Medicine: For Life

Are the medical schools, in their zeal for technical skills, failing to turn out well-rounded doctors? The question was raised last week by Dr. Willara Cole Rappleye, dean of Columbia University's Faculty of Medicine. Said Dr. Rappleye:

"Medicine is becoming a social as well as a biological science. We would rather have a student with intellect . . . and a rounded capacity for life than one whose only view of humanity was gained as he passed from one laboratory to another.

"Socalled 'premedical' education should be abolished in the colleges . . . There is no such thing as 'premedical' education, nor should students in colleges who plan to enter professional schools be regarded as premedical or predental students. [College] education is not 'pre' anything, but should be devoted to the objective of providing as broad a cultural education as the institution can provide. It should be a preparation not for medicine or dentistry or public health, but for life."