1890-92 - University Archives and Records Center - University of ...

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in the Medical School has been secured, and the important
announcement is now made that beginning with the fall of this
year the required course for a degree in Medicine will cover four
years. Much care and labor has been expended in re-casting the
curriculum to secure the fullest advantage from this additional
year, and it is believed that the gain will not only be in fuller and
wider instruction in all departments, but in so regulating and distributing
that work as to greatly relieve the stress upon the
students' health and strength.
The increase in the number of students attending the
Department has been so great as to seriously tax the capacity of
its buildings and the possibilities of its roster. Never before in
its history have there been so many upon its rolls. Much of
this increase is no doubt due to the desire of some to take
advantage while they could of the three years' course while it
was still available; but there yet remains the gratifying fact that
the reputation of the school, and consequent value of its
diploma in the eyes of the community have been maintained and
increased, so that earnest students, who aim at the highest attainments
in their profession, enter its halls rather than seek elsewhere
for an education which would cost less in time, money, and effort.
It is in faitB in the continuance of this spirit that we make the
advances which are demanded by the enlarging fields of medical
science. With each advance there is a temporary falling off in
the number of students; after each ebb there is the surging in
of a larger tide; and I question whether the next expansion
demanded of you be not in the way of enlarged buildings,
increased equipments and a larger staff of instruction.
As on the one side the Institute of Hygiene affords '
increased facilities to the Medical School, so on another the newlyestablished
Institute of Anatomy and Biology enriches it in the
line of Anatomy in its widest scope, and affords opportunity for
the most advanced post-graduate and investigative work. The
proposal of General Isaac J. Wistar to erect a fire-proof building
in which to place securely the historic Wistar Museum with its
constant accretions, and in .which there should be space and
facilities for a vastly greater work in Anatomy find its kindred