II 



to get a collection of physiological apparatus and lite- 

 rature. The demand for special premises could not be 

 supplied; therefore the bacteriological laboratory had to 

 be used for training students in experimental pathology 

 as well, regardless of the many and great inconvenien- 

 ces that followed. 



Even now I dare not propose to make such a course 

 in experimental pathology compulsory at this University. 

 Not that I make light of its importance. On the con- 

 trary; the students learn, in this way, how to make 

 experiments. There is no belter means for making them 

 understand how difficult it is to account for the causes 

 and development of a morbid state; or how momentous 

 the part of experimental investigations has been in inter- 

 preting the observations made both clinically and in 

 the post-mortem room. The more or less difficult ex- 

 periments which they have an opportunity of making, 

 will form a series of ,,experimenta memorialia", round 

 which a great deal of book-knowledge will crystallise in 

 their memories. My only reason for not advising the 

 introduction of this course as a compulsory one, is 

 that so many compulsory courses which may be con- 

 sidered of still more importance, already exist at our Uni- 

 versity. Such a course would necessarily take up a great 

 deal of time and work. We could never ask of our stu- 

 dents such intense and comprehensive experimental work 

 as they do at certain American Universities as the 

 Harvard Medical School, where Porter has, in the most 

 admirable manner, organised the study of normal physio- 

 logy founding it on experimental courses 5 ). But even 

 if we are more modest than the American university 

 teachers, it would still be impossible to fit a compul- 

 sory course of pathological physiology into the curriculum 

 of our Faculty, as it would destroy the symmetry of 



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