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and especially those located in cities where medical schools are 

 established, discharge but a portion of their humane functions when 

 they merely afford refuge and medical treatment to the sick and 

 afflicted. The sufferings of one generation may be made conducive 

 to the happiness and comfort of that which is to succeed it, by im- 

 parting to the attendants on subsequent subjects of disease, a know- 

 ledge of the means of relief; and the authority which withholds from 

 the teacher and his pupil the opportunity of attaining practical ex- 

 perience in its treatment, is faithless to the trust confided to his 

 care. 



1. Resolved, therefore, That this Association earnestly and respect- 

 fully appeal to the trustees of hospitals to open their wards for the 

 purposes of clinical instruction, satisfied that they will thereby more 

 efficiently aid the cause of humanity, and more perfectly accomplish 

 the benevolent intentions of the founders of the charity. 



2. Resolved, That this Association considers defective and erro- 

 neous, every system of medical instruction which does not rest on 

 the basis of practical demonstration and clinical teaching, and that 

 it is therefore the duty of the medical schools to resort to every 

 honourable means to obtain access for their students to the wards 

 of a well-regulated hospital. 



3. Resolved, That the practice of appointing physicians and sur- 

 geons to the charge of an hospital on political or other grounds than 

 those of professional and moral worth is inconsistent with the wel- 

 fare of its inmates, and of consequence inhumane and unjust, sub- 

 versive of the objects of its founders, and incompatible with a 

 conscientious association of the high responsibilities devolved on the 

 appointing power. 



4. Resolved, That this committee reiterate and strongly recom- 

 mend to the Association a practical observance of the resolutions 

 appended to the report of the committees on preliminary education, 

 and on the requisites for graduation submitted to the Medical Con- 

 vention which assembled in Philadelphia in May, 1847. 



5. Resolved, That the faculties of the medical schools be advised 

 and requested [carefully to examine students after attendance on 

 their first course of lectures], to issue certificates of proficiency 

 to such as merit them, and to regard the possession of such certi- 

 ficate and attendance on another full course of lectures, subsequent 

 thereto, indispensable preliminaries to a final examination for the 

 doctorate. 



6. Resolved, That this Association recommend to the faculty of 



