116 SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION: v 



authority of the President of the College of 

 Surgeons, Mr. Quain, whom I heard the other day 

 in an admirable address (the Hunterian Oration) 

 deal fully and wisely with this very topic. 1 



A young man commencing the study of medicine 

 is at once required to endeavour to make an ac- 

 quaintance with a number of sciences, such as 

 Physics, as Chemistry, as Botany, as Physiology, 

 which are absolutely and entirely strange to him, 

 however excellent his so-called education at school 

 may have been. Not only is he devoid of all 

 apprehension of scientific conceptions, not only does 

 he fail to attach any meaning to the words " mat- 



1 Mr. Quain's words (Medical Times and Gazette, February 

 20) are: "A few words as to our special Medical course of 

 instruction and the influence upon it of such changes in the 

 elementary schools as I have mentioned. The student now 

 enters at once upon several sciences physics, chemistry, 

 anatomy, physiology, botany, pharmacy, therapeutics all these, 

 the facts and the language and the laws of each, to be mastered 

 in eighteen months. Up to the beginning of the Medical course 

 many have learned little. We cannot claim anything better 

 than the Examiner of the University of London and the Cam- 

 bridge Lecturer have reported for their Universities. Supposing 

 that at school young people had acquired some exact elementary 

 knowledge in physics, chemistry, and a branch of natural 

 history say botany with the physiology connected With it, 

 they would then have gained necessary knowledge, with some 

 practice in inductive reasoning. The whole studies are pro- 

 cesses of observation and induction the best discipline of the 

 mind for the purposes of life for our purposes not less than 

 any. ' By such study (says Dr. Whewell) of one or more 

 departments of inductive science the mind may escape from the 

 thraldom of mere words. ' By that plan the burden of the early 

 Medical course would be much lightened, and more time devoted 

 to practical studies, including Sir Thomas Watjon's ' final and 

 supreme stage ' of the knowledge of Medicine." 



