750 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY'. 



can not climb trees." " Well/' replied the American, " I guess 

 this one had just got to" Now this society played to me the part 

 that the American did to the beaver and forced me both to speak 

 and write, and I am therefore very grateful to it. My first at- 

 tempt at writing was the dissertation which the rales of the so- 

 ciety demanded, and my first attempt at speaking was made in 

 this room when I stammered out half a dozen words, each one 

 broken into bits by the palpitations of my heart, and then thank- 

 fully sat down. 



But it is not only in speaking and writing that I owe my train- 

 ing to the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh, I owe to it also 

 my first initiation into scientific methods — my first instruction in 

 scientific skepticism. I well remember that on one occasion a 

 member made a certain statement ; he had no sooner sat down 

 than he was challenged by my friend Dr. John Wyllie. The first 

 member again rose to his feet and maintained that his statement 

 was true, and that his facts were correct because Professor So- 

 and-so had said so. Again Dr. Wyllie rose, and with the simple 

 question, " But is Professor So-and-so right ? " swept away the 

 ground from under his opponent's feet and gave me a new insight 

 into scientific evidence. Previously I had been inclined to accept 

 all the dicta of the professors as gospel truth, but from that time 

 onward I accepted them only with the proviso that Professor So- 

 and-so might possibly be wrong. Training like this, gained by a 

 student in the discussions at the meetings here, is of the utmost 

 possible importance as supplying a valuable part of medical edu- 

 cation and complementing the instruction which he gains in the 

 lecture rooms ; it enables him to sift the statements which he 

 there hears and to assimilate them in his own mind, so that they 

 become as it were part of himself, and afford him a basis of knowl- 

 edge upon which he not only can act in daily life, but from which 

 he may advance onward and benefit both his profession and the 

 world at large by new discoveries. This training is so invaluable 

 that I should look upon anything which would interfere with it 

 as detrimental to the student ; for a little knowledge, like a little 

 food, if well assimilated, is more useful than an undigested mass, 

 which may be not only useless but positively injurious. 



The numerous discoveries which have been made during the 

 twenty-nine years which have elapsed since I first took my seat 

 in this hall as a member of the society have tended to increase 

 the mass of facts which the student has to learn ; and the numer- 

 ous examinations have tended to foster a system of cramming 

 which is totally distinct from that of true education. For the 

 purpose of examination the student is tempted to load his mem- 

 ory with many details and to learn by heart statements which 

 may or may not be true, simply for the purpose of committing 



