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SPURIOUS PRECISION.
407
MEDICAL EDUCATION IN THE SOVIET UNION.
of lipiodol. His investigations in this field began with the observation that skiagrams of different parts of the body into which this substance had been injected showed it to be impermeable to X rays. He exploited his observation as a means of demonstrating lesions in almost every part of the body, but it was the nervous system in particular that he illuminated by this device, demonstrating the exact position of lesions which had given rise to ;signs of compression. While making injections of luargol, he noticed that it clotted blood in the veins, .and from this isolated observation he was led to devising treatment of varicose veins by means of intravenous injections of various drugs, first luargol, later sodium carbonate, and finally sodium salicylate, -the employment of which in the injection treatment of varicose veins is still advocated by many. These examples of Sicard’s work should suffice to show what manner of intellect he possessed. Apparently .small things which the crowd overlooks were not only carefully noted, but were also applied to the solution of difficult problems, being made the starting-point of new ventures and discoveries. He would pick -up an old key in the gutter, polish it, and then pop it into the keyhole of the nearest locked door, thinking it might peradventure open it. And when it happened to do so, and he found great store of treasure therein, he was quick to put it in order, to tidy and classify it, and then to give it to all the world with open hands. It is a pity that the taste for picking up keys in the gutter is only congenital and not to be acquired by laboured conscientiousness.
’-injections
1926-27 these attracted no less than 2716 doctors. The courses include a study of the work of the special clinics for tuberculosis, venereal disease, maternal and child welfare, orthopaedics, and physically and mentally defective children-institutions which have multiplied with great rapidity under the Soviet.
SPURIOUS PRECISION. THOSE with any critical knowledge of chemistry must be filled with amazement at the varied ways of stating the results of mineral-water analyses and the precision which is sometimes claimed. It is, for example, startling to see that the water from a " source thermale " in Luxembourg contains in 1 kg. 15-433434 g. of solids, of which 9-4148 g. is sodium chloride, and 0-45487 g. is hydrocarbonate of magnesium ; more especially when one reflects that Stas, at the not far-distant University of Louvain, did not achieve such accuracy in his classical determination of atomic weights. At its last meeting, the International Society of Medical Hydrology adopted certain resolutions1 which should clear up some of these points. Among other things, it is recommended : that the analysis of a water shall always be expressed in terms of ions, whether its interpretation in other terms is given or not; that the quantities of ions, also " salines " when given, shall be given to one decimal place only, or when the quantity is less than ten, to two significant figures ; and that the analysis shall be in terms of parts per million, either It is hoped that as mg. per litre or mg. per kg. international standard measurements may be used MEDICAL EDUCATION IN THE SOVIET UNION. in the publications of spas and in national handbooks, and in this and other ways the recommendations WITH all its reputed disadvantages, Soviet govern- should simplify the task of the physician who has to ment seems to have brought about great development compare different waters. It is by no means easy of the study of medicine in Russia. According to a to convert grains per pint into parts per 100,000 recent article by Dr. Nikolai Messis,l medical study or cubic inches of gas per gallon into millilitres per before the Revolution was handicapped by many litre. political restrictions. There were only eight Govern____
ment schools, which excluded women and restricted Jews to a quota of 3 per cent. ; seven private institutions were in existence. As soon as the Czarist Government was overthrown, the State schools were overwhelmed with applicants, and by 1924 the number of students reached 47,000 and the number of schools had been increased to 30. The supply of qualified men and women soon exceeded the demand, which is for not quite 25,000, and the Government have restricted the number of new entries by imposing certain conditions of selection. Applicants from the working classes are given preference, and bursaries have been founded to assist them ; the number of these in 1924 was 8671 in Russia alone, not counting the other autonomous Soviet States. Other bursaries are maintained by the various industrial organisations for their own members. The schools are administered by faculties elected by the staff and the students, which latter are represented upon the governing body and the subcommittees which have charge of the various departments and provide a certain number of the members of the executive committee-half the number representing the teaching staff. The executive ,committee also contains representatives of the Government and the trade-unions, and the medical committee representatives of the unions of the medical personnel. The schools as a whole come under the Peoples’ Commissary for Education, who is assisted by a scientific committee. The course, fixed in 1924, lasts five years and aims at restricting the preparatory .studies in anatomy and physiology as much as possible. They are to be completed in two years, and the remaining three are devoted to medicine proper ; the syllabus laY6 great stress on the necessity for introducing the student at once to the practical work of the laboratory and clinic. There are two post-graduate schools, one at Leningrad and the other at Kasan, on the Volga, while post-graduate and specialist courses are provided at many other clinics. In the year 1
Schweiz. Med. Woch., 1928, xlviii., 1189.
A MEDICAL COUNCIL FOR
INDIA.
IT has long been apparent that the provincial medical councils, useful as they have proved in many respects, have not been capable of dealing satisfactorily with some questions affecting India as a whole, and the renewal of proposals to establish a council for the whole of India, which have twice been put forward during the last eight years, comes as no surprise. The text of the Bill to effect this object which is at present under consideration is in some respects still being treated as confidential, but the general tenour of the proposals is known, and they are discussed in the January number of the Indian 2v] edical Gazette. The functions of the provincial medical councils are the maintenance of medical registers, with corresponding disciplinary powers, and authority to require particulars of the examinations of institutions included in their schedules, and to depute visiting members to be present at such examinations. These functions have, no doubt, been satisfactorily fulfilled, on the whole, but the time has now come when a central body for India is urgently needed, in order to obtain uniformity in the educational standards of the various provinces, and also to negotiate with British, colonial, and foreign licensing bodies, or other authorities, concerning proposals for reciprocity and other matters. For some time past, as is generally known, difficulties have arisen periodically with regard to the recognition of certain Indian medical degrees, and it is an open secret that representations from the British General Medical Council with regard to the desirability of
instituting some more centrally responsible authority present exists have been instrumental in bringing up the subject again with increased urgency. Its consideration was at first complicated by the fact that there is not only the graduate class to be considered-the class, that is, which is generally eligible than at
1 Archives of Medical Hydrology, January, 1929, p. 153.
MEDICAL EDUCATION IN THE SOVIET UNION.
of lipiodol. His investigations in this field began with the observation that skiagrams of different parts of the body into which this substance had been injected showed it to be impermeable to X rays. He exploited his observation as a means of demonstrating lesions in almost every part of the body, but it was the nervous system in particular that he illuminated by this device, demonstrating the exact position of lesions which had given rise to ;signs of compression. While making injections of luargol, he noticed that it clotted blood in the veins, .and from this isolated observation he was led to devising treatment of varicose veins by means of intravenous injections of various drugs, first luargol, later sodium carbonate, and finally sodium salicylate, -the employment of which in the injection treatment of varicose veins is still advocated by many. These examples of Sicard’s work should suffice to show what manner of intellect he possessed. Apparently .small things which the crowd overlooks were not only carefully noted, but were also applied to the solution of difficult problems, being made the starting-point of new ventures and discoveries. He would pick -up an old key in the gutter, polish it, and then pop it into the keyhole of the nearest locked door, thinking it might peradventure open it. And when it happened to do so, and he found great store of treasure therein, he was quick to put it in order, to tidy and classify it, and then to give it to all the world with open hands. It is a pity that the taste for picking up keys in the gutter is only congenital and not to be acquired by laboured conscientiousness.
’-injections
1926-27 these attracted no less than 2716 doctors. The courses include a study of the work of the special clinics for tuberculosis, venereal disease, maternal and child welfare, orthopaedics, and physically and mentally defective children-institutions which have multiplied with great rapidity under the Soviet.
SPURIOUS PRECISION. THOSE with any critical knowledge of chemistry must be filled with amazement at the varied ways of stating the results of mineral-water analyses and the precision which is sometimes claimed. It is, for example, startling to see that the water from a " source thermale " in Luxembourg contains in 1 kg. 15-433434 g. of solids, of which 9-4148 g. is sodium chloride, and 0-45487 g. is hydrocarbonate of magnesium ; more especially when one reflects that Stas, at the not far-distant University of Louvain, did not achieve such accuracy in his classical determination of atomic weights. At its last meeting, the International Society of Medical Hydrology adopted certain resolutions1 which should clear up some of these points. Among other things, it is recommended : that the analysis of a water shall always be expressed in terms of ions, whether its interpretation in other terms is given or not; that the quantities of ions, also " salines " when given, shall be given to one decimal place only, or when the quantity is less than ten, to two significant figures ; and that the analysis shall be in terms of parts per million, either It is hoped that as mg. per litre or mg. per kg. international standard measurements may be used MEDICAL EDUCATION IN THE SOVIET UNION. in the publications of spas and in national handbooks, and in this and other ways the recommendations WITH all its reputed disadvantages, Soviet govern- should simplify the task of the physician who has to ment seems to have brought about great development compare different waters. It is by no means easy of the study of medicine in Russia. According to a to convert grains per pint into parts per 100,000 recent article by Dr. Nikolai Messis,l medical study or cubic inches of gas per gallon into millilitres per before the Revolution was handicapped by many litre. political restrictions. There were only eight Govern____
ment schools, which excluded women and restricted Jews to a quota of 3 per cent. ; seven private institutions were in existence. As soon as the Czarist Government was overthrown, the State schools were overwhelmed with applicants, and by 1924 the number of students reached 47,000 and the number of schools had been increased to 30. The supply of qualified men and women soon exceeded the demand, which is for not quite 25,000, and the Government have restricted the number of new entries by imposing certain conditions of selection. Applicants from the working classes are given preference, and bursaries have been founded to assist them ; the number of these in 1924 was 8671 in Russia alone, not counting the other autonomous Soviet States. Other bursaries are maintained by the various industrial organisations for their own members. The schools are administered by faculties elected by the staff and the students, which latter are represented upon the governing body and the subcommittees which have charge of the various departments and provide a certain number of the members of the executive committee-half the number representing the teaching staff. The executive ,committee also contains representatives of the Government and the trade-unions, and the medical committee representatives of the unions of the medical personnel. The schools as a whole come under the Peoples’ Commissary for Education, who is assisted by a scientific committee. The course, fixed in 1924, lasts five years and aims at restricting the preparatory .studies in anatomy and physiology as much as possible. They are to be completed in two years, and the remaining three are devoted to medicine proper ; the syllabus laY6 great stress on the necessity for introducing the student at once to the practical work of the laboratory and clinic. There are two post-graduate schools, one at Leningrad and the other at Kasan, on the Volga, while post-graduate and specialist courses are provided at many other clinics. In the year 1
Schweiz. Med. Woch., 1928, xlviii., 1189.
A MEDICAL COUNCIL FOR
INDIA.
IT has long been apparent that the provincial medical councils, useful as they have proved in many respects, have not been capable of dealing satisfactorily with some questions affecting India as a whole, and the renewal of proposals to establish a council for the whole of India, which have twice been put forward during the last eight years, comes as no surprise. The text of the Bill to effect this object which is at present under consideration is in some respects still being treated as confidential, but the general tenour of the proposals is known, and they are discussed in the January number of the Indian 2v] edical Gazette. The functions of the provincial medical councils are the maintenance of medical registers, with corresponding disciplinary powers, and authority to require particulars of the examinations of institutions included in their schedules, and to depute visiting members to be present at such examinations. These functions have, no doubt, been satisfactorily fulfilled, on the whole, but the time has now come when a central body for India is urgently needed, in order to obtain uniformity in the educational standards of the various provinces, and also to negotiate with British, colonial, and foreign licensing bodies, or other authorities, concerning proposals for reciprocity and other matters. For some time past, as is generally known, difficulties have arisen periodically with regard to the recognition of certain Indian medical degrees, and it is an open secret that representations from the British General Medical Council with regard to the desirability of
instituting some more centrally responsible authority present exists have been instrumental in bringing up the subject again with increased urgency. Its consideration was at first complicated by the fact that there is not only the graduate class to be considered-the class, that is, which is generally eligible than at
1 Archives of Medical Hydrology, January, 1929, p. 153.