XII ON MEDICAL EDbX'ATION 317 



the abstract branches of science must go to the 

 wall. All this is a plain and obvious matter of 

 common-sense reasoning. I believe you will 

 never alter this state of things until, either by 

 consent or by force majeure — and I should be very 

 sorry to see the latter applied — but until there 

 is some new arrangement, and until all the 

 theoretical branches of the profession, the insti- 

 tutes of medicine, are taught in London in not 

 more than one or two, or at the outside three, cen- 

 tral institutions, no good will be effected. If that 

 large body of men, the medical students of 

 London, were obliged in the first place to get a 

 knowledge of the theoretical branches of their 

 profession in two or three central schools, there 

 would be abundant means for maintaining able 

 professors — not, indeed, for enriching them, as 

 they would be able to enrich themselves by 

 practice — but for enabling them to make that 

 choice which such men are so willing to make; 

 namely, the choice between wealth and a mod- 

 est competency, when that modest competency 

 is to be combined with a scientific career, 

 and the means of advancing knowledge. I do 

 not believe that all the talking about, and tin- 

 kering of, medical education will do the slight- 

 est good until the fact is clearly recognised, 

 that men must be thoroughly grounded in 

 the theoretical branches of their profession, 

 and that to this end the teaching of those theoret- 



