The Degree of Bachelor of Medicine in the American Colonies and the United States *

The degrees granted by colleges and universities may be traced from two early sources. In part they are of the nature of the graded series of titles of the peerage, which are marks of royal favor. The oldest in the series of those designations which we now call college degrees is that of doctor, first bestowed as evidence of princely favor and gratitude upon individual teachers. The first designations by educational institutions were also doctorates; in law at Bologna and in theology at Paris. The major source of collegiate degrees is from designations of attainment in the guild of teachers. These were patterned after the designations in the craft guilds which were master and apprentice, and in some craft guilds extended to a designation of craftsman or journeyman, intermediate between master and apprentice. The guild of teachers at first used only one designation, namely, that of master of arts, applied to one considered compe7tent to teach the seven liberal arts constituting the trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music). The designation of doctor was at first restricted to those who taught the higher subjects of law, medicine, and theology, but after a time the designations of doctor, master, and professor were used interchangeably, the usage differing in individual institutions (Rashdall, i, 19). The derivation of the designation of bachelor has been variously explained, but probably it comes from an old French word meaning youth or young man. Among its collateral meanings is that of apprentice in the craft guilds, and all of its connotations signify inferiority or immaturity. In the educational field the term bachelor was first used at the University of Paris, where it was applied to pupils of the masters of arts who were permitted to participate in a minor way in the teach-