342 STATE AND THE MEDICAL PROFESSION XIII 



of sixteen or seventeen. If the interval between 

 this age and that at which they commence their 

 purely medical studies were employed in obtaining 

 a practical acquaintance with elementary physics, 

 chemistry, and biology, in my judgment it would 

 be as good as two years added to the course of 

 medical study. And for two reasons : in the 

 first place, because the subject-matter of that 

 which they would learn is germane to their 

 future studies, and is so much gained ; in the 

 second place, because you might clear out of the 

 course of their professional study a great deal 

 which at present occupies time and attention ; 

 and last, but not least probably most they 

 would then come to their medical studies prepared 

 for that learning from Nature which is what they 

 have to do in the course of becoming skilful 

 medical men, and for which at present they are 

 not in the slightest degree prepared by their 

 previous education. 



The second wish I have to express concerns 

 London especially, and I may speak of it briefly 

 as a more economical use of the teaching power 

 in the medical schools. At this present time 

 every great hospital in London and there are 

 ten or eleven of them has its complete medical 

 school, in which not only are the branches of 

 practical medicine taught, but also those studies 

 in general science, such as chemistry, elementary 

 physics, general anatomy, and a variety of other 



