IN THE report of the Commission on Graduate Medical Education,1 published in 1940, the phases of training which followed the customary four year medical course were divided into three categories: The first is the internship, which rounds out and gives added practical application to the medical school course and also accustoms the individual, while under supervision, to the assumption of responsibility. Hence, it should be considered a part of the basic preparation for practice. The second part is the residency, which prepares a physician for the practice of a specialty and, therefore, is properly termed graduate medical education. Finally, there are courses of varying lengths and other educational opportunities that aim to keep practitioners abreast of their present fields of practice and they can be correctly classed as postgraduate education.
While we approve this classification, and hope that eventually it will be accepted by all institutions of medical education, we