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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    quired ; but either was no investigation made as to the general knowledge of the candidate, what it was, or by whom given, or the testing of his knowledge of letters was of the most shadowy kind, the object being rather to fulfil a form, than to enforce education. But, further, when any of these corporations or colleges became connected with, or largely dependent on a school of medicine, the evil was increased; and the student was taught, not only in private, but in public lectures, that he should make his special training the great object. He was taught to neglect the larger culture of his mind, and the lower aim was ever kept before him. This state of things, too, was not confined to the purely medical cor- porations; for it became the practice, even of Universities, to wive degrees on an education in medicine, in which the study of arts was virtually ignored. No wonder that, in course of time, the claims of medicine to be considered as one of the learned professions were lowered—no wonder that the confidence of the public in it was so shaken that, in the Medical Act, clauses, framed to protect error and quack- ery were introduced, and are now the law of the land. Now, all men should raise their voices against the conti- nuance of this state of things, and more especially those who are members of the profession itself; for it is plain that, un- less all this be changed, unless this cancer be eradicated, the time will come when we shall be shamed by seeing the more difficult problems of medicine attempted and solved by men outside the profession, men of large and liberal education, who will succeed in doing that which its proper members were unable to perform.* * How opposite has been the system of our medical corporations to the teach- ing of Lord Bacon! See his concluding words on the errors which mar the pro- gress and the credit of learning :— “ But the greatest error of all the rest is the mistaking or misplacing of the