ON ACCURACY IN OBSERVATION. 535 



than an inquirer who knows that i he decides one way he 

 shall be rewarded, and if he decides another he shall be pun- 

 ished." But as students* your first object must be to be accu- 

 rate. I will give you one or two examples of curious notes that 

 I have seen lately made by some students. I was reading an 

 account of an operation I had performed the day before, and, 

 finding not a single statement in the note was quite accurate, I 

 asked how it was that such an account had been written. The 

 student excused himself by saying that he had not seen the case, 

 but had gathered from another that I had done exactly what he 

 described. In another example, from some notes on two cases of 

 suprapubic lithotomy undertaken on the same day (and these 

 were written by an eyewitness), I was startled to read in both the 

 accounts this passage : " The peritonseum was then opened." I 

 need hardly say that this statement was pure fiction. I quote 

 these examples to show you that I am not exaggerating ; I am 

 sorry to say I could multiply them. Of course you will all agree 

 with me that notes of this kind are infinitely worse than no notes. 

 Now, how is it that it is so difficult to be accurate ? I think 

 accuracy means a careful training of all one's faculties, and this 

 is so often neglected. It is so much easier to let other people 

 think for us than it is to think for ourselves. A medical man 

 who has not acquired the faculty of thinking and interpreting for 

 himself has missed his vocation. I have sometimes heard stu- 

 dents remarking on the physical signs of a chest, that such and 

 such parts are dull on percussion, or that there was a cardiac 

 murmur heard at a certain part of the chest because Dr. B. had 

 said so, and not because the speaker had appreciated the differ- 

 ences of sound. You must learn to appreciate these things for 

 yourselves by trying to test them by your ideal normal standard ; 

 and until you have actually heard, seen, or felt them, these things 

 can not be said to exist as far as you are concerned. The eye 

 only can see what it brings with it the power of seeing. When 

 you first look down a microscope everything looks indistinct, 

 a mass of pretty coloring ; then, after training, certain details 

 are observed nuclei, nucleoli, fibers, cells, etc. After carefully 

 studying the detailed structure of an organ you can recognize it 

 the next time you see it ; then, knowing the different elements of 

 which it is composed, you can recognize if it is a specimen of a 

 healthy organ or if the organ is in any way diseased. The trained 

 eye is able to see endless minute differences where the untrained 

 eye discerns nothing. Things look very hazy and indistinct in 

 the first gray of the early morning ; every day of your lives adds 

 some new facts, some new observations, and each day brings 

 you nearer the brightening sunshine of a more extended knowl- 

 edge, until some of you may be fortunate enough to realize the 



