Page:Carnegie Flexner Report.djvu/9

Rh forth the essential facts respecting medical education and respecting the institutions which deal with it.

In this connection it is perhaps desirable to add one further word. Educational institutions, particularly those which are connected with a college or a university, are peculiarly sensitive to outside criticism, and particularly to any statement of the circumstances of their own conduct or equipment which seems to them unfavorable in comparison with that of other institutions. As a rule, the only knowledge which the public has concerning an institution of learning is derived from the statements given out by the institution itself, information which, even under the best circumstance is colored by local hopes, ambitions, and points of view. A considerable number of colleges and universities take the unfortunate position that they are private institutions and that the public is entitled to only such knowledge of their operations as they choose to communicate. In the case of many medical schools the aversion to publicity is quite as marked as it is reputed to be in the case of certain large industrial trusts. A few institutions questioned the right of any outside agency to collect and publish the facts concerning their medical schools. The Foundation was called upon to answer the question: Shall such an agency as the Foundation, dedicated to the betterment of American education, make public the facts concerning the medical schools of the United States and Canada?

The attitude of the Foundation is that all colleges and universities, whether supported by taxation or by private endowment, are in truth public service corporations, and that the public is entitled to know the facts concerning their administration and development, whether those facts pertain to the financial or to the educational side. We believe, therefore, that in seeking to present an accurate and fair statement of the work and the facilities of the medical schools of this country, we are serving the best possible purpose which such an agency as the Foundation can serve; and, furthermore, that only by such publicity can the true interests of education and of the universities themselves be subserved. In such a reasonable publicity lies the hope for progress in medical education.

I wish to add with pleasure that notwithstanding reluctance in some quarters to furnish information, the medical schools of the colleges and universities, as well as proprietary and independent medical schools, have generally accepted the view just stated and have seconded the work of the Foundation by offering to those who were engaged in this study every facility to learn their opportunities and resources; and I beg to express the thanks of the trustees of the Foundation to each of these institutions for the coöperation which it has given to a study which, in the very nature of the case, was to bear sharply in the way of criticism upon many of those called on for coöperation.

The report which follows is divided into two parts. In the first half the history of medical education in this country and its present status are set forth. The story is there told of the gradual development of the commercial medical school, distinctly