162 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL 



supervise easily a room where formerly three or four would not have 

 been too many. But in noting the differences between the past and 

 the present, I do not altogether regret the change because I hope that I 

 am able to see and not to forget that the turning out of a good modern 

 general practitioner is our object, and neither anatomy nor chemistry 

 nor surgery alone will do that, neither will the mind of any man re- 

 tain more than a small proportion of studies with which he is not 

 being constantly brought into touch in practice. I quite realise that 

 all these more modern studies must not be grudged a fair share of the 

 student's time, even if it is taken from that formerly belonging to 

 anatomy, and I also see that the modern student cannot hope to learn 

 as much anatomy as his predecessors did, and, therefore, it is very 

 important that what he does learn should be, firstly, the most suitable 

 for him in kind ; and, secondly, that it should be really his own and 

 not merely crammed from tutorial classes, books and pictures. 



Our present system is to try to teach the student as much as 

 possible of the contents of the standard anatomical text-books, be- 

 cause, although every teacher would like to lay stress on the parts 

 which to him seem most important, he dare not do it in practice lest 

 the examiner should have a different view of what is important. Of 

 course in a University such as this, whose own degree is a licence to 

 practise, the matter may not be so urgent, but even here there are 

 always the possible prejudices of an external examiner to face, and, 

 besides, some of the brighter students find that it helps them in after 

 life to add another diploma, such as the Fellowship of one of the 

 Colleges of Surgeons, to their degree, and few Universities would 

 care to have it said that their graduates were particularly ill-prepared 

 for these examinations. 



If all that is known of anatomy could be mastered in the time 

 allotted there would be no difficulty, but what a very little the 

 average man can learn in twelve months ! At the risk of seeming 

 egotistical, I can best instance my own case. I have been learning 

 anatomy, and little but anatomy, for twenty years, and my ignorance 

 is still colossal. I try to think of this in marking papers and in 



