would it 
not be better for all colleges to fix upon certain sums as the regular 
salaries of their professors, and so to obviate the necessity of manoeu- 
vring to keep the revenue of certain chairs up to such a grade that there 
may be found eminent personages which will condescend to sit in them ? 
In reviewing the work of medical schools as it is now carried on, I 
am impressed with the fact that the fad for lecturing has been carried 
too far. The development of the didactic lecture in its earlier days 
was hailed by teachers as a happy release from the routine of elemen- 
tary class-room work. It is certainly more agreeable to discourse for an 
hour upon a favorite theme than to sit for the same length of time 
dredging for truths lost in the fogs of memory. But it is to be noted 
that medical students, as a rule, are unaccustomed to lectures which 
constitute a mode of instruction requiring time for adaptation. The 
note-books of many first-year students show too plainly how little they 
assimilate sufficiently well to make a clear statement of it. There is 
needed, I feel sure, in all medical schools of the average class, less 
rhetoric and more homely demonstration. Much of the grinding done 
by students could be obviated by what we may call objective teaching. 
The best lecture I ever heard on the circulation was given by a Har- 
vard man in his shirt sleeves and in a bloody apron, while he dissected 
on the lecture table an etherized rabbit. The bloody apron was not 
essential, but it was better than a dress coat and a buttonhole bouquet. 
We want to see abolished from medical schools the type of lecturer 
who sweeps into an awe-stricken audience and scatters broadcast a 
whirlwind of bewildering facts, then, having paralyzed the gaping stu- 
dents, sweeps out again, into a couj)6, rolling off to see the old lady 
with a systolic murmur. Oh, the fine and distinguished art of teach- 
ing ! If it could be better studied and more deftly practised, there 
would be fewer students going forth in pin-feathers. 
It seems to me an inestimable advantage to have a professor do the 
better part of the teaching ir his or her own department. It needs an 
omnipresent eye to guard against deceitful ignorance. A student once 
came to me for quizzing outside of my department. I was busy and 
asked her why she did not go to Dr. X., who was connected with the 
department in question. “ Oh,” she replied, “ I do not wish her to 
find out how little I know.” The better a professor knows his pupils, 
the less chance there is for a student to evade a proper sounding of the 
depths of his or her knowledge. The day of examinations is passing 7 
away, but there are still too many of these implements of torture. 
Their complete abolition may not be a practical thing, and even their 
restriction within narrow limits is difficult. In proportion as they are 
set aside, professors are compelled to do more careful grading in class- 
rooms, and their work is largely increased. This is regarded as an evil 
by some teachers, but I cannot so regard it. It seems to me that we 
have the wrong idea of the .professor. Appointment to a chair in a 
medical school is esteemed to be an allotment of great good fortune; 
a favor to be desired by anyone worthy to receive it; a means of in- 
creasing one’s income without an undue amount of work, of legitimate 
advertising, and of general professional benefit. It would be perhaps 
unreasonable to ask that under the present rates of remuneration a 
professor should be required to neglect his or her practice for college 
duties ; but it would certainly be desirable if a professor called to a 
chair should, like a lawyer called to the judge’s bench, be so well paid 
for that distinguished service that outside interest would no longer 
distract the mind from a work which for its best accomplishment re- 
quires almost undivided attention. I do not suggest that a lecturer on 
practical branches shall abandon the practice of medicine. That would 
be a very poor policy for one whose success as a teacher depends on 
daily contact with disease and an ever-multiplying experience. But 
those who have been for years going the rounds know quite well how 
to limit their work within the bounds they choose to fix ; and, if there 
Avere inducement to spend more time in teaching, the time needed would 
be found and spent. I have remarked Avith interest hoAV much stronger 
a hold upon the student-mind may be secured by a teacher Avhose entire 
time is given to teaching, who in the hours of absence from college 
has leisure to brood upon the best means of creating true concepts. 
It has been urged that it is quite impossible to increase the Avork of 
students, as they are already overworked. But I insist that more ele- 
mentary teaching is a help rather than a burden. Students resort to 
private quizzes as a relief from overwork. The comfort of this extra 
class-Avork is so generally admitted that students regard it as a lazy 
Avav of getting through college. I admit that it may be abused, but 
AATe are far from that point just now. 
Wherever possible the classes should divided and subdivided for the 
purpose of better teaching. No laboratory demonstrator can properly 
attend to more than ten students at once. We AA7ant more demonstra- 
tors or more hours. I presume the first alternative is the better. All 
schools of medicine detached from universities Avould be benefitted, 
I belie\Te, by the establishment of auxiliary schools of science under 
the college management and preparatory to its work. Students who 
AA’ere poorly qualified could then be recommended to the preparatory 
school, and there fitted properly for Avork. I think that in such 8 
a school—which could be established without great expense—the 
teaching of modern languages might be included. In the better acad- 
emies and schools of art the languages are now taught as a preparation 
for foreign travel and study. In four or five years students of medi- 
cine could pick up a fair reading knowledge of French and German, 
at least, without great effort. I am rather of the opinion that this kind 
of study as a reaction from the exclusive pursuit of medical knowledge 
would be beneficial to the mind. Moreover, if this preparatory school 
were well managed, it would certainly attract many outsiders and the 
college would gradually gain in the number of students and in friends. 
I have observed and thought much, also, concerning the office of dean 
in medical schools, and I have concluded that on general principles it 
is a mistake that the dean should be elected from the members of the 
faculty. The deanship is an executive office. It should be more than 
it is in most medical colleges, a position of great power and prominence, 
with duties so particular as to require special aptitude for their j>er- 
formance. This is not true at present. The deanship of a medical 
college is an office permitting such limited exercise of authority that 
the appointment demeaned by a miserable pittance of a salary stands 
for little more than a clerkship to the faculty. This is, in my judgment, 
a serious mistake. The dean of a medical school should be its highest 
functionary, an officer bound to neither the faculty nor the corporators, 
a chief executive, endowed with the power of propagandism. In liter- 
ary colleges of high standing this is the custom. The president of the 
college has power to ratify the action of the dean, and from this there 
is no appeal. It is obvious that an officer with such power would need 
to be chosen with special reference to his or her fitness. The members 
of the faculty might include an ideal dean, and again they might not. 
In any event the dean should be an impartial officer, not committed to 
any interest, and, for this reason, should be elected from the profession 
at large because of distinguished executive ability. There should l»e 
such a salary connected with the office as would warrant a well-qualified 
incumbent in devoting his or her entire time to the duties of that office. 
It should be a part of the duty of the dean in vacation to visit other 
schools at home and abroad, and to observe the operations of various 
administrative methods, of improvements in all kinds of college-work, 
embodying these observations in an annual report. There can be no 
doubt that if the dean were made an officer of this type the state of 
affairs, which we may call a hypostatic congestion of authority in which 
the vital executive fluid almost ceases to move l»ecause there is nothing 
strong enough to push it, would no longer occur. 
The president of a medical college should also l»e a more active officer 
and the collaborator of the dean. There should be no meetings in the 
college which these two officers should not be privileged to attend. 9 
The president of the college should he its public representative in all 
social and formal functions. The dean should be freely accessible to 
students who desire personal advice and counsel. 
I now come to the subject of a Board of Censors, whose duty it should 
be to dispose of all cases where students are found mentally or mor- 
ally unfit to continue the study of medicine. This body should be 
composed of members of the faculty and should be presided over by 
the dean. We have not yet reached the point which enables us to 
reject on sight all students unfit to study medicine. A few of the 
worst fail each year at our entrance examinations, but a number still 
squeeze through whom it were better to have dismissed. I could at 
this moment name a number of students in our own College who have 
no right to be numbered with our matriculates, and yet the present con- 
ditions for entrance compel their acceptance, however manifest their 
incapacity for study or practice. I am not so blind nor so infatuated 
with cleverness as to suppose that only very smart men and Avomen 
will do for doctors, but A\'e do want the best brains we can get, and if, 
after three years of hard study, a student does not know Avhat mercu- 
rous chlorid is, nor ho\\T to spell it, Ave ha\’e a right to our inferences. 
Moreover, I think that never more than noAV have Ave needed vigilance 
over the college standard. It is true that AA'e uoav number more col- 
lege-bred AA'omen than AA'e e\Ter before numbered amoiig our students ; 
it is true that Ave ha\’e each year more AA’omen bringing certificates from 
schools of a high grade, and yet the standard of scholarship does not 
rise. It seems rather to have fallen. The fact is that it is no guaranty 
of fitness merely to have passed through a certain preparatory course. 
I remember a bachelor of arts, with extended experience in a chemical 
laboratory, Avho worked like a sloven and ended by trying to cheat her 
Avay through the final examination. In a certain class AA'hich I have 
in mind, the poorest student Avas a college graduate. The fact is that 
the college Avoman is no longer Avhat she once Avas, Avhen only excep- 
tional Avomen coveted an A.B., and the mere possession of that degree 
Avas ground for high estimation. To go to college has become a fad. 
Everybody goes. This altered aspect struck me forcibly Avhen after 
ten years’ absence from college I returned as a graduate student. In 
that decade there had been a poAA’erful influx of younger and more 
frivolous women and the average of attainments had fallen. It is 
true that the AA'oman’s colleges haA’e continuously raised their grade in 
the past ten years ; there is more required of the students in the Avay 
of examination and study ; but the method by which these require- 
ments are met are not Avholly satisfactory. I presume this cannot be 
helped. We are gradually approaching the level of men’s colleges, 
Avhereas AA’e have heretofore stood above them. The same influences 
are at Avork in medical schools. It is best to recognize them and study 10 
how we may combat them. Years ago, there were matriculated only 
inspired women with lofty purpose and eager minds, willing to face 
any difficulty and master it for the sake of being allowed to minister 
to that suffering humanity to whose interests they were truly devoted. 
There are still many such who enter college every year, but there are 
others also who come with an inferior motive. Therefore, I say that 
there is needed in the college a careful espionage. Students not prop- 
erly qualified for the work should be urged to discontinue it. A board 
of censors could establish a standard and allow a student two years in 
which to meet it. At the end of that time, if she fell below the mark, 
she should be advised to discontinue her work. They could not, of 
course, refuse to allow her to study, if she choose to do so, as a means 
to a liberal education. But they could warn her that her hope of suc- 
cess was very slight, and that she was wasting her time and money. 
This would be a kindness to the student and an act of justice to the 
college, in that it would tend to restrict the number of incompetent 
graduates. It may be thought that related failure in examination 
would convey to students this discouragement without the interference 
of a board of censors. My observation is that students generally 
attribute failure to any cause but the right one—their own stupidity. 
How many times have I been wearied by explanations of why such 
and such an one did not hand in a better paper. Everybody knows 
how it was—she was nervous; there was not time; she had a headache; 
the questions were unfair ; the paper was not justly marked, and so 
forth. It certainly does not seem right for the college tacitly to encour- 
age students who can only hope to graduate by indefinitely prolonging 
their courses, and can never practise medicine with the faintest appre- 
ciation of the true art. It was once said to me by a poor discouraged 
woman, whom I pitied from the bottom of my heart, that she felt she 
had been deceived by the college, inasmuch as it was so easy to get in 
that she had no idea it would be so hard to get out. 
As to moral fitness, I think it should be more clearly defined in its 
bearings upon qualification for the degree of Doctor of Medicine. 
There is a great deal of dishonest work among students in all medical 
schools. I do not see how we can prevent students, if they feel dis- 
posed, from cheating at examinations, especially in the more exact sci- 
entific branches. But a student caught cheating at an examination 
should be promptly expelled from the college. The prevailing custom 
is to reject the paper in question and compel the student to tie re-exam- 
ined. Surely no better evidence of “ moral unfitness” could be found 
than that a student should seek to obtain a medical diploma by fraud. 
The best student learns little enough in four years of hard study, as 
she knows to her sorrow when she comes into practice. The creature 
who voluntarily chooses to know less than the average, who will seize 11 
the privilege of practising medicine before she is actually qualified, 
who is willing to hold in her unskilled hand the balance of life when 
her ignorance may be the weight to turn it downward to death, this 
creature, I say, can there be any doubt of her moral unfitness ? She 
steps across the threshold of our college, an arrogant, low-minded pre- 
tender, cheating the trust of her wretched fellow-creatures who come 
to her, pitiful and suppliant, begging a boon she can only feign to 
bestow. Is there any spectacle more horrible than the bold assumption 
of such a feminine Sangrado, luring ignorant humanity into an office 
where death and Nature struggle alone? It shocks us when we see a 
man in such an attitude, and since women have so long contended for 
a higher moral standard in public life, to find them sinking into this 
mire is especially painful and demoralizing. 
Another type of “ moral unfitness ” obtrudes itself in the form of 
what is called looseness of character. That this evil prevails more 
among men than among women will hardly be disputed by anyone, and 
yet it has prevailed among women physicians to a greater extent than 
many may suppose. It has no right to prevail at all. Women have 
been graduated from our own College who are a disgrace to the sex 
and to the profession. They have obtained their diplomas without 
opposition simply because our present methods of determining the moral 
status of matriculates are not adequate. We state in our announcement 
that the degree shall be withheld from a student on the ground that 
she is morally unfit; but who investigates ? The responsibility rests 
nowhere and no one assumes it. It is not a pleasant task. There may 
be much repugnance to the duty of police officer or private detective 
to the college, but such an agent is needed. It is not true that the col- 
lege is concerned only with the mental training of women who are to 
become physicians. It has much to do also with their moral charac- 
ters. It owes it to you and to me that our diplomas shall not be 
smirched by contact with the diplomas of women who ply medicine as 
a trade in iniquity. If it be, as we all feel it is, an honor for a mother 
to guard well her daughter’s fame, to know her associates and regulate 
her behavior, it is an honor to a college that it watches with a stern 
omniscient eye over the conduct of its students. A board of censors 
could deal summarily with all such matters, not to speak of minor inci- 
dents such as unfortunately occur in the outside clinics and in the 
college proper. 
Finally, it seems clear to me that the method of distributing finan- 
cial aid to students in our own college is a very poor one. We have 
not much to give. That little should be carefully dispensed. The 
Board of Corporators should have nothing to do with the awarding 
of scholarships. These endowments should be made on the basis of 
competitive examinations of a high grade, and should be forfeited any 12 
year the student falls below an excellent grade. Students who cannot 
comply with such requirements should not be encouraged to practise 
medicine. Under the present system mental ability does not by any 
means entirely determine the choice of a beneficiary. It is possi- 
ble to make the possession of a scholarship a high honor. Now it 
seems that it is regarded as a meaningless charity, not to be spoken of 
for fear of hurting the feelings of the incumbent. Several times financial 
aid has been given to students who entered the college determined upon 
the practice of homoeopathy. This seems to me very much like warm- 
ing a viper. In one case a scholarship student confided in me during 
her first year that she meant to practise homoeopathy. From the nature 
of the confidence I could not expose her; but when I told her in plain 
terms that she was obtaining money under false pretences, she replied 
that she intended to pay the money back. I have never heard of such 
a restitution. It seems little enough to ask that scholarship students 
should at least give us their perfect allegiance from the outset, and that 
as an earnest of loyalty they should be asked in the beginning to sub- 
scribe to the code of ethics. A student may have subsequent aberra- 
tions which will lead her in devious foolish paths, but while she is the 
ward of the college she should walk only in the path prescribed. 
At this point I have strong premonitions that it is time to close these 
remarks, though there are other things worthy to be added. Yet if 
my thoughts have to any extent echoed those of any who are truly 
interested in the advancement of systems of teaching and government 
in medical schools, I am well content. The first step toward reform 
is a recognition and admission of evil. In the case of our own alma 
mater, what can we, the Alumnae of the Woman’s Medical College of 
Pennsylvania, do toward instituting an order in any way different from 
that which now obtains? I reply that we can work primarily for rep- 
resentation on the Hoard of Corporators. This is an entering wedge, 
and I shall feel amply repaid for the humble effort I have made in this 
paj>er, if it be followed by a free discussion leading to a formal resolu- 
tion which shall embody the request for alumna; representation on the 
Board of Corporators in the event of vacancy.