344: STATE AND THE MEDICAL PROFESSION xiii 



and attention to the subject; while at the same 

 time the medical schools at the hospitals would 

 remain what they ought to be — great institutions 

 in which the largest possible opportunities are 

 laid open for acquiring practical acquaintance 

 with the phenomena of disease. So that the pre- 

 liminary or earlier half of medical education 

 would take place in the central institutions, and 

 the final half would be devoted altogether to prac- 

 tical studies in the hospitals. 



I happen to know that this conception has 

 been entertained, not only by myself, but by a 

 great many of those persons who are most inter- 

 ested in the improvement of medical study for a 

 considerable number of years. I do not know 

 whether anything will come of it this half-century 

 or not; but the thing has to be done. It is not a 

 speculative notion; it lies patent to everybody who 

 is accustomed to teaching, and knows what the 

 necessities of teaching are; and I should very 

 much like to see the first step taken — people mak- 

 ing up their minds that it has to be done somehow 

 or other. 



The last point to which I may advert is one 

 which concerns the action of the profession itself 

 more than anything else. "We have arrangements 

 for teaching, we have arrangements for the test- 

 ing of qualifications, we have marvellous aids and 

 appliances for the treatment of disease in all sorts 

 of ways; but I do not find in London at the pres- 



