Individualism : an introductory address delivered before the Medical Society of King's College, London, on the 16th of October, 1873 / by John Curnow.

  • Curnow, John.
Date:
[1873]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Individualism : an introductory address delivered before the Medical Society of King's College, London, on the 16th of October, 1873 / by John Curnow. 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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    succeed in ‘ levelling-ujD ’ the teaching of the various pro- fessors and lecturers to the necessary standard for their membership. In addition they should work out to the same nicety the particular subjects in which candidates fail, and publish the results in the Times as well as in the medical journals, and then e cramming ’ would once more quickly take its due position in the education of the medi- cal student. But turning to our higher examinations, the competi- tion that is engendered and encouraged has some great drawbacks, which, I fear, are not sufficiently considered. In the first place, and this is particularly true of our own profession, we can only test one side of a candidate; viz. his powers of acquisition and the facility with which he can reproduce the facts and theories stored up in his memory, whilst other qualities, such as accuracy of obser- vation and readiness of action in emergencies, must be entirely overlooked. The acknowledgment of the ele- ment of chance in all our examinations at once shows this most conclusively, and a correct criterion of a man is frequently not obtained, although his future career is so largely dependent thereon. Again, competition leads men into exactly the same groove, and renders them facsimiles, good or bad, of each other, or of their more immediate and successful teachers. This competition, in the case of the University of London, is spread over so long a part of that period of life when habits once formed are with great difficulty reformed, that many persist in the same line of acquiring the views of everybody else on every subject, without having any judg- ment of their own or the power of forming it. They are consequently at the mercy of every specious doctrine, and ready to hold any outrageous idea of disease and its treat-