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THE MEDICAL COLLEGE. 213
II. THIRD-YEAR STUDENTS.
Recitations. Third-year students recite twice a week from an
advanced text-book on Practice, special emphasis being given to
symptomatology, complications, diagnosis and treatment.
Written reviews are held at intervals to familiarize the student with
examinations. All recitations are obligatory and the recitation marks
received form an important component of the final examination
marks of the year.
Ward Work. Systematic and obligatory ward work is begun in
classes not exceeding fifteen students each, who accompany the Pro
fessor of Medicine on routine rounds through the hospital wards.
Professor Thompson instructs at the Presbyterian Hospital until Janu
ary, and at Bellevue thereafter throughout the year. Repeated illus
trations of all the common diseases are studied, and the advantage to
the student of personally examining dozens of cases of such diseases
as typhoid fever, pneumonia, nephritis, cardiac ailments, etc. , in dif
ferent stages of development, and of following their daily progress,
far outweighs the antiquated system of attendance upon didactic
lectures. The student is first taught to observe and describe symp
toms and investigate etiology, and as he attains proficiency is required
to make diagnoses,
offer prognoses and suggest treatment. At the
ward clinic such medical operations are shown as lavage, inflation of
the stomach for diagnosis, aspiration for pleurisy and ascites, etc.
General Diagnosis. Dr. Coleman gives a special course in Gen
eral Medical Diagnosis, in which at one lesson the student is required
to examine, compare and report upon each variety of pulse found in
the ward ; at another upon each variety of cachexia, anaemia or oede
ma ; at another, upon each variety of abnormal liver or spleen ; and
so on, comprising all the important physical examinations.
Medical Conferences. Under Dr. Coleman's direction, also,
students are assigned to special cases which they study in detail for
several weeks, reviewing the literature of the subject, and then they
report in writing at a medical conference, at which their fellow stu
dents are called upon to offer criticisms and general discussion.
Clinical Laboratory
Courses are conducted under Dr. Camac's
supervision, in immediate connection with the study of hospital and
dispensary cases. In this laboratory the student acquires methods
and technique which he is required to put in practice with patients.
The laboratory is also used extensively by the visiting staffs of the
Hospital and Out-Patient Clinic for completing the data of their cases.
The students are divided into small sections, so that each member