650 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



schools are, of course, influenced by the examinations, and is it not 

 notorious that these now give so many different hypotheses and enter 

 so much into detail that the student is often perplexed ? And (if re- 

 port may be credited) the lecturer himself sometimes becomes per- 

 plexed also. 



Too rapid an acquisition of knowledge — the attempt to master too 

 many subjects — is a part of that Jehu speed at which we are now driv- 

 ing, whether in business or science. Knowledge so gained " proves 

 but of bad nourishment in the concoction, as it was heedless in the de- 

 vouring." So said Milton in his day. What would he have said now ? 

 Competition is not confined to trade. Our examination boards have, 

 in truth, not escaped from its influence. It is melancholy to see that 

 the errors we deplore are perpetrated by men whose knowledge of 

 physiological laws ought to have prevented them from pursuing so 

 disastrous a course. Professor Humphrey has protested in terms of 

 strong disapproval against the system of examinations now too gener- 

 ally pursued, and we of all men ought to join our voice with his in the 

 endeavor to stem the current of this excessive and indiscriminate brain- 

 stuffing. " Knowledge grows, but man stands still ; that is to say, 

 the intellect and powers of man are no greater now than they were 

 in any of the knowoi past ages ; in the days, for instance, of Homer 

 -or of Plato, of Confucius, of Buddha, or of Moses ; no more power- 

 ful to mold the material at hand, whereas the material has vastly in- 

 creased. . . . Had Hunter been trained upon the present system, had 

 be been weighed dovsm by tightly compressed facts when a student, 

 and subsequently, by out-patient-seeing, on the one hand, and pupil- 

 cramming on the other, it is scarcely to be supposed that even his mind 

 could have burst the iron fetters, and could have regained its elasticity 

 and love of work, or that even he could have found time for those re- 

 flections which gave such impulse to the science and practice of sur- 

 gery." ("Hunterian Oration," February, 1879.) One source of mis- 

 chief lies in the fact that an examiner constantly forgets that the de- 

 partment in which he examines is only one of many, and hence he 

 requires a degree of perfection which is simply absurd — one which, 

 however, suited to honors, is totally unreasonable in a pass examina- 

 tion ; and it must be remembered that the severity of an examination 

 can not be gauged by a reference to the questions which happen to be 

 asked at a particular examination. The student has to prepare himself 

 for all possible questions, ranging over very wide areas of knowledge, 

 and involving an acquaintance with a multitude of speculations put 

 forth by Continental as well as English writers. Hence it is not sur- 

 prising if, in the anxiety to pass the ordeal, success is too often won at 

 the risk of prolonged mental prostration. Failure, on the other hand, 

 involves, besides this, the dangers arising from disappointment and 

 chagrin. 



I should not have thought it at all probable, when I commenced 



