The aims and methods of graduate study / by Sir Humphry Rolleston.

  • Rolleston, Humphry Davy, Sir, 1862-1944.
Date:
[1920?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The aims and methods of graduate study / by Sir Humphry Rolleston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The continuous education of the general practitioner. A continuous process of self-education depending on reading the medical periodicals and textbooks and by keeping careful notes of cases, aided to some extent by attendance at the local medical society, is, of course, possible. Many men no doubt carry out the ideal so appropriate to England, which has been called “ the land of individual effort,” but the difficulties are great, and it is not to be wondered at that the good resolutions made at the outset fail in the face of adverse circumstances, such as overwork and want of urgent stimulus, to main¬ tain this high ideal. Some men, more fortunately placed by being able to use opportunities in connexion with a local hospital, find the way easier. Local hospitals are a comparatively untapped source for organized graduate instruction, and there should not be any difficulty in arranging demonstrations and a more extended system of clinical assistantships; and in the future the Ministry of Health may multiply these facilities, among which attendance at venereal, tuberculous, psychiatric, and other cliuics may play a part. The benefit to the teachers would also be considerable; this was well put more than a hundred years ago by Lyman Spalding3 to a colleague who proposed to resign his professorship: “Look at the Princes or rather the Fathers of Physic. . . . What has put them at the head of the profession ? Nothing but their being compelled to labour, and annually to review their profession, and incorporate with their old stock all the new improvements. Show me a man in private practice who does this annually. He is not to be found. But your friends say that you can do this, yet stay at home. I acknowledge this, but tell me honourably, will you do it ? No, Sir, you have no inducement.” III. Periodic courses of instruction so as to keep practitioners, particularly those isolated in country districts, up to date in recent methods of diagnosis and treatment. They thus learn what can be expected from expert pathological investigation, and gain a broader outlook from contact with other minds and men. These refresher courses should be taken every five years or oftener, and should be both general and special in character, dealing with clinical medicine, surgery, and gynaecology, and also with the special branches, such as ophthalmology, laryngology, orthopaedics, and radiology. The latter should be so arranged in series that a man could either get a good elementary course in a comparatively short time or by taking more elaborate courses and devoting himself entirely to the subject could eventually become qualified for this special branch of work. The instruction should be essentially practical rather than didactic, with demon¬ strations in preference to set lectures. Too much stress can hardly be laid on the importance of providing ample