XII ON MEDICAL EDUCATION 3I3 



or institutes, of medicine are very serious. It is a 

 comparatively easy matter — pray mark that I use 

 the word '^ comparatively '' — it is a comparatively 

 easy matter to learn anatomy and to teach it; it 

 is a very difficult matter to learn physiology and 

 to teach it. It is a very difficult matter to know 

 and to teach those branches of physics and those 

 branches of chemistry which bear directly upon 

 physiology; and hence it is that^ as a matter of 

 fact, the teaching of physiology, and the teaching 

 of the physics and the chemistry which bear upon 

 it, must necessarily be in a state of relative 

 imperfection; and there is nothing to be grumbled 

 at in the fact that this relative imperfection exists. 

 But is the relative imperfection which exists only 

 such as is necessary, or is it made worse by our 

 practical arrangements? I believe — and if I did 

 not so believe I should not have troubled you 

 with these observations — I believe it is made 

 infinitely worse by our practical arrangements, 

 or rather, I ought to say, our very unpractical 

 arrangements. Some very wise man long ago 

 afiirmed that every question, in the long run, was 

 a question of finance; and there is a good deal to 

 be said for that view. Most assuredly the question 

 of medical teaching is, in a very large and broad 

 sense, a question of finance. "What I mean is 

 this: that in London the arrangements of the 

 medical schools, and the number of them, are 

 such as to render it almost impossible that men 



