ON THE STUDY OF LATIN. 47 



modern times? Poets ! who of the present puny race is to be com- 

 pared to Homer or Virgil ? Or who amongst our musicians would 

 dare to compete with Orpheus ? whose bewitching strains caused 

 the very stones to move ! As to the latter^ there can be no doubt 

 but thatj were he now to rise from the dead^ he would be surpassed 

 by every common flute-player who earns a miserable pittance by 

 practising his craft in the streets. But let us now proceed to in- 

 vestigate the merits of a " sound classical education" for the medi- 

 cal student. 



The inaugural thesis, formerly required to be in Latin, is now 

 written in English, and the matter, not the language, is attended 

 to. As their could be no other object in making the students write 

 their essays in a dead language than to obtain a test of their know- 

 ledge of that language, it may fairly be inferred that it is not now 

 considered so necessary. It is, however, still supposed to be of great 

 use to those who are intended for the medical profession. One rea- 

 son alleged for ascribing to it this usefulness is, that these languages 

 enable the student to read the works of the learned among the an- 

 cients. But the moderns began where the ancients left off; the 

 first man who studied Galen knew as much of medicine as Galen 

 himself; and, in fact, saying that a man must study Galen in order 

 to acquire a knowledge of medicine, is tantamount to admitting that 

 ive know not so much of the subject as he did — a proposition absurd 

 in the extreme, but one which the advocates of the dead languages 

 force upon themselves by their senseless arguments. The use of 

 reading these ancient authors, even when translated, is to me far 

 from apparent ; for we have their experience added to our own. — 

 Why then go back for instruction to authors who, were they now 

 to rise from their graves, would be glad to receive instructions from 

 one possessed of what is now termed an ordinary knowledge of the 

 science. But to waste the best part of our life in obtaining this 

 now useless lumber, appears to me too absurd to be defended, except 

 by those whose minds are warped by prejudice or blinded by in- 

 terest. 



Another supposed use of Latin is, that the prescriptions are to be 

 written in that language. How often, however, it happens that 

 Physicians have not had the '^ advantage of a sound classical educa-^ 



