658 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



to divest myself of old memories — I may not unfairly point out, 

 perhaps, that my critic is not yet awake to possibilities which 

 I seem to see clearly. His conservative attitude is in itself 

 proof that he is scarcely qualified to enter on a discussion such 

 as we are now engaged in. His connection with the subject 

 of medical training arises rather from his being in a medical 

 school than of it. Apart from his obvious lack of feeling on the 

 physiological side, in common with so many other chemists he 

 in no way realises apparently how vast is the change which has 

 come over chemistry within recent years, making it possible to 

 teach the subject far more effectively than formerly. Herein 

 lies the difficulty. Our brains are addled by the constantly 

 increasing load with which we weight ourselves. Very few 

 can see their way out of the wood for the trees. We do not 

 even know how to use books effectively and insist on our 

 students learning off everything by heart instead of teaching 

 them to understand principles and economise effort by re- 

 ferring to their books for detailed information when occasion 

 arises. 



Dr. Wade argues that the teaching is enormously improved. 

 Formerly, he says, the scientific spirit was absolutely destroyed 

 by blackboard demonstrations without experimental illustra- 

 tions and no opportunity was given to the student of verifying 

 his teachers' statements : it is quite otherwise now. Is it ? 

 Does the average student gain much from seeing a few prac- 

 tical demonstrations in the course of a lecture or from preparing 

 a few substances in the laboratory ? I doubt it. The intelligent 

 man in the old days learnt from lectures practically as much of 

 things essential as the intelligent man does in these days : then 

 as now far too much attention was paid to mere fact know- 

 ledge, to the kind of fact which comes into prominence, for 

 example, in Dr. Wade's own book — of its kind, a very 

 admirable one — or as illustrated above by the reference of 

 my young student friend to cholesterol. The one real improve- 

 ment in the course is the introduction of simple quantitative 

 laboratory work, such as I pleaded for in my B.A. address in 

 1885 — conceptions are established in the mind of the student 

 by such work which are invaluable. 



Instead of dealing with irrelevant matter, says Dr. Wade, 

 the proximate constituents of the food, degradation products 

 of the body, urea, etc., are considered. The same were dealt 



