216 UXIVERSITIES : ACTUAL AND IDEAL viii 



led to extend his studies to the rest of the animal 

 world. 



Within my recollection, the only way in which 

 a student con hi obtain anything like a training in 

 Physical Science, was by attending the lectures of 

 the Professors of Physical and Natural Science 

 attached to the Medical Scliools. But, in the 

 course of the last thirty years, both foster-motlier 

 and child have grown so big, that they threaten 

 not only to crush one another, but to press the 

 very life out of the utihappy student who enters 

 the nursery; to the great detriment of all three. 



I speak in the presence of those who know 

 practically what medical education is; for I may 

 assume that a large proportion of my hearers are 

 more or less advanced students of medicine. I 

 appeal to the most industrious and conscientious 

 among you, to those who are most deeply pene- 

 trated with a sense of the extremely serious re- 

 sponsibilities which attach to the calling of a med- 

 ical prnciitinner, when I ask whether, out of the 

 four years which you devote to your studies, you 

 ought to. spare even so much as an hour for any 

 work which does not tend directly to fit you for 

 your duties? 



Consider what that work is. Its foundation is 

 a sound and practical acquaintance with the struc- 

 ture of the human organism, and with the modes 

 and conditions of its action in health. I say a 

 sound and practical acquaintance, to guard against 



