2 E. A." Schäfer, 



reminded by my distinguished predecessor, in the introductory address 

 which he delivered here a few years ago, that, medicine is "the worst 

 of trades, the best of professions." If it be admitted that medicine 

 should be practised as a profession, it must further be conceded that 

 those who intend to practise it ought, first of all, to be educated 

 gentlemen; in other words, they ought to be gentlemen by breeding, 

 and to have had the ordinary education of the class to which they be- 

 long. This is no less desirable for the profession of medicine than 

 for the church, the army, or the law. There should be the same 

 acquaintance with classics and mathematics, the same knowledge of 

 the English language and literature, of history and of geography, and 

 of one or more modern languages, which are regarded as forming the 

 essential elements of the education of an English gentleman. It is 

 sometimes thought proper to permit a boy, whilst still at school, to 

 commence the study of natural science, even of physiology and ana- 

 tomy, to the neglect, in most instances, of Latin and Greek, or of 

 some other subject of the ordinary course. 



In my judgment, this is a mistake. The small amount of science 

 which is thereby acquired, is easily picked up after leaving school, 

 and it is even not unlikely that much of what is learned at school 

 may afterwards have to be unlearned ; whereas the loss which will have 

 resulted from the neglect of the classics may be much more serious 

 than is frequently supposed. There is always time and opportunity 

 for obtaining the necessary knowledge of science after leaving school; 

 but the opportunity of acquiring a knowledge of Latin and Greek 

 never recurs, and if it be lost, be sure that, in the after-studies, the 

 loss will be many a time deplored. And the reason is not far to seek. 

 Almost the whole of scientific and medical nomenclature is derived 

 ironi these languages, and very largely from the Greek. I take up 

 n book at random; it happens to be a work on physiology, but the 

 fact would be just as strikingly illustrated by one on anatomy, botany, 

 /oniony, medicine, or any other science. Turning over tin; pages ca- 

 relessly. 1 come in succession upon the terms lncmatin , kymograph, 

 chondrin, Qotocbord,sphygmograph,stethograph, ophthalmoscope, tacho- 

 meter, ganglion, myosin, amylolytic, proteid, pleura, cardiac. It is 

 difficult to-find ;l term which has not been taken troni the Greek. 



