48 UNIVERSITIES : ACTUAL AND IDEAL. [LECT. 



because it enabled the physician to recognise medici- 

 nal herbs ; of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology, 

 because the man who studied Human Anatomy and 

 Physiology for purely medical purposes was led to 

 extend his studies to the rest of the animal world. 



"Within my recollection, the only way in which a 

 student could obtain anything like a training in 

 Physical Science, was by attending the lectures of 

 the Professors of Physical and Natural Science at- 

 tached to the Medical Schools. But, in the course of 

 the last thirty years, both foster-mother and child 

 have grown so big, that they threaten not only to 

 crush one another, but to press the very life out of 

 the unhappy student who enters the nursery ; to the 

 great detriment of all three. 



I speak in the presence of those who know prac- 

 tically what medical education is ; for I may assume 

 that a large proportion of my hearers are more or less 

 advanced students of medicine. I appeal to the most 

 industrious and conscientious among you, to those 

 who are most deeply penetrated with a sense of the 

 extremely serious responsibilities which attach to the 

 calling of a medical practitioner, when I ask whether, 

 out of the four years which you devote to your studies, 

 you ought to spare even so much as an hour for any 

 work which does not tend directly to fit you for your 

 duties ? 



Consider what that work is. Its foundation is a 

 sound and practical acquaintance with the structure 

 of the human organism, and with the modes and con- 

 ditions of its action in health. I say a sound and 



