586 



AM TURE 



[October 8, 1908 



are not compelled to maintain tliat the individual man 

 must give his chief attention to science. A minute division 

 of labour, intellectual as well as manual, is necessary in 

 modern life, and we become every day more dependent 

 upon other people's knowledge. An elementary knowledge 

 of many sciences, such as Spencer valued and himself 

 possessed, steadily becomes less attainable, and less applic- 

 able to real business ; less attainable, because the standard 

 is always rising ; what was a respectable acquaintance 

 with science in the days when Spencer was educating him- 

 self would now be thought no better than a smattering ; 

 less applicable, because business now requires and com- 

 mands the science of experts. The instances which used 

 to be quoted half a century ago of workmen who attended 

 a course of chemistry in a mechanics' institute, and 

 straightway suggested improvements in the manufacturing 

 processes upon which they were engaged, have become 

 rare, and will soon disappear altogether. Business demands 

 the very best science that the age can supply, and it can 

 afford to pay high enough to get it. Obviously the best 

 knowledge of any kind can only be possessed by a few. 



Spencer seems to expect that every intelligent mother 

 should enjoy a knowledge of human physiology which 

 will be a sufficient practical guide for the rearing of a 

 family, but here, too, I have my doubts. Since the first 

 publication of his essay the requirements of human 

 physiology have risen in a surprising degree. The know- 

 ledge that can be got by reading even so admirable a 

 text-book as Huxley's " Lessons " does not nearly suffice 

 for the practical adviser. On this point I can speak with 

 experience. When I was preparing for biological work I 

 dissected the human body, took out courses in phvsiologv, 

 and walked the hospital. But this tincture of professional 

 knowledge, though better than that which any elementary 

 or secondary school could supply, has never proved applic- 

 able, except to the least serious of emergencies. A little 

 knowledge may indeed be dangerous when it is applied to 

 the diagnosis of disease or to sanitarv construction. 



Those who agree with me that' the science which is 

 applicable to industry or to public health is steadilv grow- 

 ing harder of attainment will not, I hope, turn this into 

 an argument for restricting the study of science to a few. 

 The elementary science of the school, if good of its kind, 

 is valuable for its effect upon the character and the intelli- 

 gence ; it is necessary for the timely discovery of voung 

 people who can be trained to carry on scientific discovery ; 

 and it engenders a sympathy with science which is of high 

 importance to the State. I'f the science of the school docs 

 no more than make the phenomena of evervdav life a little 

 more comprehensible and a little more interesting, it will 

 fully justify itself. 



Spencer would, I feel sure, have admitted that even 

 when science is to be the chief occupation of after-life, 

 It should not occupy more than part of a well-ordered 

 course of school-study. The chemist or physiologist often 

 requires to express his own meaning bv speech or writing ; 

 it will be highly advantageous that he should express it 

 clearly and vigorously. He must get effective command of 

 at least one foreign language. He ought to know enough 

 mathematics and drawing to make his own calculations 

 and sketches. He ought to have learned how to use books. 

 Spencer does not exclude literature and the fine arts from 

 education, but in his scheme they are not to claim very 

 much. " As they occupy the leisure part of life, so should 

 they occupy the leisure part of education." 



I do not suppose for a moment that this passage was 

 written with the intention of pouring contempt upon litera- 

 ture, and it is really appropriate to the current fiction 

 which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, but 

 what insensibility to the claims of the higher literature it 

 betrays! "On traite volontiers d'inutile," savs Fon- 

 tenelle, " ce qu'on ne salt point; c'est une esp^co de 

 vengeance." ' 



These considerations move me to reject Spencer's verdict. 

 There is not, and cannot be, a scale of usefulness by 

 which everybody's choice can be at once determined. 

 Before deciding what the schoolboy is to study we must 

 mquire what are his aptitudes, iiiclinations, and oppor- 



Dr. Duncan's " Life " furni.shes prcof of the slightness of Spencer'i 

 ob.igations to liter: ture. 



NO. 2032, VOL. 78] 



tunities. And the importance of science, which I do not 

 think Spencer has exaggerated, will be fully recognised 

 when every nation and city, every profession and trade, 

 every person and interest, can be guided as often as neecl 

 arises, not by their own scientific judgment, but by the 

 judgment of scientific experts. 



Preliminary Scientific Medical Studies. 



Everyone agrees, in the abstract, that scientific informa- 

 tion, the heap of scientific facts, is a small matter in 

 comparison with scientific method and the scientific spirit. 

 We do not, it is true, give effect to our convictions in 

 practice. The teacher of science still loads the meinory 

 with facts ; the examiner in science still passes or ploughs 

 according to the quantity of facts that the candidates have 

 got up. It requires an effort to keep hopeful, but we 

 must go on steadily pointing out what we take to be the 

 right way. The reformers of science-teaching are now 

 bent upon such improvements as these : they wish to see 

 a greatly improved synthesis of the student's knowledge, 

 so that the things that he learns in one place and from 

 one teacher should be intimately combined with what he 

 learns in another place and from another teacher. Further, 

 they wish to see a large extension of personal inquiry and 

 personal verification of the fundamental scientific facts. 

 It is thus, we think, that the future man of science will 

 become possessed of a compact and harmonious body of 

 useful knowledge, which may in favourable cases incor- 

 porate with itself the experience of after-life, and exhibit 

 the incomparable virtue of healthy natural growth. 



I will continue the discussion a little further with refer- 

 ence to the great problem of the scientific education of 

 the medical practitioner, which has occupied the attention 

 of the scientific world during the whole time of my long 

 professorship, and still seems far from perinanent settle- 

 ment. Medicine is at present our one great scientific pro- 

 fession. It brings science into the daily life of every one 

 of us, and employs it for the protection of some of our 

 dearest interests. The scientific basis of medical know- 

 ledge should be sound, compact, well mastered, and, if 

 possible, productive. I will go on to consider what it 

 actually is, forming my opinion upon thirty years of 

 experience in teaching elementary science to medical 

 students. 



Let me begin by making a concession to those who think 

 that things are pretty well as they are. Remembering 

 distinctly what the medical student was thirty years ago 

 and more, I find that the first-year's university student of 

 medicine at the present day is in all respects a better man, 

 more serious, more enlightened, more capable. I find too 

 that his preliminary scientific course seems to do him 

 real good. It is far from perfect, but it is a great improve- 

 ment upon anything that existed in the remote days when 

 I was myself a first-year's medical student. The labours 

 of the last thirty or forty years have not, in my opinion, 

 been thrown away. 



Nevertheless the preliminary scientific studies of the 

 medical man are far from being as effective as they ought 

 to be. Much of his time and effort are spent in laying 

 up heaps of knowledge for which he is expected to find 

 a use at some distant day. The items of scientific know- 

 ledge still require to be firmly bound together, and in- 

 dissolubly associated with professional ideas and with pro- 

 fessional exigencies. It is only close association with the 

 work of the practitioner that can keep his knowledge alive. 



The preliminary scientific course should give practice in 

 the methods of chemistry, physics, and biology. It should 

 prove by definite evidence characteristic scientific truths. 

 Lastly, it should be closely related to medical practice. 

 Looking round for an inquiry which will satisfy these 

 conditions, one inevitably thinks of the teaching of 

 Pasteur, which is now recognised as fundamental in 

 medicine, surcerv, and hygiene. Is it possible to give the 

 future medical practitioner a firm grip of that teaching? 

 I think it is. The first part of the preliminary scientific 

 year I should treat as preparatory. It ought to acquaint 

 the student with the methods which chemistry, physics, 

 and bioloev employ for the establishment or the criticism 

 of scientific statements. Methods of detecting and 

 estimating; of observing small indications; of drawing; of 



