INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
785 
if you start with a conviction of the essential importance of the 
mere manual work, and if under the impression that the 
practice is the highest part of your profession and the 
science the lowest,—if under this idea you neglect the ac¬ 
quirement of the knowledge which you can obtain now or 
never (for mind, having once passed your period of pupilage, 
there is no longer a hope of your devoting enough attention 
to enable you to acquire the principles of science,) you may 
depend upon it, although time will give you the necessary 
skill, it will never give you the necessary knowledge. That 
must be acquired by exclusive devotion to it for the time being, 
and it is only during the period which you are required to 
remain at the college as pupils that you will have an oppor¬ 
tunity of laying a good foundation, by acquiring the principles 
of science, and emphatically, by learning how to learn, for 
that is all you can possibly hope to do during the very short 
period which you are required to spend here. 
This being the case, what is the work which you have 
placed before you? It comprises the sciences, as they are 
termed, of anatomy, physiology, chemistry, botany, materia 
medica, pathology, therapeutics, in addition to such practical 
duties of your profession as you must necessarily acquire 
even before you can commence practice. “ A goodly 
list,” you will say; rather discouraging probably to the 
newly entered student. But let me reassure you on this 
point. All the difficulties which present themselves to your 
notice at the outset, you will find vanish one after the other 
as you go quietly on your way, never concerning yourself 
about the ultimate result, but content to do the work that is 
set before you to-day and trusting to opportunities to enable 
you to do the larger amount of work which wfill come before 
you to-morrow. 
The science of anatomy will attract your attention first. 
This, literally, is the work of cutting up, and if you imagine 
that you can acquire the knowledge of anatomy in any other 
way than by the use of your scalpel and forceps, abandon 
the idea at once—it is not to be done. Your readings on the 
subject are simply waste of time, at least in the beginning. 
The work must be done in the dissecting-room, and by the 
aid of your knives you must trace out the tissues, the struc¬ 
tures of the animal body, if you have any desire to acquire 
a practical acquaintance with them. No intellectual quali¬ 
fications are necessary for this mere mechanical work of 
tracing out what obviously lies before you. In this depart¬ 
ment of your studies you will have the advantage of the 
lectures of Professor Pritchard, and you will have the assist* 
