52 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 263. 



injury to the student, whom it turns to 

 premature specialization. It is both foolish 

 and cruel to exact investigation as a part of 

 the regular training of every student, and 

 very unjust to imply that those whose taste 

 does not lie that way are mentally inferior 

 to those who dabble in research, no matter 

 how ineffectively. It may be replied thati 

 granting this, still it is a good and neces- 

 sary training for those who in after life are 

 to become investigators. I incline to dissent 

 still, for the born investigator (and no 

 other is worth much trouble) no more 

 needs encouragement to investigate than 

 the fish does to swim. I would, if anj'thing, 

 restrain him till his education has become 

 broad and his mind mature. He will very 

 quickly more than make up the lost time. 

 Then let him have every encouragement. 



As regards education I speak as a pro- 

 fessor in a medical school, whose career has 

 been so placed that he has seen this school 

 develop into a department of a universitj'. I 

 feel that, in common with others, it has 

 reached a point when it is in danger from the 

 side of its scientific friends who mistake or 

 will not learn the true purpose of a medical 

 school. I so rarely find myself in complete 

 accord with Huxley, that I cannot forbear, 

 though it is not for the first time, quoting 

 his deliberate opinion, that whoever adds 

 one tittle that is unnecessary to medical edu- 

 cation is guiltj' of a very grave offense. If 

 this be true, as I firmly believe it is, we 

 must look to it that the candidate for the 

 degree of M.D. be not robbed of his time, 

 none too long for learning medicine as an 

 art, by specially conducted excursions into 

 abstract science. It may be said, and said 

 truly, that without such auxiliaries the 

 education of the student wants something 

 of the breadth which his should have who 

 aspires to stand on the pinnacle ; but this 

 only emphasizes the fact, now becoming 

 daily clearer, that there has grown up the 

 need of what may be called advanced med- 



icine. Some would have this strictly post- 

 graduate, but it is probably wiser to have 

 a difference in the course. On the one 

 hand there is the young man who aspires 

 to be a conscientious every-day practitioner 

 of medicine, looking forward to a life of 

 hard work among suffering humanity. 

 Such a one is not to be refused the degree 

 of an honored university, and told super- 

 ciliously to go to the little school round 

 the corner. Neither is he who, looking at 

 the matter more as a scholar, desires through 

 his studies to train himself to teach others 

 and to widen the horizon of knowledge, to 

 be told that we have no help to offer to one 

 of his ideals. We must provide for both ; 

 but with what power I have I shall always 

 protest against sacrificing the first to the 

 second, though the latter is the one with 

 whom my tastes incline me to sympathize. 



To sum up thus far, I conclude that it is 

 not the duty of universities to urge, still 

 less to force, original investigation upon 

 students. It should be at hand for those 

 whose zeal is so great that it will take no 

 denial. 



The next question is what universities 

 should do for research in the community at 

 large. Are more prizes and scholarships 

 to be offered ? As to prizes I should hesitate 

 to say yes. It is not well that they should 

 be too common ; but of scholarships for de- 

 serving men we can hardly have too many. 

 It is most desirable that the universities 

 should award them. They cannot, indeed, 

 give the funds, but, these being provided, 

 committees from the universities should 

 give their time, care and experience to their 

 proper administration. This is a most 

 beneficent and dignified attitude for a uni- 

 versity, midway between the generous 

 donor and the deserving student, to see 

 that the generosity of the former is neither 

 neglected nor abused. 



The next and last aspect of the question 

 that I shall consider is " what shall a uni- 



