The object and order of medical studies / by John Hughes Bennett, M.D.

  • Bennett, John Hughes, 1812-1875.
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The object and order of medical studies / by John Hughes Bennett, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    Botany is, fortunately, taught at such an liour that it cannot in- terfere with any of the essential branches of a medical education ; but not so with regard to Natural History. This has recently been professed at an hour when it materially interferes with clinical in- struction in the hospital. If, indeed, the student follows the course during the first or even the second year of his studies, as he ought to do, this perhaps is not so great an evil; but when, as too fre- quently happens, an advanced student from other schools, where no Natural History is required, finds himself compelled by the regula- tions of the University to attend this class, and is thereby prevented from obtaining that precious and essential knowledge which he can only acquire in an hospital, the injury to medical education is most flagrant, and should certainly not be tolerated. I have known gen- tlemen from other schools, nay, even practitioners advanced in life, who at a great sacrifice have spent one year in this University to qualify themselves for a degree, been obliged to leave the bedside of the sick, suspend the taking of notes and. the study of diseases, forego the possibility of seeing a single post-mortem examination during an entire session,—and all this because it has been deter- mined that Natural History, in which perhaps he takes little inte- rest, shall be learned at an hour when hospital instruction is in truth most essential. If this system be continued, attendance on Natural History becomes an evil rather than a benefit. I think every medi- cal student is the better for having had his attention directed to Natural History, and to the general truths of Meteorology, Geology, and Zoology. But if this is only to be obtained by giving up attend- ance on an hospital, and the practical acquaintance with Morbid Anatomy in the dead-room, such knowledge is acquired at too great a sacrifice. During the second summer, also, he should commence, if he have not previously done so, attendance on the hospital; enter the course of Clinical Surgery; once more pursue Practical or Analytical Che- mistry in the laboratory; and, if he can, occupy some hours in dis- section, of which it is impossible to have too much, as thereby he will keep up his knowledge of Anatomy. We now arrive at the third year in medical education, and at what may be called the third essential step in the student's onward progress. This consists in directing his chief attention to hospital practice. Many Scotch students, indeed, first enter an hospital at this time; but we cannot too urgently advise them to take out a perpetual ticket for hospital attendance at the commencement of their studies. Not that during the first two years the tyro should make it a principal subject of attention, or allow it to interfere with his practical studies in Anatomy or Chemistry ; but that he may have the right of entering the wards, of habituating himself to the sight of disease, of seeing important operations, and so gradually and insensibly preparing himself for the future. It is at the com-