UNIVERSITIES: ACTUAL AND IDEAL. 61 



the examination slang which is unfortunately too famil- 

 iar to me, you can quite easily " give an account of the 

 leading peculiarities of the Marsu/pialia" or " enumerate 

 the chief characters of the Composites" or "state the 

 class and order of the animal from which Castoreum is 

 obtained." 



I really do not think that state of things will be sat- 

 isfactory to you ; I am very sure it will not be so to 

 your patient. Indeed, I am so narrow-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 under- 

 stand 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 incli- 

 nation to injure or depreciate particular branches of 

 knowledge. But the fact that one of those which I 

 should have no hesitation in excluding from the medi- 

 cal 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 proposing 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 



