THE REFORM OF THE MEDICAL CURRICULUM 643 



that boys who show early a marked aptitude for science rarely 

 enter the medical profession, but prefer a vocation in which the 

 work in pure science is less limited. 



Dr. Armstrong, in opposition to many of the clinical teachers, 

 maintains that more time should be devoted to chemistry even 

 than is allotted at present, but it is doubtful whether this is 

 really necessary. The time cannot be reduced : that is certain ; 

 nor will the other subjects allow of its material extension. 

 The only adjustment desirable would be that afforded by the 

 gradual transference of the purely chemical parts of the phy- 

 siological course, as these become defined by the advance of 

 chemical science, to the hands of those best qualified to deal 

 with them. Far from extension being possible, an outcry has 

 arisen of late, as Prof. Armstrong remarks, that the proportion 

 of time allotted to the clinical period is inadequate, and ought 

 to be increased at the expense of the scientific period, pre- 

 ferably by limiting the study of chemistry. It is probably 

 true that in some cases there is a certain amount of congestion, 

 but this is largely due to want of co-ordination and as a 

 whole has been greatly exaggerated. Fifty years ago anatomy 

 was the only preliminary subject which was taught prac- 

 tically, and the early part of the medical course was at that 

 time divided between the dissecting-room and the medical and 

 surgical wards. Physiology as a separate subject was non- 

 existent, and chemistry was taught only by means of lecture 

 experiments. The great benefit which accrued to the student 

 by filling his days with practical work led to the elaboration 

 of anatomy to an extent which is scarcely conceivable by 

 those who have not come in contact with it, and eventually 

 imposed such a task on the memory as to unfit all but the 

 intellectually most robust for work demanding connected 

 thought. Hence the almost instinctive opposition to scientific 

 method which is still discernible in a small and now rapidly 

 diminishing section of the older school of medical practitioners. 

 The early 'seventies witnessed the introduction of laboratory 

 teaching in chemistry, followed at a somewhat later period 

 by laboratory work in physiology. The time required for this 

 work naturally had to be taken from that which had formerly 

 been spent in the dissecting-room, although by no means 

 entirely so, for it is impossible even for the most willing to work 

 day after day at one subject without incurring that form of 



