ry thing that he
needed most, and has to begin to learn in good earnest. During the best
time of his life he has been pestered with useless or even harmful
stuff. He needs a second part of his life to rub all this off, and to
work himself up to the height of his age. Only then can he become a
useful member of society. Many do not arrive beyond the first stage;
others are stranded in the second; only a few have the energy to reach
the third.

But "decorum" requires that the mediaeval trumpery and useless
curriculum be retained; and, seeing, moreover, that women, as a
consequence of their sex, are from the start excluded from the
preparatory schools, the circumstance furnishes a convenient pretext to
shut the doors of the University lecture rooms in their faces. In
Leipsic, during the seventies, one of the most celebrated professors of
medicine made the undisguised confession to a lady: _"The gymnasium
(college) training is not necessary to the understanding of medicine.
This is true. Nevertheless, it must be made a condition precedent for
admission, in order that the dignity of science may not suffer."_

Gradually is the opposition to the necessity of a "classical" education
for the study of medicine being felt in Germany also. The immense
progress made in the natural sciences, together with their importance to
life, require an early initiation. Collegiate education, with its
preference for the classic languages, Greek and Latin, looks upon the
natural sciences as subordinate and neglects them. Hence, the students
are frequently devoid of the necessary and preparatory knowledge in
natural science that are of decided importance in certain studies,
medicine, for instance. Against such a one-sided system of education
opposition begins to spring up even in the circles of teachers, as
proven by a declaration published in the autumn of 1894 by about 400
teachers of the German High Schools. Abroad, in Switzerland, for
instance, the leading place has long since been given to the studies in
natural science, and any one, even without a so-called classic
education, is admissible to the study of medicine, provided otherwise
sufficiently equipped in natural science and mathematics. Similarly in
Russia and the United States.

In one of his writings, the late Pro. Bischoff gave "_the rudeness of
the students_" as the reason why he did not recommend the study of
medicine to women. He certainly was a good judge of that. In another
pl