SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 171 



the chances of detection are very small. To my mind, apart from the 

 moral side of the question, there is very little difference between a 

 candidate who has copied his facts in an underhand way from notes, 

 and one who is crammed with facts to last just over the date of the 

 examination. 



Then comes the oral, which every candidate I examine convinces 

 me more and more should be the essential part of the examination. 

 The great point is to see whether he knows his way about the body. 

 I often find it a good plan to hand him the forceps and ask him to 

 find two or three things which are so easy that he can hardly go 

 wrong ; even if he does, it makes no difference, his examination has 

 not yet begun. As soon as his confidence is established I ask him to 

 find me something which requires some acquaintance with the body 

 to do, and I watch, not so much whether he does it, as how he does 

 it. If he knows the region he goes unhesitatingly to where the thing 

 should be; if he does not he may take a long time fumbling about. If 

 he needs it, I call attention to surrounding landmarks and clues until 

 he finds the sought-for structure, because, if he fails to do so, he 

 becomes crestfallen and not at his best. If this procedure is repeated 

 in different regions it soon shows up the bookman and the crammer's 

 product ; it may be varied by pointing to different structures and 

 asking their names, but, to my mind, the former is the better plan, 

 because it is the thing itself which the practitioner needs to know, 

 and it is possible to forget many names in an examination room and 

 yet recognise them and quickly associate them with their structures 

 when they are spoken. The man who does really well in a test of 

 this kind I would unhesitatingly hand on to the physicians and sur- 

 geons, even if his papers were very bad ; only the worse his papers, 

 the longer and more searching should his oral examination be. 



The question of nervousness during examination is one which 

 has interested me a great deal. Some examiners hold that the man 

 who cannot keep his head during an examination is not one who is 

 likely to make a resourceful surgeon under au emergency ; but I am 

 sure that this is only partly true, and that so-called "examination 



