Some Changes in the Character of the Society

Abstract

Physiology certainly started as a handmaiden of medicine but during the last fifty years or more a significant change has taken place. The change has been the result of the advancement of science in general and the basic medical sciences in particular which have become so broad (or deep) that the ordinary training of a doctor of medicine is no longer sufficient to do more than cover a few of the high spots, with a mastery of none. Thus increasing specialization has become a necessity and physiology has become a science in its own right, which extends far beyond the more specialized interests of the ordinary medical practitioners, however well trained and broadminded they may be. Of course, many of our best physiologists today have only the M.D. degree but they usually obtain additional training in their specialty after completing their degrees. The physiologist with a Ph.D. has the opposite problem and is in danger of remaining too specialized and narrow in his outlook.