Some observations on medical education / by Andrew Wood.

Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some observations on medical education / by Andrew Wood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    of that which at present distracts it and interferes with that atten- tion to his strictly professional studies which their importance demands, he will be able to apply the whole powers of his mind to those studies, and certainly not the less effectively, because of his preliminary training and the large stock of information which he has thereby acquired. In this place it may not be irrelevant to say a few words as to what should be embraced in the preliminary education of those intended for the medical profession. In our days it is one great feature of educational progress, that entrance is ban-ed against the admission of illiterate men into all professions, whether civil or military. Too long the medical profession, which ought, par excel- lence, to be a learned profession, has been accessible to men of very rude and imperfect education. A man might even become doctor though in no measure doctus: a very puny test, in the shape of the translation of a passage from some Latin author (and that not even a classical author), was till recently all that used to be required even in some of our Scottish universities. All that is now changed. Already the new regulations of our universities and colleges are acting on the lower schools of the country, and awakening teachers and scholars to the necessity of a systematic liberal education (in the best sense of the term), in order to admission into the learned professions, including medicine amongst the rest; and erelong the medical profes- sion will, as it ought, include none but those who have higher claims than that merely of the courtesy of a past age, to the title of learned. In laying down a minimum of preliminary requirements, it seems to me that a well-marked and decided distinction should be established between the requirements essential for those who are candidates for the higher honours of the profession, as the university degrees ought to be and those who are candidates for a simple hcense to practise. This distinction cannot very well lie in the professional curriculum, seeing that in whatever station a man is to practise, he must know thoroughly all the branches of his profession, after having gone throu-h as complete a course of study and as thorough a testing on professional matters as possible. Whilst, therefore, it might very well be laid down, that the higher qualifications should embrace one or more additional years of professional study, the chief di.tniction ought to be made, as, indeed, it can only rightly be made, m the amount of preliminary education and testing. Ihe doctor snould certainly not only be absolutely doctus, but also relatively doctxor, than the man who has not gained the higher title, else why is he specially registered doctor? why, as such, does he claim precedence f