XLY. 



THE EXAMINATION SYSTEM AND THE 

 PEE-EEQUISITES OF CANDIDATES: 



AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE ST. MARY's HOSPITAL 

 MEDICAL SCHOOL. 



I WAS some time back honoured with an invitation similar in 

 character to that of which I am now avaiHng- myself, and which, I 

 take it, I owe to the suggestion of my much valued friend and 

 former pupil, your Dean, Dr. Shepherd. What I had to do then 

 was a good deal easier of performance that what I have to do 

 now. Then, as now, I was told that something in the shape, and 

 if possible, of the nature of an address would be expected from me ; 

 but upon that occasion the address was to come first, and the dis- 

 tribution of prizes second in order, and I felt that there was little 

 need to be over-anxious as to the former of my duties, as the minds 

 of all present — of candidates successful and unsuccessful, of their 

 admirers and sympathising friends — would be intent upon coming 

 with all speed to the second part of the business. And whilst I 

 was glad, on the one hand, to be free from any very heavy sense of 

 responsibility, I should have been sorry, on the other, to have inter- 

 posed myself, or my remarks, at any length between any of my 

 audience and the very pure and yet, I apprehend, very intense 

 enjoyment which witnessing a public recognition of merit in a 

 young friend or relative confers. I have comforted myself, however, 

 whilst considering what I have to do this day, by thinking that it 

 was quite within my competence to secure for myself the merit of 

 being brief, and that if I were to write down what I wished to say, 

 and to confine myself strictly to my manuscript, I could count upon 

 giving satisfaction in that way at least. 



I take it that a person who is put into the honourable position 

 which I this day hold, has generally something which he is 



