PATHOLOGY. 
56 
urgical apparatus of an Englifli medical officer, and at 
the commoneft operations, proved the lamentable ftate 
of the whole profeffion in Portugal. 
“The people in general, as well as the medical prac¬ 
titioner, are in perpetual terror of infeftion ; for they are 
wholly ignorant of its nature, and the molt common ways 
of preventing it. Even to this day the Portuguefe che~ 
riffian invincible prejudice againft the ufe of mercury, in 
cafes where we know of no other remedy to check the pro- 
grefs of difeafe. Their prejudice againft vaccination was 
equally ftrong; but, by the interference of the legifla- 
ture, it has been introduced; and the arrival of vaccine 
matter from England is occafionally announced in the 
Gazette, and inoculation performed gratuitoufly.” 
In viewing the ftate of medicine in Germany, we 
have much to admire ; for, w'hether we confider the 
Germans as minute anatomifts, patient inveftigators of 
difeafed function, or as furgical operators, they will de- 
ferve high encomium. In many grand pathological 
points, we difcover a great fimilarity between their opi¬ 
nions and our own. And this coincidence is the more 
fatisfaftory, becaufe it occurred at a period when the 
horrors of war prevented a free communication with the 
continent. We perhaps cannot give a better account of 
the German medical doftrines than by a ffiort hiftory of 
the prefent ftate of their numerous univerfities, the molt 
diftinguiffied profelfors attached to them, and their re- 
fpeftive doctrines. 
It is well obferved, by an amnfing modern writer, (An 
Autumn near the Rhine, 181S.) that nothing can be 
imagined more ftriking than the contraft between an 
Engliffi and a German univerfity. “In the former, the 
Gothic buildings, the magnificent colleges, the noble 
libraries, the chapels, the retired walks, the fcholaltic 
grace of thecoftume, are all fo many interefting indica¬ 
tions of the antiquity, the munificence, and the dignity, 
of the inlfitution. But the conftitution of a German 
univerfity has neceflarily no monument of architecture, 
no appendage of dignity, fcarcely any decent building 
belonging to it. The Univerfitat-Gebaude, or public 
buildings, containing the library and the lefture-rooms 
of the profelfors, barely come under this laft defcription. 
Indeed, in moft univerfities, the leftures are delivered at 
the profelfors’ houfes; the univerfity being, in faft, only 
a place where there is a good library and leftures deli¬ 
vered to thofe who are willing to attend them.” 
There were, at one time, between thirty and forty 
univerfities in Germany. The events of the laft twenty 
years have confiderably diminifhed that number. Viewed 
as literary inftitutions, the Proteftant Univerfities, which 
chiefly occupy the north of Germany, are undoubtedly 
fuperior to the Catholic Schools; and, in the words of 
Madame de Stael, “toute la gloire literaire de l’Alle- 
magne tientaces inftitutions.” Wefhall therefore begin 
with them ; and, without enumerating all, it will be 
fufficient for us to ftate that the molt celebrated are 
Gottingen, Halle, Berlin, Jena, Leipfic, and Heidelberg. 
They are divided into four faculties; Divinity, Jurif- 
prudence, Medicine, and Philofophy. Each department 
has feveral profelfors. The prince of the country in 
which the univerfity is fituated, is nominally the reftor; 
while a pro-reftor, chofen annually from among the pro- 
feftors, exercil’es all the powers and privileges of head of 
the univerfity. The profelfors are appointed by the 
crown, and receive a final 1 annual falary. Their prin¬ 
cipal emolument is, however, derived from the ftudents 
w ho attend their leftures, and from their literary labours. 
Perhaps, no clafs of men concentrates within itfelf fo 
much talent, indultry, and devotion to fcience, as the 
German profelfors. The welfare and profp.erity of an 
univerfity are generally of fo much confequence to the 
ftate in which it is fituated, and that profperity depends 
fo entirely on the popularity of its profelfors, that they 
t.re always felefted from among thole who have by their 
talents and induftry rendered themfelves confpicuous in 
their refpeftive branches of ftudy. 
The conftitution of the German univerfities would at 
firft fight appear very favourable to the ftudents. By de¬ 
crees, even more ancient than the Reformation, thefe 
conftitute a free body in the ftate ; and, except in criminal 
cafes of great magnitude, the ordinary police of the 
country has no power either of punilhment or control. 
They are in faft only fubjeft, if fubjeft it can be called, 
to the Univerfity Police, confiding of one or two old 
men afting under the orders of the pro-reftor. There is 
no gradation of rank or birth, diilinftions of country 
are profeffedly abandoned, and poor and rich are on the 
fame foundation, merit being the foie diftinftion. So 
far all is well; but the evils which fpring out of this fyf- 
tem counteraft many of the advantages. In Germany 
every one goes to the univerfity. To praftife medicine, 
a regular univerfity-education is indifpenfable; while 
thofe deftined for the army or the law muft qualify them¬ 
felves by two years’ refidence at fome univerfity. They 
generally therefore enter young, and at 16 or 17 are 
transferred from the control and difcipline of the pa¬ 
rental houfe to a ftate of the moft unbounded licence. 
No peculiarity of drefs is enjoined by the univerfity; 
but a ftudent is known all over Germany by his loofe 
frock, hair flowing down his flioulders, and cap bearing 
the colour and emblem of the country of which he is a 
native. The ftudents have a peculiar and fecret alfo- 
ciation, known by the name of Landmahfchaften ; that is 
to fay, the natives of each country unite themfelves into 
a fociety, and bind themfelves to obferve all the laws and 
enaftments which may emanate from it. The particular 
objefts which thefe focieties have in view are the prefer- 
vation of the ftudents’ rights and privileges, the protec¬ 
tion of their weaker countrymen, and the regulation of 
duds, one of the moft important confiderations of a 
German ftudent. Thefe. focieties are prohibited by law, 
but fanftioned by cuftom. 
It is long lince enlightened obfervers have feen and 
regretted, that in more than one refpeft thefe inftitutions 
have departed from their primitive charafter, and the 
fpirit in which their illuftrious founders created them. 
Carried away by the torrent of the age, many academic 
profelfors havemiftaken the realobjeft of the univerfities, 
and have given them an arbitrary and frequently per¬ 
nicious direction. Inftead of forming the ftudents en- 
trufted to their care for the fituations they were deftined 
to occupy in the ftate, they have purfued the phantom of 
a cofmopolitic education, have filled with dangerous po¬ 
litical reveries minds equally accellible to truth and error ; 
and have infpired them, if not with hoftile difpofitions, 
at leaft with a decided averfion for all that they fee efta- 
blifhed around them. The refult has proved as detri¬ 
mental to the interefts of the ftate as to thofe of the riling 
generation ; it has created in the latter the pride of ima¬ 
ginary perfeftion, and the pretenfion of re-eftabli(hing 
locial order on the bafis of fome imprafticable fyltem : 
and many young men who werefent to learn have con- 
ftituted themfelves the preceptors and reformers of their 
country. This dangerous change did not elcape the 
notice of the governments : they had long obferved and 
deplored it; yet their anxiety to refpeft the freedom of 
inftruftion, fo long as it did not direftly compromife pub-* 
lie order, deterred them from promptly oppofing the pro- 
grefs of evil by efficacious remedies. But at the prefent 
time, when, under the benign influence of general peace, 
and the aufpices of princes fincerely engaged in fecuring 
future happinefs to their people, we were authorized in 
fuppofing that the univerfities would again be placed 
within thofe boundaries in which they had formerly fo 
honourably ferved the caufe of their country and of hu¬ 
manity ; the moft hoftile attacks againft the principles on 
which repofe the peace and fecurity of Germany have if- 
fued from thofe very univerfities 5 for, either through 
exceffive 
