ABSTRACT
THERE wa s a time, and indeed it does not lie very far behind us, when the university trained the physician for his future profession by requiring him to commit to memory the symptoms of the vari - ous disease s and th e name s of suc h remedie s fo r the m a s wer e known at the time. Thi s time is past. Th e modern physician is a natural scientis t who has chose n th e huma n bod y as hi s field of investigation. Similarly , not much more than a century ago, th e mechanical engineer was little more than a mechanician to whom his master had imparted the manual skill required for the building of machines. Her e too a change has taken place. Th e present-da y mechanical engineer i s a physicist who studies th e natur e o f the materials which he is to use and the extent to which their reactions to variou s external influences tak e plac e i n conformity wit h ob - served an d observable laws . Neithe r the physicia n nor th e mechanical enginee r an y longer, in a purel y craftsmanlike manner , acquires merel y the skil l require d fo r hi s profession, bu t chiefl y an understanding of it s scientifi c basis. Th e sam e development has take n place long ago in countless othe r fields.
