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Excerpt from A Laboratory Course in Serum Study: Bacteriology 208, Being a Series of Experiments and Diagnostic Tests in Immunology Carried Out in an Optional Course Given to Medical and Graduate Students in the Department of Bacteriology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University
The course here outlined is given by the authors at Columbia University. The prerequisite theoretical knowledge is presented in a series of lectures based on the textbook "Infection and Resistance," by the senior author.
Immunity, like other branches of science, cannot be taught without experiment and demonstration. For this reason we have, for several years, supplemented our lecture course on Infection and Resistance by an optional course on Serum Technique. Our purpose in this has been not so much to teach beginners to carry out practical diagnostic tests as to allow the student to carry out fundamental experiments, and, in drawing conclusions from his results, to learn to reason from protocols and in this way discover the basic principles for himself.
It has been our contention for a number of years that thorough instruction in the phenomena of immunity constituted a logically necessary preparation for the clinic on infectious diseases. For this reason our courses have been offered as optionals to second and third year medical students. Contrary to ordinary belief, students at this stage of preparation have found no difficulty in comprehending the work, and have, we think, derived benefits in experimental methods and reasoning far beyond the actual gain in new facts. Though optional now, these courses we hope may eventually become integral, required parts of the regular medical curriculum - the lectures and demonstrations correlated with - the laboratory course following - the course in Bacteriology. This, however, we realize may have to await the lengthening of the medical course as a whole.
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