Observations on the system of teaching clinical medicine in the University of Edinburgh; with suggestions for its improvement / [Sir James Clark].

  • Clark, James, Sir, 1788-1870.
Date:
[1827]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the system of teaching clinical medicine in the University of Edinburgh; with suggestions for its improvement / [Sir James Clark]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    36/40 (page 28)
    practise; a period which we have seen to amount in some countries to two years. I have now. Gentlemen, finished the observa¬ tions which I have deemed it my duty to lay before you, on a very important branch of medical educa¬ tion ; but though I have confined myself to the subject of clinical medicine, I am far from think¬ ing that it is the only part of the medical course which requires improvement I would therefore, in common with every member of the profession who has its real interests at heart, beseech you to consider well before the final arrangements are made—to avail yourselves, to the full extent, of the fair opportunity which is now afforded, of render- * While the system of medical education is under consider¬ ation, I beg to express a hope that some measures may be adopted for the better instruction of a class of practitioners who have, in Scotland, very often the sole charge of many valuable lives, and that under circumstances in which their ignorance is frequently the cause of the most fatal consequences. I allude to the midwives, whose ignorance (my information comes chiefly from the northern parts of the country) is notorious. This appears to me to form a legitimate subject of inquiry on the present occasion, and, I feel assured, requires only to be men¬ tioned to receive the attention which it so loudly calls for. In many parts of the continent, the practitioners of this class are greatly superior to those, I believe, in any part of Great Britain, because their instruction is much more attended to.