On medical education. ]<) 



benefit in any special object he may have in view. I should like to 

 see a clearing-house system established in London, whence composition*- 



tickets should be issued to students, entitling them to select, for each 

 term the particular school at which they might desire to study, or 

 even the particular courses of instruction in different schools. The 

 adoption of such a plan would be, practically, the substitution for the 

 ten or twelve medical schools which are dotted over London, of one 

 great association which would embrace the whole metropolis. This 

 would probably lead to the concentration of the teaching of the scien- 

 tific subjects at a few foci, and to a much more uniform dissemination 

 of the students for subsequent clinica' work than at present obtains, 

 an arrangement which would be as advantageous to the students as 

 to the hospitals, many of which are notoriously undermanned. It is 

 greatly to be hoped that the scheme for establishing a teaching uni- 

 versity in London may, if completed, result, among other things, in 

 the carrying into effect of some plan of union such as this. That 

 union will be strength, in this as in everything else, is indubitable. 



But what if this unfortunate conflict of existing interests should 

 prove a Gordian knot incapable of disentanglement? I would invoke 

 the assistance of Parliament and cut it, without more ado. I would 

 have, at one or more centres, the necessary laboratories erected and 

 endowed by the State, and thus secure the effectual scientific training 

 of the student ; if this is assured, the clinical work will take care ot 

 itself. There is no lack of precedent for State intervention in the 

 matter of education, and why should that intervention not extend to 

 medical education ? Surely the advancement of medical knowledge is 

 an object which every citizen, if only for his own and his children's 

 sake, should be anxious to promote. But the necessary changes can- 

 not be effected widthout some interests suffering, nor can they come 

 to pass without money. A considerable expenditure is undoubtedly 

 neccessary, and this would have to be mainly provided by Parliament, 

 although it might be assisted by a rearrangement of a few existing 

 endowments. 



And why should not London obtain what other cities and towns 

 find no difficulty in obtaining ? We hear of building grants to Scottish 

 universities, and of endowments to colleges in Wales and Ireland, but 



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