Introductory lecture, delivered at Netley, on commencing the thirty-sixth session of the Army Medical School, 1st April, 1878 / by T. Longmore.

  • Longmore, Sir Thomas, 1816-1895.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory lecture, delivered at Netley, on commencing the thirty-sixth session of the Army Medical School, 1st April, 1878 / by T. Longmore. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    ments is the system of unity of direction, descending in regular gradations from a supreme head downwards; or, regarding the subject from below, the system of strict subordination in regular succession from the base upwards to the apex. By this arrange- ment a force and consistency are obtained, which may be likened to the power gained by the shape of the wedge in mechanics—a form without which, as you well know, the same mass of matter employed under otherwise like conditions would be comparatively inert. Unless the practical advantages of this system, in all its bearings, are comprehended, and its obligations cheerfully submitted to, frequent obstructions in the discharge of duty, and a vexatious loss of time to all concerned, must result. There are, no doubt, some special difficulties in the way of those who pass into the military services through this School falling into habits of subordination as a simple matter of routine. Before you come to it, you must have attained an age considerably in advance of most of those who enter other branches of the military service. You bring your profession with you; you are not taught it in military or naval institutions, as some others learn theirs, where the acquirement of habits of military discipline takes place concurrently with the acquisition of their profession. Students of medicine, in most instances, are left particularly free from restraint—to an extent, indeed, which, as you well know, exposes those concerned to many dangers, and un- happily in some instances leads to great moral and social loss. Coming from this independent way of life, habituated to it for several years, and suddenly placed in an establishment where all are bound by strict rules, a certain amount of irksomeness is not unlikely to be felt, and for those circumstances allowance is always readily made. Those who constituted this School well considered the subject, and, instead of placing you at once without any pre- paration under the full rigours of military discipline, they made your period of stay at the School one of provisional training and probation,—reserving the conferring of commissions upon you until the period of probation had passed. The wisdom of the arrange- ment, under your special circumstances, has been proved by the little difficulty that has been experienced in preserving good order ever since the School has been established. While in some other institutions, notwithstanding the presence of officers specially appointed for the sole purpose of maintaining discipline, disturbances