Recent Progress in Pathology and Pathological Anatomy

R. H. FITZ
1879 Boston Medical and Surgical Journal  
For the carrying out of these views, the importance of which cannot be well overestimated, we need more medical workers in the hospitals. This result can be most advantageously and economically arrived at by the appointment of internes, after the manner of general hospitals. The student would thus acquire not only a practical acquaintance with insanity which would be invaluable to him, but also a general knowledge of disease, the uses of drugs and their compounding, and other necessary
more » ... on. In a hospital accommodating three hundred patients, beside a staff of superintendent and two assistant physicians, there could be four internes. The internes would attend to minor details, and under the direction of the pathologist spend much time at the microscope, but they would especially write up the medical records, keeping them with great care. The assistants would thus be able to occupy their time, now impossible, almost entirely with the patients, spending hours daily in talking with them and giving them that encouragement and cheering so much needed in almost all cases. When not so engaged, reading and the microscope and recreation would each claim a certain proportion of time.
doi:10.1056/nejm187911271012204 fatcat:7zo63vtfzbbengknrb32t5trje