473 
MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS. 
We insert, from the Lancet of the 13th of July, a letter from a 
correspondent respecting the advantages of repeated examinations 
during the course of a medical education. With the opinions 
which he advocates we cordially concur, and gladly avail ourselves 
of the opportunity to make a few remarks on the subject. 
“To any one who is acquainted with the real working of the 
human intellect, it must be obvious that an energetic stimulus is 
alone capable of inducing the great majority of individuals to de- 
vote themselves to severe intellectual labour. Indeed, there are 
few, even amongst those whose lives have been continued scenes 
of mental effort, and who have grown grey in the pursuit of know- 
ledge, who would not confess, if questioned, that their daily labours 
cost them an effort, and that it is merely by the strength of a firm 
and steadfast will that they continue them. Such, at least, has 
been the reply made to us by several eminent men, whose lives 
have been prodigies of intellectual effort, and with whom study 
has been said to have become a second nature. In the attainment 
of knowledge, as in every other human pursuit, a great develop- 
ment of the will is an indispensable requisite for success. By its 
assistance all repugnance is overcome, all aspirings after more con- 
genial occupations are stifled, and the intellect is daily bent to its 
wonted task. In mature life there are incentives which suffice to 
call the will into action in many instances, such as ambition, vanity, 
or even the desire to acquire knowledge for its own sake. And 
thus is perpetuated a race of students who are not unable to ap- 
preciate the enjoyments of life, as is often stated, but who, by an 
exercise of the will, forego pleasure, or defer its enjoyment to a 
future period which often never arrives, in order to attain the end 
they have in view. 
“ If this is the case with many, if not most sages, — with the phi- 
losophers who have written nearly as many tomes as they number 
years, — if they are, at heart, school-boys, longing to throw their 
books aside and take to the fields, but are restrained by their will, 
the most inflexible of all masters, what must it be with the student, 
who has not yet arrived at the age of manhood ! With a mind 
too frequently undisciplined to mental exertion, how can he be ex- 
pected to devote himself unremittingly to study for several years, 
unless the incentive which he has be all-powerful ? The experi- 
ence of every day shews us that with young men the sense of 
duty, the knowledge of the importance of their present efforts for 
their future welfare, is insufficient to ensure assiduity and zeal 
during the years allotted to the acquirement of professional know- 
