Not a few of the universities maintain schools of law and medicine. Harvard and Yale universities maintain schools of theology as well. The learned publications issued by the univer sities, or under the direction of university professors, are of great importance, and constitute an imposing body of scientific litera ture. The National and State Governments make increasing use of university officials for public service requiring special training or expert knowledge. In 1871-72 there were only 198 resident graduate (or university) students in the United States. In 1897 this number had risen to 4,392 and in 1926 to 32,500.
Throughout the country, but especially in the West and Mid dle West, Junior colleges are be coming numerous. Some of these institutions are derived from small colleges without support from taxation ; some of these colleges, finding themselves fi nancially unable to continue sat isfactorily the full four-year course, limit themselves to two years ; others more significantly form the upward extension of the vigorous public high schools. Of the 200 Junior colleges in the United States in 1922, 125 were reorganized small colleges. This type not only brings the oppor tunity for higher education within the reach of many who could not leave the immediate vicinity of their homes, but also reacts favour ably on the pupils and teachers of the secondary schools. The college remains the most characteristic feature of education in the United States. In 1926 there were enrolled 595,458 collegiate students as compared with 174,213 in 191o.
The typical organization of the large university provides for a group of professional schools, sometimes in close conjunction with the rest of the university, occasionally scattered but under single university control. Formerly many professional schools were separate institutions, but the tendency has been to decrease the number of independent schools until in most fields the uni versity professional schools far outnumber the independent organ izations. Of the 44 dental schools reported on by the Carnegie Foundation in its survey (1926), 36 are connected with universi ties. Of the 71 medical schools to which the American Medical Association assigns the grade A, 61 are university schools. The
Federal Bureau of Education lists 144 law schools, of which 110 are university schools.
Medicine.—The medical schools of the United States were slow to adjust themselves to the new conditions brought about by the growth of medical science. They followed the model of continental Europe rather than that of Great Britain, in that the teaching was almost exclusively by lectures and imposed no def inite requirement as to the preliminary education. There was lacking also, for the most part, stimulating contact with colleges or universities of high academic ideals; and therefore there devel oped an organization which lent itself readily to commercialism. Later, however, medical teaching was revolutionized, and it now exemplifies the highest standards of professional education. The rapid development of physiology and physiological chemistry, bacteriology, pathology and hygiene necessitated the enlargement of the curriculum to include these subjects. Laboratory methods of teaching have been introduced. Satisfactory preliminary edu cation is held essential, and all recognized medical schools in 1926 required of candidates for admission the completion of the four year secondary school course and at least two years of college work, including physics, chemistry and biology.
Cornell, Western Reserve and Leland Stanford require three years of college for entrance; Harvard and Columbia a degree from, or two years of high rank in, a college or scientific school; Johns Hopkins and Chicago a bachelor's degree or its equivalent. Most significant of all, the student is again brought into intimate contact with the patient ; hospitals and dispensaries are used as laboratories where the prospective physician may acquire skill in examining patients and familiarity with the manifestations of disease. The degree of Doctor of Medicine is conferred on com pletion of the medical course, which in nearly all schools is four years in length. A few institutions require also, before granting the degree, a fifth year, spent as an interne in a hospital. Advanc ing educational requirements, the consequently greater cost of medical training, and the increasing knowledge and interest of the public in matters of public health combined to reduce the number of medical schools from its maximum of 162 in 1906 to 8o in 1927; of medical students from 28,142 in 1904 to 19,532 in 1926-27; of medical graduates from 5,747 in 1904 to more than 4,000 in 1927.