50 UNIVERSITIES : ACTUAL AND IDEAL. [LECT. 



tomy and Physiology, with Physiological Chemistry 

 and Physics; the student should then pass a real, 

 practical examination in these subjects ; and, having 

 gone through that ordeal satisfactorily, he should be 

 troubled no more with them. His whole mind should 

 then be given with equal intentness, to Therapeutics, 

 in its broadest sense, to Practical Medicine and to 

 Surgery, with instruction in Hygiene and in Medical 

 Jurisprudence; and of these subjects only surely 

 there are enough of them should he be required to 

 show a knowledge in his final examination. 



I cannot claim any special property in this theory 

 of what the medical curriculum should be, for I find 

 that views, more or less closely approximating these, 

 are held by all who have seriously considered the very 

 grave and pressing question of Medical Keform ; and 

 have, indeed, been carried into practice, to some extent, 

 by the most enlightened Examining Boards. I have 

 heard but two kinds of objections to them. There is, 

 first, the objection of vested interests, which I will not 

 deal with here, because I want to make myself as 

 pleasant as I can, and no discussions are so unpleasant 

 as those which turn on such points. And there is, 

 secondly, the much more respectable objection, which 

 takes the general form of the reproach that, in thus 

 limiting the curriculum, we are seeking to narrow it. 

 We are told that the medical man ought to be a person 

 of good education and general information, if his pro- 

 fession is to hold its own among other professions ; that 

 he ought to know Botany, or else, if he goes abroad, he 

 will not be able to tell poisonous fruits from edible 



