120 
ON LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
education. Edward Forbes justly remarks:—“ We must counteract the natural tendency 
of purely professional studies—the tendency to limit the range of mental vision. We 
can do this most beneficially through the collateral sciences, which are sufficiently allied 
to the professional ones to prevent an undue dissipation of the student’s thoughts, and, 
at the same time, are sufficiently different to give them a wider sphere of action. It is 
in this point of view that we should regard the natural-history sciences as branches of 
medical education. For my own part,” continues Forbes, “ after much intercourse with 
medical men, who have studied at many seats of professional education,—some collegiate, 
some exclusively professional,—I have no hesitation in saying that, as a rule, the former 
had the intellectual advantage. There are noble and notable exceptions, old and young, 
but the rule is true in the main. The man who has studied iu a seat of learning, such 
as a university, has a wider range of sympathies, a more philosophical tone of mind, and 
a higher estimate of the objects of intellectual ambition, than his fellow-practitioner, 
who, from his youth upwards, has concentrated his thoughts upon the contractedly pro¬ 
fessional subjects of a hospital school. I will not believe that the practitioner of medi¬ 
cine, any more than the clergyman or the lawyer, or the soldier or the merchant, is 
wiser or better able to treat the offices of his calling because his mind takes no note of 
subjects beyond the range of his professional pursuit. It is a great pleasure, both to 
patient and neighbour, to find in our doctor an enlightened friend—one who, whilst he 
does his duty ably and kindly, has a sympathy and an acquaintance with science, litera¬ 
ture, or art.” 
Those who magnify the hospital work so as to throw discredit on preliminary literary 
and scientific study, are doing great harm to students of medicine. No one who knows 
the duties of a physician or surgeon will ever think of underrating the value of clinical 
instruction in hospitals; but, at the same time, no one who looks at the true position of 
medicine as a science, and of doctors as men of science belonging to a liberal profession, 
will disparage those studies which, when taken in proper time, are so well fitted to en¬ 
large the mind, to call forth its powers, and give it the means of grappling successfully 
with the various intricate questions in connection with bodily and mental diseases which 
are constantly coming under the notice of the medical man. 
A university is not merely a Board authorized to examine students and grant degrees 
it is an educational institution, intended to exercise a surveillance over the studies of 
youth ; to train their minds for the proper acquisition of knowledge; and to direct their 
energies in such a way as to insure that mental culture which will fit them for all the 
duties of life. As food must be properly supplied to the body in order that it nmy be 
duly nourished, so must food be supplied to the mind. It must be given in proper quan¬ 
tity and at proper intervals. The mind must be able to digest what is given, and time 
must be allowed for this. The attempt to cram too much into the mind will fail in 
giving due mental strength ; and the administration of nourishment in a fitful and irre¬ 
gular manner will not conduce to proper mental culture. As in the body, so in the mind, 
quality and quantity must be regulated. The infant, the young man, and the old man, 
require different kinds of diet, both corporeal and mental. Students who rush at once 
into what is called the practical work of medicine, and do not contemplate anything 
beyond the walls of an hospital, may become what some have called rough-and-ready 
practitioners; but, wanting due mental cultivation, and the advantages of a liberal edu¬ 
cation, they cannot be expected to advance the science of medicine, and to raise the tone 
of the society in which they mingle. Enlarge as much as you please the strictly pro¬ 
fessional acquirements of the physician and surgeon, but never let them neglect those 
Uterce humaniores which emolliuni mores , nec sinunt esseferos, and that knowledge of the 
natural sciences which makes them valuable members of society. 
There can be no doubt, that every one entering upon a learned profession, such as 
that of medicine, ought to have in the first place a certain amount of literary education. 
The study of languages, both ancient and modern, of the mathematical sciences, and of 
mental philosophy, should precede in all cases the professional curriculum. 
“ We must not overlook,” as our Lord Rector has remarked, “that kind of training in 
which the subjects learned have for their chief aim, not to inure the hand (so to speak) to 
the use of its tools in some particular art, but to operate on the mind itself, and by making 
it flexible, manifold, and strong, to endow it with a general aptitude for the duties and 
energies of life.” Dr. Hook has well said, “ By a university education we mean a liberal 
education ; and by a liberal education we mean a non-professional education,—an educa- 
