8 



For the second best . . 15 



For the third best . . . lO 



The above premiums will be given in 

 Silver Plate at the close of the annual ex- 

 hibition in October next. 



Sketch for a Medical Education. [Feb. I, 



cannot be compounded, or if they 

 could, be is ignorant of the means by 

 which it can be done. 



For the Monthly Magazine. 



SKETCH for a MEDICAL EDUCATION, by 



the late JAMES LIND, M.d. f.u.s. 



AFTER having attained a compe- 

 tent knowledge of the languages 

 necessary to acquire those sciences 

 that are requisite to the study of medi- 

 cine, and to enable the student to 

 read and consult the various autiiors 

 that have written on physic, Mathe- 

 matics claims his first attention. 



Without the knowledge of Mathe- 

 matics it is impossible to understand 

 Natural Philosophy, a science by 

 which the laws and economy of na- 

 ture, and the human body, can only 

 be understood; as also the many 

 causes that operate upon men and all 

 nature. 



Anatomy being the foundation of 

 medicaJ knowledge, it is thertiore to 

 be studied with the greatest care and 

 attention. Its intricacy also requires 

 the aid of the best professors ; and that 

 the pupil himself practise frequent 

 dissections to attain this most neces- 

 sary part of a medical education. 

 Without the knowledge of anatomy, 

 it is impossible cither to discover the 

 seat, nature, or cure, of diseases. In 

 surgery no operation can be performed 

 with safety, or with much probability 

 of success, to the patient. From dis- 

 sections he likewise learns the nature 

 of many hidden disorders, and when 

 similar symptoms occur to know the 

 disease under which the patient la- 

 bours. It also enables the physician 

 or surgeon, wlien called upon by a 

 court of justice, to determine with 

 certainty whether death has been oc- 

 casioned from a natural cause, or from 

 violence ; hence he becomes the 

 means of acquitting the innocent, and 

 of condemning the guilty ; but, if 

 ignorant of anatomy, perhaps the 

 contrary. 



Chemistry is another necessary part 

 of a medical education, as without a 

 knowledge of it we must ever be igno- 

 rant of the various chemical processes 

 that are constantly going on in the 

 animal economy, npon which depends 

 health or disease, and from a true 

 knowledge of which we are greatly 

 instructed how to preserve the first, 

 and to cure the latter ; also the physi- 

 cian is liable to give prescriptions that 



Some effica- 

 cious medicines he frequently destroys 

 by his injudicious compositions, while 

 other substances, even innocent and 

 inert ones, are rendered injurious and 

 highly poisonous. 



A knowledge of the Materia-Medica 

 is also necessary to every practitioner 

 of medicine, without which he is igno- 

 rant of the means of cure, notwith- 

 standing the disease is known to him : 

 also, although he is acquainted with 

 the powers of a few medicines, he will 

 find himself foiled for want of a more 

 extended knowledge of the Materia- 

 Medica, the constitutions of some peo- 

 ple differing as much from that of man- 

 kind in general as if they were of a 

 different species ; therefore, what 

 proves useful in a disease with most 

 people, with some it may he injurious. 



The Materia-^Mcdica being an ex- 

 tensive science, requiring the aid of 

 method. Botany and Natural History 

 should therefore make a part of the 

 education of every physician; the 

 knowledge of them also helps to, 

 abridge the study of the Materia- 

 Medica, there being frequently an 

 analogy in the virtues of bodies of the 

 same genus. 



Lectures on the Theory of Medi- 

 cine may now be studied. In this 

 course is also taught Physiology and 

 Pathology, both absolutely requisite to 

 a medical education. Although the 

 different systems of physics are imper- 

 fect, yet as they serve for a clue to 

 guide and direct a physician in his 

 procedure of cure, by keeping him 

 from confounding one with another, 

 they are therefore of the greatest 

 utility in the practice of medicine; 

 more especially as all practitioners 

 have a natural tendency to empiricism. 



The Practice of Physic is the last 

 and chief design of medical study. 

 This part of medical knowledge is to 

 be obtained from hearing the lectures 

 of eminent professors, and by reading, 

 but particularly by attending hospitals, 

 where Clinical lectures are delivered 

 to the students, in which are generally 

 given the history of the disease under 

 which the patient labours, the purpose 

 proposed for the administering of this 

 or that medicine, and their effects 

 upon the patient pointed out; lastly, if 

 the patient dies, the cause of his death 

 is more evidently pointed out and 

 shown to the students, by the dissec- 

 tion of the morbid body. 



For 



