208 MEDICAL SCIENCE IN ONTARIO. 



the fancies, and the beauties, of the immortal Greek and Latin bards. 

 Such an one enters the dissecting room, for example, and hie labor ^ hoc 

 opus est, for which his tastes are altogether unsuited. He has to bring 

 himself to the practical study of anatomy, as a task, far less poetic, and 

 far more disagreeable than his first attempt to conjugate a Greek verb, 

 cross the pons asinorum, or solve a quadratic equation. Indeed, I 

 think it will be found, by the practical test of comparative success, in 

 the medical classes, that those young men often succeed best, who have 

 worked their own way, from humble beginning, fired with the honorable 

 ambition of acquiring a profession that will secure for them an indepen- 

 dent livelihood, and a higher social position. Such students, generally 

 well matured in mind and body, and free from many of the hindering 

 frivolities of youth, bring to bear upon their studies an enthusiasm that 

 carries all before it, and a devotion to all the minor details, both of read- 

 ing and of clinical observation, so necessary to make them thoroughly 

 furnished for entering upon the practice of their profession. Hence, it 

 often happens that, men whose general attainments would pass a poor 

 enough muster, outside their own calling, are perfectly at home there 

 and may even possess a profound knowledge of the best medical litera- 

 ture. Let me not be misunderstood. To take high rank in the scientific 

 world, and to command for ourselves, as a body, the ungrudging respect 

 of our fellow-countrymen, of all classes, we must aim at a high educa- 

 tional standard. I do not depreciate a preliminary college training : on 

 the contrary, if it were possible, I should be glad to see all our young 

 men take their B.A. degree before entering the medical classes. At 

 the same time, I do not hesitate to say that, the absence of early educa- 

 tional advantages, of this kind, is proved by experience, in Canada, to 

 be not incompatible with a high degree of success, both in the study 

 and practice of the healing art. Some of our young men, who never 

 spent an hour within college walls, have borne off the honors of the 

 colleges of physicians and surgeons, of the mother-land, and many of 

 our most successful and accomplished practitioners, never learned the 

 Greek alphabet, or essayed to scan a line of Virgil. 



We have at present three medical schools in Ontario : the Royal 

 College of Physicians and Surgeons, Kingston ; the Medical Depart- 

 ment of Victoria College, Toronto ; and the Toronto School of Medi- 

 cine, in affiliation with the University of Toronto, Upwards of two 

 hundred students attend the sessions of these three schools, during their 

 winter courses, and, probably, an average of fifty young men are annually 



