Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
| No. VIII. | OCTOBER, 1880. | Vol. I. |
The subjects rightly embraced in a Medical education,and the degree and manner in which those subjects shouldbe respectively studied, have been freely discussed inmany places during the last few weeks. Dr. MichaelFoster in an “Address in Physiology,”[1] of unsurpassedinterest, contends without contradiction that no medicalsubject—now that the entrance upon medical studies ispreceded by a tested preliminary education—need bestudied as heretofore as a mere mental training, andproposes that topographical anatomy, which has hithertobeen so studied, should, to a certain extent, give way infavour of a more complete knowledge of physiology. Theaddress must, and no doubt will, be read by all interestedin medical education, whether general or special. Thefollowing quotation will answer our present purpose:—
1. Address in Physiology, delivered at the Annual Meeting of theBritish Medical Association, 1880.—Published in British Medical Journal,August 21st, 1880.
“I think I am not overstating the case when I say that, in the twoyears (or less than two years) which the medical student devotes tostudies other than clinical, 60 or 70 per cent. of his time—in somecases even more—is spent on the study of topographical anatomy. Thatstudy may be regarded in two lights—as a discipline, and as practicaluseful knowledge. The late Dr. Parkes, in a remarkable introductory466address which he delivered at University College, London, many yearsago, insisted most strongly that its value as a discipline was far higherand more precious than its direct utility; and I imagine that the moreone reflects on the matter, the more clearly this will appear. Thedetails of topographical anatomy have this peculiar feature, that, thoughthey can only be learnt with infinite pains and labour, unlike otherthings hard to learn, they vanish and flee away with the greatest ease.I would confidently appeal to my audience of practical men, how muchof the huge mass of minute facts, which in their youth they gatheredwith so much toil, remained fresh in their minds two years after theypassed the portals of the College; and how much now remains to thembeyond a general view of the parts of the human frame, and a somewhatmore special knowledge of particular regions, their acquaintance withwhich has been maintained by more or less frequent operations. I wouldconfidently ask them what is the ratio, in terms of money or any othervalue, which the time spent in those early anatomical struggles—sayover the details of the forearm—bears to the amount of that knowledgeremaining after twenty, or ten, or even five years of active practice, orto the actual use to which that knowledge has been put.
“No, it is as a discipline, and not for its practical utility, that anatomyhas been so useful; and th