man was to come, the opportunity was too good to lose; consequently, the new man, Lombard, found that he was to give five lectures a week each semester, and that the laboratory course in physiology was to be no longer required, that in its place an optional one of six weeks had been substituted, and that there was no time left when the regular medical student could take such a course.
The lectures and recitations of 1891-92 were attended by 235 students — medical freshmen and sophomores, homeopathic medical students, dental, graduate, and pharmacy students, and those from the Department of Literature, Science, and the Arts. In addition, there were three sections of optional laboratory work, for medical, homeopathic, dental, liberal arts, and graduate students.
From 1892 to 1904 there were only minor changes in the work of the Department of Physiology. The medical, homeopathic, and dental students were required to attend the lectures and recitations, and there were always a few graduate students and students from the School of Pharmacy and the Department of Literature, Science, and the Arts who elected the courses. Usually there was a special quiz section for dental students. The practical laboratory course, which was optional for all students, continued to be given to small sections, the number totaling from twenty-one to fifty-four. The laboratory was at all times open to students sufficiently advanced to do research work, and courses were offered for students proposing to teach physiology.
In 1904-5 the practical laboratory course in physiology became a required course for medical and homeopathic students, although it was elective for students in other departments. That year the course was given in three sections to seventy-six students, and in 1905-6, 103 took the required course in laboratory work, which was given five afternoons a week for nine weeks.
With the coming of Gesell (1923) there was a change in the teaching of physiology. At that time the old methods of lectures, recitations, and frequent written quizzes, in which the student was made to feel that his work was definitely assigned and under constant supervision, was altered. The student was given greater freedom to do his work in his own way, this being especially true of the laboratory work.
In 1930 Professor Gesell described the methods of instruction:
Formal instruction is offered to three groups of students in medicine, dentistry and physical education. An introductory course of eighty lectures on human physiology with demonstrations is given jointly to the students of dentistry and physical education during the second semester. In the following semester another set of forty-eight lectures on the physiology of muscular exercise is given to the students of physical education. The course in physiology offered for the students of medicine begins the second semester of the first year of the medical curriculum with a series of lectures, demonstrations, and conferences. These lectures and demonstrations include an introduction to general physiology followed by a systematic discussion of the physiology of muscle, nerve, circulation, and respiration. The remaining subjects are concluded during the first semester of the sophomore year, the class meeting three times a week. The laboratory course, which consists of eight weeks of five three-hour periods and one laboratory conference each week, may be taken during the summer session between the two lecture courses or in the fall along with the second set of lectures. All courses offered by the department are open to undergraduate and graduate students of any school who have adequate training in physics, chemistry, and biology.
In the combined course for dental and physical education students, the enrollment is about one hundred and twenty-five; in the course in the physiology of muscular exercise about twenty-five. The enrollment in the course for medical students is about one hundred
