320 ON MEDICAL EDUCATION xil 



hearsay about the alternation of generations in 

 the Salpse is really monstrous. I cannot charac- 

 terise it in any other way. And having sacrificed 

 my own pursuit, I am sure I may sacrifice other 

 people's ; and I make this remark with all the 

 more willingness because I discovered, on reading 

 the names of your Professors just now, that the 

 Professor of Materia Medica is not present. I 

 must confess, if I had my way I should abolish 

 Materia Medica 1 altogether. I recollect, when I 

 was first under examination at the University of 

 London, Dr. Pereira was the examiner, and you 

 know that Pereira's " Materia Medica " was a book 

 de omnibus rebus. I recollect my struggles with 

 that book late at night and early in the morning 

 (I worked very hard in those days), and I do 

 believe that I got that book into my head some- 

 how or other, but then I will undertake to say 

 that I forgot it all a week afterwards. Not one 

 trace of a knowledge of drugs has remained in my 

 memory from that time to this ; and really, as a 

 matter of common sense, I cannot understand the 

 arguments for obliging a medical man to know all 

 about drugs and where they come from. Why 

 not make him belong to the Iron and Steel 

 Institute, and learn something about cutlery, 

 because he uses knives ? 



But do not suppose that, after all these deduc- 



1 It will, I hope, be understood that I do not include Thera- 

 peutics under this head. 



