17 MAY 1935, Page 2

* The Training of Doctors • Dissatisfaction with the curriculum

• for the training of medical men led some time ago to the calling of a con- ference of representatives of the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and London, the Royal College of Physicians of London, the Royal College of Surgeons of England and the Society of Apothecaries. Perhaps the most impressive fact about the report now issued is that the eighteen members of the Conference are in complete agreement. They call attention to-the excessive specialization which is demanded- froM students as soon as they have passed the matriculation stage ; to the oppressive influence of the long series of examinations -which the medical student must take in succession ; to over-emphasis of the store of facts which must be memorized at the expense of critical inquiry ; to the need of greater attention to ordinary diseases or accidents as opposed to rare diseases and major operations ; the importance of psychology and preventive medicine ; and they propose reforms involving a drastic overhauling of the whole- curriculum. Among the representatives were two members of the General Medical Council, with which the last word rests; Lay opinion generally will approve the conclusions reached.