PROFESSOR SPOONER’S ORATION. 
747 
will never have occasion to complain of the want of punctuality 
in your preceptors; and if you have not, they have an equal 
right to look for punctuality in you : and when you do occupy 
your respective places here, you should remember and deeply 
feel that you do not attend our lectures merely as a matter of 
duty which must begot over, and then retire to some public place 
of amusement, where you will forget almost every thing that has 
been said. 
It is not to be supposed that, by mere attention to lectures 
alone, you can become competent in the art on the study of which 
you have entered. In fact, the novel mode of education by means 
of lectures is a very questionable one with regard to obtaining 
practical information ; and therefore it is that at all times I am 
anxious to meet with you, to mingle with you, and contribute all 
in my power to promote your knowledge out of the theatre, as 
well as in it. Nevertheless, lectures are a necessary adjunct. The 
lecturer has to point out the way. He has, as it were, to steer the 
course, and to direct the mind of the pupil. Then let the pupil, 
after having attended on the lecture, retire to his study and peruse 
the sentiments of some author on the subject. Thus a deep im- 
pression will be made on his mind, and the information which he 
derives will be useful to him in after-practice. 
There is one department of your study, Gentlemen, which, of 
all others, 1 cannot too forcibly impress upon you the necessity 
of your diligently pursuing — it is, practical dissections. With- 
out them you will never be worthy of the name of anatomists ; 
you will only be dabblers in the science ; and its sublimity will 
be lost to you. You must dissect ! You may have excellent 
memories, that may enable you, like a parrot, to answer Yes, 
or No, or to state the name of a part in accordance with what 
you may have heard from others ; but you will be altogether 
wanting in a knowledge of useful and practical anatomy unless 
you dissect. You must impress upon your mind’s eye what you 
have seen on the dissecting-table ; and then, without encum- 
brance, you will be enabled to carry about with you an unerring 
index, which you can at all times refer to with confidence. 
It is not to be presumed that, in this theatre, where, probably, 
some of you will be at a considerable distance from me when I am 
speaking of the minute arrangement and function of parts, that I 
shall be able to impress them upon your minds, so that you will 
fully understand all to which l shall endeavour to draw your 
attention. But you should go from this to the dissecting-room ; 
you will there have the subject before you, and you will learn 
for yourselves. In this pursuit you will be assisted by a very 
able coadjutor of mine, — bv one for whom I have a great respect 
