EDUCATION OF A MAN OF SCIENCE 89 



everlasting test-tube, and to make, for instance, 

 some of the historic experiments with gases. 



Human anatomy again was ahvays taught 

 practically, i.e., by work in the dissecting-room. 

 But owing to the manner in which medical students 

 were examined, the subject failed to have the value 

 it might have had ; minute questions were asked 

 which no amount of dissecting would enable us to 

 answer. The book had to be learned by heart, and 

 I shudder as I remember the futile labour entailed. 

 And the examination was so arranged, that whilst 

 we were "cramming" anatomy we had also to suffer 

 over another subject, materia medica, which was 

 almost entirely useless, and wearisome beyond 

 belief. Much of it was about as rational a subject 

 to a physician as to a surgeon would be a minute 

 knowledge of how his knives were made and how 

 steel is manufactured. I remember how, after 

 getting through this double ordeal of cram on 

 drugs and on the structure of the body, I heard a 

 surgeon say in lecture : "This is one of the very few 

 occasions on which 3^ou must know your anatomy." 

 I recall the anger and contempt I then felt for the 

 educational authorities, as I remembered the 

 drudgery I had gone through. 



The want of organised practical work in zoology 

 was perhaps a blessing in disguise. For it led me to 

 struggle with the subject by myself. I used to get 

 snails and slugs and dissect their dead bodies, 

 comparing my results with books hunted up in the 

 University Library, and this was a real bit of 

 education. I remember too that a thoughtful 

 brother sent me a dead porpoise, which (to the 



