172 Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



introduced to the student by the arrangement described in his 

 synopsis, published in 1853, there is now no indication. The change 

 was inevitable, but those perhaps may be excused who, remembering 

 the work done by Acland, Rolleston, and their coadjutors in the 

 fifties, sixties, and seventies, regret that in giving place to the new 

 order, some recollection of the old was not preserved. 



With the completion of the Museum and the transference thereto of 

 the Christ Church Collection, the great work which Acland had set 

 himself to do for the advancement of science, was accomplished. He 

 continued to take an active interest in the educational work of the 

 Museum, and especially in the development and progress of the 

 Anatomical Department, but opposed every effort to establish any- 

 thing like a " Medical School " in the University, 



The attitude assumed by Acland with reference to the teaching 

 of Medicine during the long period which intervened between his 

 appointment to the Regius Professorship, and the creation in 1890 of 

 the Professorship of Human Anatomy, by which the University at 

 last provided for the instruction of medical students, can be best 

 understood by reference to his published writings, and particularly to 

 the evidence he gave before the two University Commissions. When 

 in the fifties he took a leading part in the establishment of the School 

 of Natural Science, he expressed in a remarkable letter addressed by 

 him to Mr. Gladstone (published as a pamphlet), the conviction that 

 the effect of that change would be " to bring medical students to 

 Oxford," and that unless this were the result, the school would 

 probably fail. Again in the seventies, when he gave evidence before 

 the Second Commission, he urged the immediate appointment of a 

 Professorship of " Comparative Pathology " as the one thing needful 

 for the completion of the system of instruction already in operation at 

 the Museum. The fact that notwithstanding these decided opinions, 

 he consistently opposed the very thing which he regarded as so con- 

 ducive to the prosperity of the Natural Science School, namely, the 

 introduction of the "Medical Student" into Oxford, seems at first 

 sight difficult to explain. The real reason for his decided opposition 

 to a " Medical School " was (to quote from the pamphlet above referred 

 to) his apprehension of the "jeopardy of substituting professional for 

 general education," his fear lest, if students were induced to engage 

 too soon in professional studies, medical graduates would be sent from 

 Oxford into the profession who had not received an Oxford education. 



Sir Hemy Acland's published writings were numerous. They related 

 chiefly to academical or educational questions, or to subjects connected 

 with Public Health or Sanitary administration. As perhaps the best 

 specimen of his literary style, a biography may be referred to for 

 which the Fellows of the Royal Society of forty years ago were 



