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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 799 



tions can generally be associated with a po- 

 sition in a hospital or public institution 

 also carrying a small salary, and afford a 

 highly attractive means of gaining a mod- 

 est livelihood. 



The preparation for the practise of med- 

 icine calls for four years of hard but in- 

 teresting work in the medical school, and 

 at least one year's supplementary work in 

 a hospital. The medical school work is 

 elaborately described in all medical school 

 catalogues. To describe it here would be 

 beyond the scope of the present lecture. 

 It might be briefly summed up as a study 

 of the human body in health and disease, 

 and the study of disease with its causes, 

 prevention and treatment. The hospital 

 work means the actual practise of medi- 

 cine in the hospital under the direction of 

 an experienced physician. 



Now the preparation for the medical- 

 school work in the college should in my 

 mind be somewhat along the following 

 lines : 



In the first place I would advise every 

 student to do some work every day. The 

 enthusiastic student could do more, and 

 the less enthusiastic less, but I would ad- 

 vise every student to do some, and it is as- 

 tonishing how much one can accomplish 

 by steady persistent routine work, even if 

 but little time is devoted to it. 'And I 

 would also advise every student to study 

 some subject thoroughly, the idea being 

 that he should understand what it involves 

 to acquire accurate, precise knowledge; 

 partly that he should have the benefit of 

 the mental training thereof, and partly 

 that he should have the direct benefit of 

 the knowledge itself. 



Lord Broughton's ideal of education 

 was to know something of everything and 

 everything of something. Of course that 

 is not practical now-a-days when knowl- 

 edge is so diverse and extensive, but to 



know a few subjects pretty well and one 

 subject very well seems to me to be all we 

 have a right to expect from the average 

 college student. To express this in differ- 

 ent terms ; I mean that it is fair to at least 

 ask of a conscientious student that he 

 should each year receive a good passing 

 mark in all his studies and an A or B in 

 one. Another thing which he should get 

 from this college training is a good phy- 

 sique, for the mere physical work of the 

 study and practise of medicine is such as 

 to demand a strong and vigorous body. 

 Epictetus said that he was a spirit drag- 

 ging about a corpse! Let no such spirit 

 as this contemplate the study of medicine ! 

 And he should have a well-disciplined 

 mind, because the study and practise of 

 medicine call for a high degree of self- 

 control. 



Special studies given in the college which 

 will be of inestimable value to him in the 

 medical school are biology (including 

 botany), physics, chemistry, Latin and 

 Greek, English, German and French. 



I have placed biology first because I con- 

 sider it of the first importance, and let me 

 say, in passing, that you, as students of 

 Tufts College, are fortunate in having at 

 the head of your department of biology 

 one of the most distinguished biologists in 

 the country. It is a great privilege to be 

 allowed to sit under this inspiring teacher 

 and at the risk of making myself unpopu- 

 lar with him, I would advise every student 

 in the college, no matter what he intends 

 to be, to take at least one course in biology, 

 that he may learn what science and scien- 

 tific methods really mean. By studying 

 biology you not only are enabled to form 

 a pretty correct idea as to what the study 

 of medicine is like ; to judge whether or no 

 you are likely to make a success of it ; you 

 not only familiarize yourselves with the 

 scientific methods of study, cultivating 



