Observations on the office of a faithful teacher and on the duty of the attentive student of medicine, delivered as an introductory lecture to the institutions of medicine in the University of Edinburgh, on the 29th of October 1823 / by Andrew Duncan.

  • Duncan, Andrew, 1744-1828.
Date:
1823
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the office of a faithful teacher and on the duty of the attentive student of medicine, delivered as an introductory lecture to the institutions of medicine in the University of Edinburgh, on the 29th of October 1823 / by Andrew Duncan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    cess, it is their duty to communicate to their hearers any conjectures which are supported by probable arguments. To these conjectures, which may in some degree be considered as the children of his own invention, it may reasonably be con- cluded that any Lecturer will have a fond par- tiality ; and when he treats of these subjects, even the most rigid critic can hardly refuse some in- dulgence to the enthusiasm of the Teacher. Still, however, it is his duty to deliver conclusions re- specting his own hypotheses with becoming dif- fidence. Even when he is himself most satisfied respecting the truth of his conjectures, he should still recollect, that he is not only a party judge, but that he knows not what objections may be started against them by others. He will indeed naturally wish, by endeavour- ing to remove such objections as have been stated to him, to give as full conviction as he can of his favourite opinions. But he ought not to forget that these are not the only subjects which it is his duty to teach : And that in the wide extended field which every branch of the medical science affords, much time should not be wasted on a few particulars. Nothing, therefore, is of more conse- b 2