Observations on the preparatory education of candidates for the degree of Doctor of Medicine, in the Scottish universities ...

Date:
1826
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the preparatory education of candidates for the degree of Doctor of Medicine, in the Scottish universities ... Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    18/20 (page 18)
    cation can be better or more cheaply attained than in Scotland. I am happy to be able to quote to you, with regard to this matter, the opinion of one whose name must ever continue to reflect the greatest lustre on the country in which he was born, and on the University in which he taught. Dr Adam Smith, in a letter, dated the 20th of September 1774, written to Dr Cullen on the subject of a Memorial transmitted from Edinburgh, com- plaining of the manner in which the Universities of St An- drew’s and Aberdeen confer Degrees in absence, observes, “ In the present state of the Scotch Universities, I do most sincerely look upon them, in spite of all their faults, to be without exception the best seminaries of learning that are to be found any where in Europe. They are, perhaps, upon the whole, as unexceptionable as any public institu- tions of that kind, which all contain in their very nature the seeds and causes of negligence and corruption, have ever been, or are ever likely to be. That, however, they are still capable of amendment, and even of considerable a- mendment, I know very well; and a Visitation is, I be- lieve, the only proper means of procuring them this amend- ment.” Besides the requisition of a preparatory education from those who are permitted to enter upon the study of Medi- cine at the Scottish Universities, there is another very ob- vious and important improvement, capable of being intro- duced into the plan of medical instruction, to which I feel