XII ON MEDICAL EDUCATION 321 



tions, there would not be ample room for your 

 activity. Let us count up what we have left. I 

 suppose all the time for medical education that 

 can be hoped for is, at the outside, about four 

 years. Well, what have you to master in those 

 four years upon my supposition ? Physics applied 

 to physiology; chemistry applied to physiology; 

 physiology ; anatomy ; surgery ; medicine (includ- 

 ing therapeutics) ; obstetrics ; hygiene ; and medi- 

 cal jurisprudence nine subjects for four years! 

 And when you consider what those subjects are, 

 and that the acquisition of anything beyond the 

 rudiments of any one of them may tax the 

 energies of a lifetime, I think that even those 

 energies which you young gentlemen have been 

 displaying for the last hour or two might be taxed 

 to keep you thoroughly up to what is wanted for 

 your medical career. 



I entertain a very strong conviction that any 

 one who adds to medical education one iota or 

 tittle beyond what is absolutely necessary, is 

 guilty of a very grave offence. Gentlemen, it will 

 depend upon the knowledge that you happen to 

 possess, upon your means of applying it within 

 your own field of action, whether the bills of 

 mortality of your district are increased or dimin- 

 ished ; and that, gentlemen, is a very serious con- 

 sideration indeed. And, under those circum- 

 stances, the subjects with which you have to deal 

 being so difficult, their extent so enormous, and 



