Medical education : a discourse delivered at the Meath Hospital / by William Stokes.

  • Stokes, William, 1804-1878.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical education : a discourse delivered at the Meath Hospital / by William Stokes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    MEDICAL EDUCATION. schools, and increase the numbers attending in their me- dical classes, by lowering the degree in Medicine below that in Divinity or in Law; but have insisted as a condi- tion for that degree, not alone on the fulfilment of a medi- cal curriculum, but also that the candidate should take his education in arts, and be a University man in the full sense of the term. They have taken a right view of the first ob- jects of their foundation, which are the general mental culture and the moral training of all over whom their powers may extend. With them, the general culture has been the leading object, and has been fostered and valued, first, for its own sake, and next, as giving the only safe ground for such special instruction as may be requisite for this or that calling.* But let us look at recent events, and see how far they are indicative of a better state of things. It is significant, as o o' * In the following extracts from the work of a late writer, the nature and advantages of an University education are so wisely and so temperately set forth, that I gladly insert them. Let us hope that those who still advocate the purely special education will in time admit their value:— “ Let us take 1 useful’ to mean, not what is simply good, but what tends to good, or is the instrument of good; and in this sense also, Gentlemen, I will show you how a liberal education is truly and fully a useful, though it be not a professional education. 1 Good,’ indeed, means one thing, and * useful’ means ano- ther ; but I lay it down as a principle, which will save us a great deal of anxiety, that, though the useful is not always good, the good is always useful. Good is not only good, but reproductive of good; this is one of its attributes; nothing is excellent, beautiful, perfect, desirable for its own sake, but it overflows, and spreads the likeness of itself all around itself. Good is prolific; it is not only good to the eye, but to the taste; it not only attracts us, but it communicates it- self ; it excites first our admiration and love, then our desire and our gratitude, and that, in proportion to its intenseness and fulness in particular instances. A great good will impart great good. If, then, the intellect is so excellent a por- tion of us, and its cultivation so excellent, it is not only beautiful, perfect, admi- rable, and noble in itself, but in a true and high sense it must be useful to the pos- sessor and to all around him; not useful in any low, mechanical, mercantile