AEMY MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS 387 
papers, are of their kind far better tests of the intellect 
expended in the attainment of the subject than our Medical 
Examinations are. 
The outcome of his ideas on these examinations is summed 
up in a subsequent letter to Sir C. Lyell : 
October 2G, 1869. 
I was one of the four who, at the request of Sir C. Wood, 
originated the system of competitive examinations for the 
Medical Officers of the Indian Army, which produced most 
extensive and important reforms in the Medical Schools 
(after they had abused us well for our pains !) ; the system 
was extended thereafter to the British Army, and now to 
the Navy, for twelve years I examined twice a year^ in all 
branches of Science ! I did not retire till I was appointed 
Director here, when the fees of the Examiners were imme- 
diately doubled ! — post hoc — I cannot say froyter hoc. 
It was a very arduous and poorly paid duty. Paget, 
Busk, and Parkes ^ were my coadjutors. 
For the next six years the letters contain constant refer- 
ences to these examinations. They meant a bout of hard work 
in January and July, with, say, 600 foolscap sheets to 
look through as a first step. Experience showed the frequent 
lack of good preliminary teaching and of any single system 
of teaching. In 1855 we read of twenty-eight candidates for 
thirty places, of whom six were ploughed, ' they were ex- 
cessively badly taught, in Botany especially ' ; in 1857, forty- 
three men for twenty-two places, again showing much ignor- 
ance, while in 1858 the men are on the whole better. But he 
was sometimes in despair over the answers given, and writes 
to Harvey at Dublin, July 14, 1859 : 
. I am examining at India House and ask a man what the 
value of Duramen is in contrast to Alburnum, and he answers 
that Policemen's batons are made of it ! Guess his country. 
1 Edmund Alexander Parkes (1819-76) was the first organiser of the 
Army Medical School, and the founder of the science of modern hygiene, 
especially military hygiene. As an army surgeon he served in India for three 
years, returning to London in 1845, and became Professor of Clinical Medicine 
at University College in 1849. In teaching and in physiological research 
he was equally distinguished. 
