ON ACCURACY IN OBSERVATION. 533 



ON ACCURACY IN OBSERVATION.* 



BY H. LITTLEWOOD, F. E. C. S. 



rpHERE are many theories afloat to solve the great question of 

 -L medical education what subjects should be taught in the 

 early part of the curriculum, and what left out. I do not think 

 it is quite such a great matter what is taught : how it is taught is 

 of far more importance. For I take it that there is no training 

 which can turn out a medical man who is up to date in every 

 branch of his profession, and very thankful I am that there is no 

 place in the world for such a prodigy. He would be very like a 

 historical character described in one of George Eliot's novels: 

 " The simplest account of him one sees reads like a laudatory 

 epitaph, at the end of which the Greek and Ausonian Muses 

 might be confidently requested to tear their hair, and Nature to 

 desist from any second attempt to combine so many virtues with 

 one set of viscera." To hear some men, and even medical men, 

 talking, one might almost suspect that we had found the realiza- 

 tion of such a description. The great aim and object of medical 

 education, and, in fact, of all education, is that it should make you 

 accurate observers ; and any plan or scheme of education that has 

 not succeeded in this has been a failure, even if, after years of study, 

 you can write the whole of the letters of the alphabet after your 

 name. You hear people talk of education, and of So-and-so going 

 to this or that school or university, either at home or abroad, to 

 finish his education. Never was there a more mistaken notion. 

 The word " education " should almost be used like the word " eter- 

 nity." It must go on as long as humanity exists. What you should 

 be doing at your school and university is to train yourselves to 

 observe things accurately, so that you may rightly interpret their 

 meaning. Let me tell you it is a very difficult thing to be accu- 

 rate. You will, I am sure, forgive me for again quoting from 

 George Eliot, but she has so well expressed what I want to say : 

 " Examine your words well, and you will find that, even when 

 you have no motive to be false, it is a very hard thing to say the 

 exact truth even about your own feelings : much harder than say- 

 ing something fine about them which is not the exact truth." If 

 such is the case, we can not be too laborious and painstaking in 

 order to eliminate error. If your early studies in chemistry, 

 biology, anatomy, physiology, etc., have been rightly conducted, 

 you should have learned to note facts and to make careful ob- 

 servations ; and you will find this training invaluable when you 

 begin your hospital work, as also during the remainder of your 



* From an address delivered before the Yorkshire Medical Society, on October 18, 1893. 



