Scientific Values of the Humanities in the Premedical Program' DEWITT STETTEN, JR. Columbia University, New York, New York
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HEN a young man enters medical school he finds a t once that every hour of the day and many hours of the night are consumed in the completion of a rigid and exhausting schedule of courses which leaves him very little time for extracurricular relaxation. In many cases such free time as he has wiJJ be devoted to the reading of detective stories or attending the local movie house. The intellectual demands placed upon him by the medical faculty are such as to leave him very little superfh~ousintellectual energy which he may devote to more serious pursuits. It therefore follows that any tastes for the humanities that are to be developed in him are best developed during his premedical years and. the responsibility for this rests upon his college faculty. If an interest in history, art, or music is not aroused during college years, the chances are .overwhelming that such interests will never appear. The question will naturally be asked: If no such interests are aroused, what difference will i t make? A taste for serious thought and serious reading contributes to the full life in the same sense that a taste for oyster and copnac adds to the ~lea
