On medical education, 17 



if a number of subjects are grouped into one examination, there is a 

 greater amount of difficulty in working all up to the examination- 

 point. At any rate, if, for convenience sake, several are taken together 

 a student should not be rejected in all his subjects, because he fails 

 to pass in one or two. If he has shown, in a searching examination, 

 enough knowledge of any one subject, he should be credited with that 

 knowledge, and not required again to pass in that subject. It is im- 

 possible for all the data which are required for an examination to 

 be for ever kept in memory. How many of us could now pass an 

 examination in many subjects with which we were at one time per- 

 fectly familiar? 



I would have the examinations distributed somewhat in the follow- 

 ing manner. The first would be encountered on leaving school, say 

 at the age of 17 or 18, when the boy should be expected to show 

 the possession of a competent knowledge of Greek, Latin, and mathe- 

 matics, and of the English language and literature, and some acquain- 

 tance with French and German, especially with the grammar of those 

 languages. He would then proceed to college, and follow courses of 

 instruction in chemistry, physics, and biology. In every case, exami- 

 nations in the preliminary sciences should be passed previously to en- 

 tering at a medical school. I would not have these examinations 

 difficult, but so far as they go I would have them searching and prac- 

 tical. As in the preliminary scientific examination of the London 

 University, of which they would collectively be the equivalent, they 

 might be taken either together or piecemeal; the latter course in 

 many cases would be greatly to the advantage of the student. They 

 should be less difficult, but more practical than is the case at the 

 preliminary scientific. No one should be permitted to register as a 

 medical student until he could produce certificates of having passed 

 in each subject. I regard the introduction of a thorough and prac- 

 tical examination of every intending student of medicine, in the three 

 sciences of biology, chemistry, and physics, as one of the most impor- 

 tant reforms to be introduced in medical education. 



Other examinations would come during, or at the end of, the first 

 year after registration, and would comprise the subjects of the first 

 year of study; namely, physiology, anatomy, histology, and materia 



Internationale Monatsschrift für Anat. u. Phys. IV. 2 



