Observations on the admission of medical pupils to the wards of Bethlem Hospital, for the purposes of studying mental diseases / [John Webster].

  • Webster, John, 1795-1876.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the admission of medical pupils to the wards of Bethlem Hospital, for the purposes of studying mental diseases / [John Webster]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    that notwithstanding all the zeal, the student might otherwise have, he would find it almost impossible to attain his object, unless through personal favour, or at a very great expense; neither of which alternatives, are desirable means for ac¬ quiring knowledge, in a liberal profession. Compared with France and Germany, the present state of medical education in England, as regards insanity, is so far behind, that many steps must be made in advance, ere it can be considered as on a par with either of these countries; and, on looking at the marked progress, most branches of medical science has made in this country, since the com¬ mencement of the nineteenth century, it must be confessed, that the state of our knowledge of mental diseases, has not kept pace with other departments, and until very recently, was unworthy the age in which we live. Exceptions, undoubtedly, exist to this general description; but unless greater facilities are afforded for studying insanity, it will be difficult to remove this defect in the education, of the ma¬ jority of English medical practitioners. In support of the opinion j ust stated, regarding the existing difficulties attending the proper mode of studying mental dis¬ eases, and the importance to the entire profession, of making some alteration in the present system, I can scarcely pro¬ duce stronger evidence, than the following judicious remarks of Sir William Ellis, the late resident physician of the County Asylum at Hanwell, who says in a recent publica¬ tion, “ It is perfectly inconsistent with common sense to suppose, that a man shall intuitively know how to treat insanity. We have seen, that although in the greater num¬ ber of cases it is attended with the same general result, yet it assumes most varied forms, and great care and discrimi¬ nation are required in the treatment; indeed, it is univer¬ sally acknowledged to be a most difficult and mysterious, disease, and yet it is almost the only one on which «the medical student receives no particular instruction. In his attendance on the hospitals, he will, in all probability, have met with almost every other variety of disease which afflicts human nature; at all events, his lectures will have supplied him with some information as to their treatment; but I be¬ lieve that my friend and colleague, Dr. (now Sir Alexander) Morison, of Cavendish Square, is the only lecturer in Lon¬ don expressly on insanity.— Indeed, excepting as being in- cidently touched upon in the lectures on forensic medicine, it appears almost entirely neglected in the course of a medi¬ cal education; and, as the subject does not form a blanch