Lecture on Botany. 339 



with medical men, who had studied at many seats of professional 

 education, some collegiate, some exclusively professional, I have 

 no hesitation in saying that, as a rule, the former had the intel- 

 lectual advantage. There are noble and notable exceptions, old 

 and young, but the rule is true in the main. The man who has 

 studied in a seat of learning, a college or university, has a wider 

 range of sympathies, a more philosophical tone of mind and a 

 higher estimate of the objects of intellectual ambition, than his 

 fellow-practitioner, who, from his youth upwards, had concentrated 

 his thoughts upon the contractedly professional subjects of an hos- 

 pital school. . . . There are not a few, too (medical men) who 

 may some day find themselves isolated in distant and little-ex- 

 plored regions. Far away from friends and the conversation of 

 intellectual companions, any pursuit that can engage and occupy 

 the mind and above all satisfy its thirst for truth by draughts froni 

 the pure and refreshing fountains of nature — any such pursuit be- 

 comes a blessing and converts the desert into a paradise, one often 

 filled with creatures yet to be named. How delightful does it 

 then become to be able to recall the lessons of our student-days 

 and casting away regret and languor, invigorate our minds by the 

 practice of healthy intellectual exercise." 



In conjunction with such testimony, it will suffice to add that 

 every Medical University, particularly in Britain and on the Con- 

 tinent, that professes to furnish an extended education to its stu- 

 dents, not only gives every encouragement and facility for the 

 study of the collateral sciences, as they are called, but the curri- 

 culum in each demands imperatively a regular course of instruc- 

 tion in these sciences by qualified teachers or professors, and the 

 subjection of candidates to examination in order to ascertain 

 whether they possess a fair and competent knowledge of them? 

 before receiving their Diplomas. Two courses, one upon Zoology, 

 the other upon Botany, have been prescribed by this University to 

 the student of medicine during his collegiate career, and from the 

 remarks that have been already made in reference to the subject, 

 you will at once discern the laudable motives that have actuated 

 those in authority, in extending your curricuhun of study. While 

 it will be to the honor of the University, it is but simple justice to 

 the student and graduate, who will thus find himself prepared, as 

 occasion may require, to meet the demands of other Universities 

 and of every Board of Examination, and ultimately to fulfil his obli. 

 gations, whether in a civil or military capacity, with credit to him- 

 self and the Alma Mater from which he hails. 



