"Bart's"

St. Bartholomew's Hospital, oldest medical school in England, has just celebrated the 800th anniversary of its foundation by Rahere in 1123, during the reign of Henry I. Popularly known as " Bart's," it has long played a foremost role in British medicine. Monumental histories of the institution have been published by Sir Norman Moore and Sir D'Arcy Power.

The English medical schools are concentrated mainly in London and are almost invariably the intimate outgrowth of hospitals. For many years apprenticeship as a " dresser " or " clinical clerk " was the approved method of training for the medical profession. Special emphasis was placed on bedside instruction, conducted by the staff physicians of the hospitals. "Walking the hospitals," i. e., making the ward rounds, to which American students are introduced but sparingly until their interne years, became the favorite sport of British medical students. Laboratory and lecture work in the British schools was weak until recent years, but the great hospitals of Guy's, St. Mary's, Bart's and others have produced thousands of notable practitioners with the best clinical experience in the world. The current of progress, stimulated by official support from the Ministry of Health, of which Sir George Newman is Chief Medical Officer, is now _ setting in the direction of unified university schools of the type of the University College Hospital and Medical School, which is building a $5,000,000 center with Rockefeller money. The new anatomy building was recently opened by the King.