794 
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
are capable of conferring on the medical man, they, if syste- 
matically and practically followed, develop habits of accurate 
observation, correct deduction, and sound generalisation, 
qualities which are of the utmost importance to every one 
making the practice of medicine the pursuit of his life. To 
the superficial observer there are many subjects in the curri- 
culum which have no bearing on the practice of medicine. 
There is not one of them, however, which is not, directly or 
indirectly, of the greatest importance in this respect. A 
knowledge of the collateral sciences, says Dr. Beale, “ is of 
the same importance to medicine and surgery that an inti- 
mate acquaintance with grammar is to a knowledge of 
classics ; and just as an idle schoolboy may read from a trans- 
lation the meaning of the words, so a dishonest man may 
pass himself off as a practitioner by the use of high-sounding 
terms, whose meaning he has never had the industry to learn .’ 5 
Medical knowledge, however, must be progressively ob- 
tained. By which I mean that it is impossible for you to 
obtain more than a superficial acquaintance with therapeutics, 
pathology, the principles of medicine, and the other advanced 
branches of the curriculum, unless you have previously re- 
ceived a thorough training in those preliminary subjects to 
which I have alluded as constituting the foundation of all 
sound medical knowledge. It is true that a practice may 
be conducted without such information, and that it may be 
accompanied with what the world calls success, but it is then 
carried on empirically, and therefore in a manner unworthy 
of those who desire to be considered reflective and rational 
men. 
The more general knowledge a man possesses, the greater 
is his eagerness for increased information ; it is only the 
ignorant or half-instructed, who “ hate the excellence they 
cannot reach , 55 that refuse to acknowledge the beneficial 
influence of an extended literary and scientific education on 
the practice of medicine. 
The men who occupy the highest positions in human 
medicine are those who, by their accomplishments, have been 
enabled to take that thorough interest in their pursuit which 
is followed by the love of investigation, and attended by the 
industry to undertake it. Such men are not content with 
acquiring the knowledge furnished to them by their pre- 
decessors, but by their own labours they seek to increase it, 
so that they may enjoy superior opportunities of alleviating 
the sufferings of their fellow -men. 
It is in this manner that a comparatively few well-trained, 
earnest, and hard-working men have raised the profession 
