138 
M. JOSIAH ROBERTS. 
wide field of nature for facts, he will at least examine the proofs of them in the 
museums, if at hand.” (Watts, 8). 
The desirability of favorably impressing those who visit a college, is a matter 
of no small importance. If favorable impressions are created and carried away, 
they will not only add to the renown of the institution, but will be of material 
value by swelling the number of students and thus increasing its financial re¬ 
sources. This is a matter of vital importance to all medical colleges, especially 
those that have to depend almost exclusively for their support upon the income 
derived from student patronage. 
Although I have suggested the financial advantages which are to be gained 
by a well arranged museum in connection with a medical college, I would 
not be understood as recommending that a medical museum should in any way 
partake of the nature of an “advertising bazaar.” This would be a very poor means 
of attempting to make a favorable impression upon the public mind, because it 
is not so much the objects themselves which interest, as it is the arrangement of 
them and the manifest extent of scientific knowledge which they display. 
2. Data, consisting of normal and pathological specimens, are here preserved 
for future reference. 
Thus far, for the most part, scientific men of all classes and generations have 
shown too great a willingness to make generalizations upon insufficient data. 
Especially has this been and now is the case with medical men. This is a 
gross error and one which is materially retarding the growth of our profession. 
Experience has taught that all advancement in knowledge depends primarily 
upon our having facts from which to reason. If we have the evidence before us, 
the probabilities of arriving at accurate conclusions are materially enhanced. 
This was insisted upon two thousand years ago by Aristotle, the representa¬ 
tive of the learning of antiquity in natural science. He says: 
“The procedure of philosophy, is that of all other sciences; we must first 
collect facts and get a knowledge of the things which are the subject of them; 
not the mass of facts at once, but each fact for itself is to be first examined and 
the conclusion thence drawn. Having the facts, it is our subsequent business to 
establish their connections.” (3.) 
Prof. W. H. Flower, F.R S., # writes in a letter to Nature, (2, 11, 61): 
“We are only beginning to form an idea of the enormous number of specimens 
actually required to enable us to rest our generalizations relating to most zoologi¬ 
cal problems upon a firm basis, and of the importance of keeping these specimens 
in such a condition, and so placed, that they can be examined with the greatest 
facility.” 
Although the above is intended to emphasize the importance of realizing 
that the progress of science is dependent upon the accumulation of facts, I 
would not be understood as conveying the idea that science is advanced much, if 
an y, by the mere accumulation of them. The point I wish to enforce here, is 
the necessity of amassing a sufficient amount of accessible material to rest our 
conclusions upon a firm basis. 
3. Museum specimens can be used advantageously to illustrate didactic and 
clinical lectures. 
* Conservator of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. 
