18 E. A. Schäfer, 



medica; and others, again, at the end of the second winter, in ad- 

 vanced physiology and anatomy. The examinations should be no less 

 practical than the teaching, and they should occupy a much longer 

 time than is now the case. To attempt, for instance, [to test a stu- 

 dent's knowledge of physiology by a practical examination, which 

 lasts only a few minutes, is a farce that can only be justified by the 

 fact that it is a considerable step in advance to have instituted even 

 the semblance of a practical examination. 



A reform of this kind cannot be made without a considerable out- 

 lay. It would be needful to erect and fit out a laboratory expressly 

 for the purpose of conducting such examinations in physiology, and 

 they ought to be held only under the direction of those who are them- 

 selves actually engaged in physiological work. Should the munificent 

 bequest of Erasmus Wilson result, as I sincerely trust may be the 

 case, in the erection and endowment of a great central research-labo- 

 ratory for physiology, pathology, and pharmacology, it would be easy 

 to establish practical examination-rooms as an annex of such an in- 

 stitution, and the services of the permanent directors and staff of the 

 laboratory would then be available to conduct the examinations. I 

 believe that the adoption of such a plan would also obviate one of 

 the worst evils of the present system ; that, namely, of the inequality 

 of the examinations, resulting from the number of the examiners, who 

 are, unfortunately, not all cast in the same mould, and the differences 

 in whose individualities are often painfully evident to the candidates. 



The final examinations in pathology, pharmacology, and thera- 

 peutics, medicine, surgery, midwifery, etc., might, in the scheme which 

 I have here been endeavouring to sketch, be passed as soon as the 

 required courses in those subjects are concluded. After the main sub- 

 jects had been passed, special examinations should be held in some 

 of the more important branches, such as ophthalmic surgery, diseases 

 of women, diseases of children, and insanity. Were the student thei 

 reby encouraged to frequent special hospitals during the latter part 

 of the quadrennium, so much the better. 



I fear (he lime is yet far distant when a London student shall 

 have the freedom of all the London hospitals, and be able to betake 

 himself to that institution where he is likely to derive the greatest 



