320 OX MEDICAL EDUCATION xii 



is really monstrous. I cannot characterise it in 

 any other way. And having sacrificed my own 

 pursuit, I am sure 1 may sacrifice other people's; 

 and I make this remark with all the more willing- 

 ness because 1 discovered, on reading the names 

 of your ]*rofessors just now, that the Professor of 

 Materia ^ledica is not ])resent. I must confess, if 

 I had my way I should abolish Materia Medica * 

 altogether. J recollect, when I was first under 

 examination at the T'nivcrsitv of London, Dr. 

 Pereii'M \\;is the examiner, and you know tliat 

 ]\'reira's "Materia Medica" was a book de onmi- 

 hus rebus. 1 recollect my struggles with that 

 book late at night and early in the morning (I 

 worked very hard in those days), and I do believe 

 that I got that book into my head somehow or 

 other, but then I will undertake to say that I for- 

 got it all a week afterwards. Not one trace of a 

 knowledge of drugs has remained in my memory 

 from that time to this; and really, as a matter 

 of common sense, I cannot understand the argu- 

 ments for obliging a medical man to know all about 

 drugs and where they come from. AVhy not make 

 him belong to the Iron and Steel Institute, and 

 learn something about cutlery, because he uses 

 knives? 



But do not suppose that, after all these deduc- 

 tions, there would not be ample room for your 



* It will, I liojio, ])o \inflorstood that 1 do not include 

 Therapeutics under tliis head. 



