The new departure in medical teaching : a lecture delivered at the beginning of the course on pathology and practice in the University of Michigan, October 1st, 1877 / by A.B. Palmer.

  • Palmer, Alonzo Benjamin, 1815-1887.
Date:
[1877]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The new departure in medical teaching : a lecture delivered at the beginning of the course on pathology and practice in the University of Michigan, October 1st, 1877 / by A.B. Palmer. 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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    others’ expense ; or whatever may be the indifference of former friends, if we go straight forward in our course, giving the high- est grade of medical education which zeal and industry and our enlarged opportunities will enable us to do, we shall, I cannot doubt, bind to us the students for whom we labor, and shall be sustained by an enlightened and liberal profession, and a liberal State. The opinions now expressed in the highest circles of the profession are, that the various States of the Union, following the example of the older countries of Europe, should sustain and regulate medical education ; requiring by law thorough qualifica- tions in those who assume to practice upon the health and lives of the people; and, as a gratifying fact, we find that one after another of the Western States is falling into the ranks of those demanding educational qualifications of the persons holding them- selves out as medical practition The efforts made in certain quarters to induce our own State to retrace its steps and withdraw its support from medical educa- tion, and to cease from providing for its people and the country a higher grade of qualifications and a better educated class of medical men, it is hoped may meet with the fate of all efforts in opposition to the intelligence and spirit of the age. I said in the early part of these remarks, that you are here not to be crammed with any system, not to be plied with any speculative theories, not to be taught the dogmatic doctrines of any particular schools, not to be taken back into the dark ages of dreamy, conjectural and speculative philosophy, nor to be in- formed of any universal panaceas; but you are to be taught the facts of Nature, the truths of what we regard a Divine economy, and especially the laws which govern human beings in health and disease. We shall not tell you that we know all the facts and the laws of nature, that we know all that relates to the being and actions of our bodies and minds, that we know all about all dis- eases—their causes, their essential characters and best remedies. We shall confess our ignorance of many things, shall acknowl edge the imperfection of medical science and art, and shall make the prediction, judging from the past, that great changes of views will occur in the future as scientific researches develop new facts ; but we shall teach you many facts which are well established, and