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EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
[July 21, 1939
discussion of the previous day's work which is corrected, marked, and returned to him for reference. After three months' experience of this method the report is that the students have learned to express themselves more clearly and concisely both in words and on paper, and that the standard of the class examination in December had improved.
9. Analogous methods, with the same object in view, have been adopted independently by the heads of other departments, and represent the direct and personal interest of the staff in the training and welfare of students, which is quite invaluable.
10. The position in which students find themselves during the first and second years cannot be dissociated from the conditions of school education, and preparation for the matriculation test for admission to the College. The test itself, and the pre-medical education, considered as one group, too frequently represent attainments which are an insecure basis on which to found the five years of professional study. Should the conditions not improve, it may be advisable to consider the introduction, after the admission test, of a two-year course of education to include Chemistry (Inorganic and Organic), Physics, Biology, and English.
11. Each department throughout the curriculum has furnished me with a memorandum* giving full particulars of the courses of instruction as now carried out, and it is unnecessary to repeat the details. The rearrangements that have been effected reflect great credit on all concerned. I have, therefore, confined myself in this Report to matters not dealt with in previous Reports, or which are of particular interest.
12. There are five departments located in the new Medical College or adjacent to it for the subjects of Biology, Bio-chemistry, Physiology, Anatomy, and Bacteriology. Each department is in charge of a whole-time Professor, and it is noteworthy that four of the Chairs are endowed. The exception is the Chair of Anatomy. It is to be hoped this Chair also will be endowed in due course.
* The memoranda are important and have been placed in the records of the General Medical Council.
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July 21, 1939]
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
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13. Biology and Bio-chemistry. In 1923-24 I recorded the very high opinion formed of the teaching in Biology and Bio- chemistry, and noted the active research carried out in both departments, especially by the Professor of Bio-chemistry in the Nutrition Laboratories.
14. Anatomy and Physiology. The Chairs in Physiology and Anatomy fell vacant during the period under review, and the departments are now in charge of new incumbents. In Physiology there has been a carefully planned redistribution of time spent on certain sections of the course. The department itself has been structurally reorganised to provide a lecture demonstration theatre, a dark room, and a research laboratory for the Professor, and additional equipment has been supplied. The course includes lectures, demonstrations in Applied Physiology on selected clinical cases, and lectures and demonstrations on experimental Pharmacology, a subject now included as part of the professional examination in Physiology. There is no Department of Pharma- cology. The desirability of establishing a separate department of Pharmacology to include in its activities investigations on the composition and action of indigenous drugs was advocated in previous Reports.
15. In Anatomy, lectures have been instituted for junior and senior students, the junior lectures covering general Anatomy, Osteology, and Embryology; the senior lectures covering the central nervous system, lymphatic system, surface and X-ray anatomy of the living body, revision classes of topographical anatomy of the body, and demonstrations of fresh tissue in the post-mortem room. In the last term there is an introduction to the principles of surgery from an anatomical and embryological standpoint.
16. Bacteriology. In Bacteriology, instruction includes syste- matic lectures, demonstrations, tutorials, practical and revision classes, and is designed to meet the primary requirements of a medical student. A feature of the department is the individual instruction of students in the practical classes. The course com- mences with a simple systematic study of bacteriological species, combined with the elements of immunity and epidemiology, and leads up to a practical application of these to the bacteriological
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