EDUCATION OF A MAN OF SCIENCE 89 



everlasting test-tube, and to make, for instance, 

 some of the historic experiments with gases. 



Human anatomy again was always taught 



practically, i.e., by work in the dissecting-room. 



But owing to the manner in which medical students 



were examined, the subject failed to have the value 



it might have had ; minute questions were asked 



which no amount of dissecting would enable us to 



answer. The book had to be learned by heart, and 



I shudder as I remember the futile labour entailed. 



And the examination was so arranged, that whilst 



we were "cramming" anatomy we had also to suffer 



over another subject, materia medica, which was 



almost entirely useless, and wearisome beyond 



beUef. Much of it was about as rational a subject 



to a physician as to a surgeon would be a minute 



knowledge of how his knives were made and how 



steel is manufactured. I remember how, after 



getting through this double ordeal of cram on 



drugs and on the structure of the body, I heard a 



surgeon say in lecture : "This is one of the very few 



occasions on which you must know your anatomy." 



I recall the anger and contempt I then felt for the 



educational authorities, as I remembered the 



drudgery I had gone through. 



The want of organised practical work in zoology 

 was perhaps a blessing in disguise. For it led me to 

 struggle with the subject by myself. I used to get 

 snails and slugs and dissect their dead bodies, 

 comparing my results with books hunted up in the 

 University Library, and this was a real bit of 

 education. I remember too that a thoughtful 

 brother sent me a dead porpoise, which (to the 



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