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INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS AT 
termed, for the education of a surgeon and apothecary, or 
general practitioner, shall be alike. Anatomy is the flambeau 
which lights the student in his way to the acquirement of 
professional knowledge ; it is the most important study for 
the surgeon, yet it is one to which less attention is paid than 
it deserves, and this occurs, perhaps, as much from the 
manner of teaching as from any defect in the attention of the 
student. Formerly the largest and best-paying schools had 
only one, or at most two teachers of anatomy, physiology, 
and pathology, and one demonstrator in the dissecting-room ; 
and it frequently happened that when the teachers taught in 
turns, the unemployed one demonstrated. When one per- 
son devoted himself to the teaching of anatomy, of which 
there is no example in the present day, he was constantly 
with his students ; he knew them well, how 7 much knowledge 
each possessed, and how much instruction each required to 
have beat into him. At present there are professors of 
anatomy, of general anatomy, of descriptive anatomy, of 
surgical anatomy, of morbid anatomy, of microscopic ana- 
tomy. There are demonstrators of anatomy, prosectors and 
superintendents of dissection, professors of physiology and 
pathology, all for one science, most of whom, or as many of 
them as exist together, teach for an hour a day, that a return 
in some degree to the old method would be very advan- 
tageous to the student. I would suggest that the teacher 
of anatomy should begin his course on the first of October, 
and continue it daily, six days in each week until the middle 
of the following January, when it should be completed. 
When he is aided by a professor of physiology and histology, 
or microscopic anatomy, this gentleman should relieve him, 
after the description of each system or part, and give their 
physiology. For example : after the lecturer on anatomy 
has fully described the bones, the physiologist should follow ; 
after the demonstration of the muscles the other should 
succeed ; and a lecture of an hour and a half’s duration each 
day would embrace the whole of the subjects in the time 
specified. The demonstrator of anatomy should give a 
demonstration each morning for one hour in the dissecting- 
room of such parts as had been duly prepared by one of the 
students under his superintendence the previous day, so that 
by a frequent repetition of the anatomy and relative situa- 
tion of the most important parts concerned in the practice 
of surgery, they might be thoroughly fixed in the mind of 
the student. It should, how ever, be borne in mind that a 
thorough knowdedge of anatomy is the great point to be 
acquired during the four years of study ordained by the 
