'German Methods,' 'Unconditional Gifts,' and the Full-time System: The Case Study of the University of Toronto, 1919-23

摘要

At the end of 1919, The University of Toronto got word that the Rockefeller Foundation was looking to give the university a gift of one million dollars (US) to ";aid medical education."; This was in addition to a gift of $500,000 (Canadian) from merchant millionaires Sir John Craig and Lady Eaton. The implementation of the full-time system of clinical instruction made possible by these large gifts touched off a fiery debate among the medical profession and prompted a provincial government inquiry that would have thwarted long' awaited innovations in medical teaching and threatened the autonomy of the entire university. Much has been written about the full-time system of clinical medical education, most of it dealing with the United States.' Some have documented cases where donor dollars were scorned in aiding the shift to fulltime clinical teaching.2 Less well known is the tale of the University of Toronto. ";;;The Provincial University";;; is an unique case study of a public university that tried to satisfy donor conditions even as it served its constituency-the people of Ontario. The challenge of implementing a new medical pedagogy between 1919 and 1923 was that Toronto lay at the centre of three poles: private versus public funding; ";;;research";;; or laboratory medicine versus ";;;experience";;; or ";;;practical";;; medicine; and those who wanted to try the full-time system versus the established ";;;old guard.";;;