32 REPORT — 1866. 



be acquired, and in the next five or ten years a sound basis of knowledge of pli.v- 

 sics, chemistrj', and botany, with German or French, might be obtained ; and in 

 the following live years anatomy, physiology and medicine, surgery, and mid- 

 wifeiy. 



If every medical man were thoroughly well educated in the English language, 

 and could explain the nature of the disease and the course to be followed in the 

 most idiomatic and immistakeable English, and if he could iise all the forces in 

 nature for the cm-e or relief of his patient, and if he could, from his knowledge of 

 chemistry and physics, and their application to disease and medicine, become the 

 best authority within reach on every question connected with the health and wel- 

 fare of his neighbours ; and if he possessed the power of supervising and directmg 

 the di'uggist in all the analyses and investigations which could be required as to 

 the nature and actions of food, drink, and medicines, and as to the products of 

 disease, surely the position and power and agreement of medical men would be 

 very different fi-om that which they now obtain by learning some Latin and less 

 Greek. 



At present, so far from physicians possessing more knowledge of food and of 

 medicine than any other class of persons in the community, the analytical and 

 pharmaceutical chemists are rapidly increasing in knowledge, which ■^•ill enable 

 theiu not only to understand fully the nature and uses of food and medicines, but 

 even to detect the first appearances of a multitude of chemical diseases. Their 

 habits of investigation and their knowledge of the nature of the forces acting in 

 the body will gradually lead them to become advisers in all questions regarding 

 the health of the commimity, and from this they will, like M. Bouchardat, in 

 Paris, become almost, if not altogether, practitioners of medicine. 



No doubt chemists are very far from being medical practitioners at present, but 

 remember that there is no limit to natural knowledge, and that each moment 

 the chemical knowledge of things around us is progressing, and that chemists are 

 becoming able better to answer every question that can arise regarding the air, 

 water, food, drink, and medicine which, by means of the forces that exist in them, 

 act upon the forces within us, and give rise to the phenomena of health and of 

 disease ; whilst, as if to lessen the time that might be devoted to acquiring natural 

 knowledge, the authorities who regulate medical education only this last spring 

 have determined that, in addition to Latin, every medical man shall possess a com- 

 petent knowledge of Greek, in order that the derivation of hard words may be 

 obtained from the brain instead of a dictionary. 



In contirmation of mj' opinion of the direction in which the treatment of disease 

 is progTessing, I may just refer to tlie cattle-plague, which in 1745 was treated by 

 Dr. Mortimer, at that time Secretary of the Eoyal Society, and therefore one of the 

 most scientific physicians in the country, ■\\'ith antimony and bleeding. In 186G, 

 two chemists, l)r. Angus Smith, Ph.D., F.R.S., and Mr. Crookes, F.R.S., gave the 

 only usefid suggestion for combating the disease, namely, by the aiTest or the 

 destruction of tlie poison by chemical agenls. 



There is yet another point of view in which chemisls wiU see the harm that 

 results from our present medical education. 



The use of Latin in our prescriptions requires that the pharmaceutists should 

 learn at least suihcient Latm to read what we have written. Many errors have 

 arisen, and will arise from the dispenser being imable to give the directions rightly. 

 To avoid such mistakes, a portion of the time that ought to be giAen to the attain- 

 ment of the highest possible amount of chemical acquirement, and a perfect know- 

 ledge of the English language, or some foreign language, wherein he might learn 

 the discoveries in chemistry, and the improvements in pharmacy of other countries, 

 must be devoted to the learning of Latin in which the physician writes his 

 direcrions. 



All our druggists in England ought to be what they are in Germany and in 

 France, chemists capable of any analysis that miglit be required of them, and able 

 to satisfy themselves and the medical men that the substances they sell are what 

 they profess to he, pure, unadulterated chemical compounds. 



No one of my hearers in this Section will consider five years a long time for the 



