656 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



were of general application, the condition of schools outside 

 London being at least as unsatisfactory as that of those in 

 London. 



I have led the reader who is unacquainted with the subject 

 to believe, it appears, that medical education has remained 

 unaffected by the rapid march of science during the past fifty 

 years — actually I drew attention to the many improvements 

 effected even during my time. 



My remarks, Dr. Wade considers, might lead readers to 

 believe that our whole system is radically wrong — they were 

 intended to have that effect. 



That the issue will be fraught with disaster unless the 

 curriculum is remodelled, I have no doubt : it is already, in fact. 

 Men are dying on every side owing to our inability to apply 

 chemical knowledge to the interpretation of disease. Such 

 homicide, however unwilful, must none the less come to be 

 regarded as unjustifiable, if a consequence of ignorance which 

 it is in our power to overcome. And it is in our power to 

 overcome it, at least partially. 



A stern duty may also lie before medical men for which 

 they will have to be prepared. Many are living whose existence 

 perhaps is a matter of extreme danger to the State, as the 

 perpetuation of their kind may be expected to have the most 

 serious consequences. The problems of heredity need con- 

 sideration from this point of view ; unless medical men can 

 undertake their study and act as advisers of the public, society 

 will not receive that protection which sooner or later it will 

 come to expect from the medical profession. 



Although surgeons have advanced their practice by leaps 

 and bounds, that of medical men has almost stood still : the great 

 improvements — such as the treatment of rabies and diphtheria by 

 appropriate antitoxins and the various new potent drugs, not 

 forgetting lumbar anaesthetics — are due to chemists. The fact 

 is the medical man is not sufficiently versed in scientific method 

 to undertake the diagnosis of the obscure phenomena of chemical 

 change in the complex material which constitutes the human 

 body. He understands but few simple chemical changes 

 occurring in test tubes — the complexities of change under vital 

 conditions are entirely beyond his ken and grasp. 



The case is well stated by Archdall Reid in the following 

 passage {The Principles of Heredity, 2nd ed. 325): 



