222 UNIVERSITIES: ACTUAL AND IDEAL vm 



minded myself, that if I had to choose between 

 two physicians one who did not know whether a 

 whale is a fish or not, and could not tell gentian 

 from ginger, but did understand the applications of 

 the institutes of medicine to his art ; while the 

 other, like Talleyrand's doctor, " knew everything, 

 even a little physic" with all my love for 

 breadth of culture, I should assuredly consult the 

 former. 



It is not pleasant to incur the suspicion of an 

 inclination to injure or depreciate particular 

 branches of knowledge. But the fact that one of 

 those which I should have no hesitation in ex- 

 cluding from the medical curriculum, is that to 

 which my own life has been specially devoted, 

 should, at any rate, defend me from the suspicion 

 of being urged to this course by any but the very 

 gravest considerations of the public welfare. 



And I should like, further, to call your attention 

 to the important circumstance that, in thus pro- 

 posing the exclusion of the study of such branches 

 of knowledge as Zoology and Botany, from those 

 compulsory upon the medical student, I am not, 

 for a moment, suggesting their exclusion from the 

 University. I think that sound and practical 

 instruction in the elementary facts and broad 

 principles of Biology should form part of the Arts 

 Curriculum : and here, happily, my theory is in 

 entire accordance with your practice. Moreover, 

 as I have already said, I have no sort of doubt 



