Prospectus of the St. Mary's Hospital Medical School, with addresses by the Archbishop of York, Professor Owen, D.C.I., F.R.S., and Professor Huxley, F.R.S., on medical education.

  • St. Mary's Hospital Medical School (London)
Date:
[©1866?]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Prospectus of the St. Mary's Hospital Medical School, with addresses by the Archbishop of York, Professor Owen, D.C.I., F.R.S., and Professor Huxley, F.R.S., on medical education. 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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    or in other word8, of the influence of medicaments upon the condition of the parts of the body, and he appHes them in such a manner as to diminish the obstacles which arise from the contraction of the muscles. In other words he makes use of the information he has acquired of the physical sciences Anatomy, Physiology, and Therapeutics, to serve as the basis of a series of deductions by the help of which the internal condition of the injured part becomes visible to the mind's eye. He ki ows, in virtue of these deductions, on what the bone is resting, what it is touching, what mischief it is doing, what mean.s he ought to apply in order to bring the bone back into its primitive place, and what will be the effect of eveiy measure which he applies for that purpose. In other words, in the case which I have selected, the scientific Surgeon knows precisely the character of the injury ; and he knows precisely the kind of operation which he should perform to remedy that injury; and so far as this particular case is concerned, we may say that scientific Medicine has here attained its perfection—that is to say, the Practitioner may know the whole conditions of the lesion; and he may know exactly what he ought to do to restore the injured part to its healthy condition. And that is exactly the difference between the empiric and scientific man—that the empiric knows in a coarse, blind sort of way, —working in the dark on the doctrine of chances—that if he does certain things it is very likely certain results will follow. The scientific man, on the other hand, makes use of the data of physical science for the purpose of reasoning out the exact conditions of the case which he has before him, and for the purpose of applying the precise measures which are adapted to meet that case. I trust it is not necessary for me to use any argument to show you that it is this latter condition of mind to which the scientific Physician or Surgeon must strive, and that the labours of your teachers here are as so much lost if they have not carried you some steps towards that end. Now, having this conception of what is meant by scientific Medicine before us, let us consider what has to be done before Medicine will reach this desirable condition. For although it may be possible to adduce instances of what I should call perfect Medical science—that is to say where you have a complete knowledge of the lesion, and a complete knowledge of the conditions required for the repair of that lesion—yet I need not tell you that these chiefly occur in Surgical practice, and are rarely presented to the Physician; and that in the great majority of purely Medical cases we have unfortunately, no such complete knowledge either of the lesion which has taken place, or of the steps which should be taken to restore health. In the great majority—I speak under correction here, but I do not think I shall be far wrong—in the great majority of cases the modern Physician, beneficent as his efforts are, great as his skill, and unremittiug as his attention may be, yet as compared with that which is to be hoped for, and what we may fairly expect one day to attain, it must be confessed is still very much in the condition of the bone-setter. You know there is a wicked and libellous old story—I think some Frenchman invented it—in which it is said, by way of illustration of Medical practice, that in a diseased person Nature and the disease are as two men fighting; while the Doctor is a blind man, who comes with a big club and hits hard, sometimes hitting the disease, and sometimes hitting Nature. Now, there was a time when that description of Medical practice, I fear was not libellous, but the time has long since passed by when it could have any strict application, and it is not the fault of the cultivators of Medical science if it continues to have any sort of application. But, if I might modify this story and bring it more into accordance with the present state of things, I should say that, in these days, the Physician is not blind; but, on the contrary, is remarkably sharp- sighted, acute, and painstaking; but that he finds himself in a very dim twilight, and having ascertained that the light is very uncertain and very apt to vary, he rather, as a conscientious person, abstains from using his club, and as far as possible confines himself to the position which, if I may say so without offence to the ladies here, is known as tliat of a judicious bottle- holder, ready to pick up nature whenever she gets adrift, and bring her up to