Studies in neurological diagnosis / by James J. Putnam and George A. Waterman.

  • Putnam, James Jackson, 1846-1918.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Studies in neurological diagnosis / by James J. Putnam and George A. Waterman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    PREFACE. During the course of the past few years certain special experiments have been made for the purpose of securing the best methods of giving the third-year students a reasonable knowledge of neurology in the shortest possible time. Fort- unately, that task has itself grown easier, of late years, for the reason that the importance of the subject has come to be better recognized by the profession and the students, and its closer study is approached with livelier interest. The teachers realize that this change of sentiment calls for fresh effort on their part, but they wish the students to realize in their turn that the teachers' duty consists only in showing how study and observation can be made effective, not how they can be dispensed with or abridged. The work of the class-room must be supplemented by work at home. The neurological department of the Massachusetts Gen- eral Hospital is very rich in interesting and important cases; and the plan of teaching first followed was to demonstrate large numbers of patients, the students being urged to ask and answer questions concerning them. But, while this method interested the abler and more ambitious men, it was not systematic enough for the whole number, and, conse- quently, about four years ago, the plan was tried of supple- menting the demonstrations by a systematic quiz, based on the study of successive chapters of an accepted text-book. Printed lists of questions were also given out for the sake of calling attention to important points. This plan found favor with the students, and might have been continued longer but for the fact that the present method, which was first definitely suggested by Dr. W. B.