XIII STATE AND THE MEDICAL PROFESSION 343 



topics which are what used to be called (and the 

 term was an extremely useful one) the institutes 

 of medicine. That was all very well half a 

 century ago ; it is all very ill now, simply because 

 those general branches of science, such as anatomy, 

 physiology, chemistry, physiological chemistry, 

 physiological physics, and so forth, have now 

 become so large, and the mode of teaching them 

 is so completely altered, that it is absolutely 

 impossible for any man to be a thoroughly 

 competent teacher of them, or for any student to 

 be effectually taught without the devotion of the 

 whole time of the person who is engaged in 

 teaching. I undertake to say that it is hope- 

 lessly impossible for any man at the present time 

 to keep abreast with the progress of physiology 

 unless he gives his whole mind to it; and the 

 bigger the mind is, the more scope he will find 

 for its employment. Again, teaching has become, 

 and must become still more, practical, and that 

 also involves a large expenditure of time. But if 

 a man is to give his whole time to my business 

 he must live by it, and the resources of the 

 schools do not permit them to maintain ten or 

 eleven physiological specialists. 



If the students in their first one or two years 

 were taught the institutes of medicine, in two or 

 three central institutions, it would be perfectly 

 easy to have those subjects taught thoroughly 

 and effectually by persons who gave their whole 

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