In England the teaching of medicine was established a scientific basis chiefly by the efforts of Thomas. Linacre, who founded chairs for the teaching of medicine in the uni versities of Oxford and Cambridge. As physi cian to Henry VIII. he possessed an enormous Milne/ace at Court, and this he wiehled to great advantage, inducing the King to take the power Of licensing persons to practice mediehie out of the hands of the bishops, and rendering, it necessary for the candidates to pass an exami nation and receive a degree from one or the other of the two universities. In England, as in France, it was many years before the educa tion of the surgeon was emisialered as of equal importance with that of the physician. Until 171.5 the surgeons were associ:tb,1 with the barbers in the corporation of the barber sur geons. In that year they separated. although it not until 11111re than fifty years later that L'oy'al of Surgeons was incorporated.
The nie1ien1 profession in England consists of three classes: first. physielans, who have received their degree from one of the nniversities; second, surgeons. who have graduated from one or an other of the medical schools which exist in connection with the hospitals; and third, apothecaries, who dispense their own drugs and are generally eonsidered as family physician''. like American apothecaries are in England called chemists. The large hospitals in London have, in many instances, medical schools connected with them. Of the more prominent may be mentioned Saint Thomas. Saint l'fartholomew, Saint George, and Guy's. The course of instruc tion at these hospitals is three years; the teach. ors are the physicians and surgeons who serve the hospitals. After passing the examinations at his medical school, in order to obtain au thority to practice the graduate is obliged to pass an examination before a board eomposed of representatives of some of the leading medical societies, such as the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Surgeons, or the Society of Apothecaries, or of some of the faculty of one of the universities.
The medical schools of Scotland are of great antiquity. That of Saint Andrews was founded in 1 41 1, and the University of Edinburgh dates back to the year 1582. although it. was many years subsequent to this before medical teaching there was placed on a scientific basis. The latter university exerted an incalculable influ ence on medical teaching in the United States, owing to the large number of American students who attended its Clurses, From a very early period in the history of North ..\ancrica !addle leetures on medical topics were given in various parts of the country. To Dr. Cadwallader ('olden is ascribed the credit of the lest attempt to establish a system atic course on medicine in the Colonies. lie tried to have the Assembly in the Province of Pennsylvania pass an act. imposing a tax upon every unmarried man for the purpose of sup porting a 'public physical lecture in Philadel phia.' Ilis efforts were fruitless. In 1;50 Dr.
Thomas Cadwallader Lectured on anatomy in Philadelphia. and in Dr. William Hunter, It cousin of the great John hunter. lectured on anatomy at Newport, R. 1. Dr. Charles F. Wiessenthal of Baltimore, delivered lectures on surgery in that city prior to the Revolution.
The first medical school in the United States was founded by Drs. John Morgan and William Shippen, Jr., ill 1765. when they established a medieal department of the College of Philadel phia, which institution subsequently became the University of Pennsylvania. This was shortly followed by the ?mganization, in 1767. of the Inedioa I department of King's College. New York, the lineal ancestor of Columbia lTniversity. Harvard University established its medical de partment in 1782. and ill I7:18 a medical depart ment was established by Dr. Nathan Smith at Dartmouth College. Previous to the foundation of medical schools, the education Of physicians in this emmtry had been entirely by HM1115 Of the apprenticeship system. except when a young man possessed sutlicient means to go abroad and study in medical sellouts of Edinburgh, Lon don, or the Continent. It has been estimated that at. the outset of the \Var for independence there were upward of 3500 practitioners in the Colonies, of whom not more than Ino had re ceived medical decrees. Most of the early teaehers in American medival schools had been educated at the University of Edinburgh. This led to a close pertsduation of the traditions of the medical school of Edinburgh on this side of the Atlantic. In the early part of the nineteenth century it be came customary for American physicians desirous of studying abroad to take their post-graduate work in France. In this way the teaching of Lacnnee, Trousseau, and above all of the great Lonis,beeame familiar to the American profession, and served to give an inunense impetus to scien tific medical work in the United States. The most prominent unethical colleges of the United States now require candidates for admission to possess a collegiate degree, or to pass examinations practically equivalent to those customary at the termination of the sophomore year of the col legiate course.
According to the report of the United States Commissioner of Education for 1898-99. there were at that time in the United States a total of 157 medical colleges; of these, 122 were classed as regular, 21 as hommopathic, 6 as eclec tic, 2 as physimmedical, and 6 as post-graduate. There were 23,778 students in these institutions, and 4389 instructors. In almost every State of the Union there are now examining boards which hold biennial examinations, which it is necessary for a physician to pass before lie can establish himself in practice in the State. In 1875 there were no medical schools in the United States which required even so much as a three years' course. In 1899 a four years' course was com pulsory in 141 medical schools.