Introductory address delivered at Surgeons' Hall, Edinburgh, at the opening of the medical session, October 1866 / by Patrick Heron Watson.

  • Watson, Patrick Heron, Sir, 1832-1907.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory address delivered at Surgeons' Hall, Edinburgh, at the opening of the medical session, October 1866 / by Patrick Heron Watson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    that in friendships carelessly formed, in habits thoughtlessly con¬ tracted, they may enter into a snare which lands them in the loss of all which they and their friends had ventured to calculate upon. Another risk to be avoided is that of idling away time in fruitless efforts at study. A caution on this subject may seem hardly neces¬ sary to those who have passed their preliminary examination, and who thus, it may be supposed, have earned the character of students already. I have no doubt some of you are students indeed; and those of you who have made a good appearance in the preliminary examination, will generally be found carrying the same aptitude for study into your professional course. And it is for the purpose of insuring, as far as possible, such capacity of mind, and such de¬ velopment of the faculties as study is fitted to produce, that pre¬ liminary examinations are no longer conducted in the perfunctory manner once in vogue. I daresay the stringent regulations now in force in regard to the preliminary examinations, and the greatly increased attention paid to the several departments included therein, may appear to students a. most unnecessary exercise of authority upon the part of the different licensing bodies. I know the licensing boards have been blamed by some for the imposition of an extended preliminary test, as a measure framed on very purpose to exclude all but a certain class from the portals of the profession. I know that some have regarded it as a measure which binds grievous burdens upon the shoulders of the present generation, which they themselves would not so much as touch with one of their fingers. But, however much force such statements may have in some special examples, in which cases of hardship have been adduced as originating in these regulations, I am confident the author¬ ities, with whom lies the decision of such matters, have been actuated by no base, no mean, no class considerations, by no desire to exclude one rather than another from the practice of the profes¬ sion, by no wish to diminish the number of worthy practitioners. Their aim has been to secure for the public, in their legislation for the student of medicine, who is some day to become a practitioner, such competent knowledge and information as shall fit him for com¬ mencing the study of medicine, well equipped for the course which lies before him. This end is obtained in part by the varied nature of the subjects of ordinary English education embraced in the preliminary course, partly by the amount of classical and mathematical knowledge which must be professed. A sound English education acquired before the commencement of your professional career relieves you of the necessity of abstract¬ ing time from your medical studies to gain what you must some day possess if you are to occupy the position of gentlemen in society. You may imagine that I am exaggerating when I speak of ignorance among young medical men of their own language, and \