244 ADDRESS -ON UNIVERSITY EDUCATION ix 



will unquestionably take the best advice that is 

 to be had as to the construction and administra- 

 tion of the hospital. In respect to the former 

 point, they will doubtless remember that a 

 hospital may be so arranged as to kill more than 

 it cures ; and, in regard to the latter, that a 

 hospital may spread the spirit of pauperism 

 among the well-to-do, as well as relieve the 

 sufferings of the destitute. It is not for me to 

 speak on these topics rather let me confine 

 myself to the one matter on which my experience 

 as a student of medicine, and an examiner of long 

 standing, who has taken a great interest in the 

 subject of medical education, may entitle me to 

 a hearing. I mean the nature of medical educa- 

 tion itself, and the co-operation of the university 

 in its promotion. 



What is the object of medical education ? It 

 is to enable the practitioner, on the one hand, to 

 prevent disease by his knowledge of hygiene ; on 

 the other hand, to divine its nature, and to 

 alleviate or cure it, by his knowledge of pathology, 

 therapeutics, and practical medicine. That is his 

 business in life, and if he has not a thorough and 

 practical knowledge of the conditions of health, 

 of the causes which tend to the establishment 

 of disease, of the meaning of symptoms, and of 

 the uses of medicines and operative appliances, 

 he is incompetent, even if he were the best 

 anatomist, or physiologist, or chemist, that ever 



