THE REFORM OF THE MEDICAL CURRICULUM 667 



and that a more comprehensive scheme should be developed, 

 in order that students might receive the general training re- 

 quired to fit them for industrial posts. Plans were elaborated 

 by us with the assistance of Mr. E. C. Robins, an architect and 

 a member of the governing body ; later on, in conjunction with 

 Prof. Perry and Mr. Magnus (now Sir Philip Magnus), we 

 drew up the scheme under which the Finsbury Technical 

 College has been worked practically up to the present day. 

 The passing of a simple examination was made a condition of 

 entrance, from the beginning. 



We made it a fundamental condition that there should be no 

 external control through examinations, feeling as we did that 

 it would be impossible to develop suitable courses of instruction 

 if the College were hampered by the necessity of following 

 instructions laid down without any reference to the particular 

 work to be accomplished. The Finsbury College has been a 

 remarkable success ; the elimination of external examinations 

 has in no way had the detrimental effect pictured by Dr. Wade 

 (p. 639) — on the contrary. Unfortunately, all the Polytechnics 

 which came into existence subsequently elected to worship 

 at the examination shrine — in most cases their progress has 

 been most seriously hampered by this circumstance. At the 

 close of the Inaugural Lecture which Prof. Ayrton delivered at 

 Finsbury, on November 1, 1879, after referring to the wonderful 

 development of the Japanese during the previous ten years, he 

 pointed out that what the City Companies proposed to do was 

 to give workmen that education which will enable them to 

 commence doing what George Stephenson, half a century ago, 

 urged on them : " Learn for yourselves, think for yourselves, 

 make yourselves masters of principles, persevere, be industrious 

 and then there will be no fear for you." 



The keynote of the work at Finsbury was struck in this 

 passage. 



When in 1885 we passed to what is now the Central 

 Technical College, together with our colleagues we elaborated 

 a scheme which was dominated by this same policy — again we 

 were uncontrolled by external examinations. The success which 

 has attended the College — the fact that it now ranks as the 

 premier Engineering College in the country — is proof that such 

 a system works well in practice. In point of fact, it would not 

 have been possible, we believe, to achieve success under any 



