Medical reform / by Th. M. Dolan.

  • Thomas M. Dolan
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical reform / by Th. M. Dolan. 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.

    15/26 page 13
    III. Preliminary education then is the first link in the chain we are weaving, and in seeking for the higher cultivation we, and, perhaps, other more competent judges, desiderate, the first link is being forged, upon the stability of which all the others depend. One step leads to another. Having secured as far as possible preliminary training of the mind, we render subsequent instruction easier, and may naturally expect that the assimilation of the vast amount of mental food that will have to be digested will be more perfect. We hare already foreshadowed some of the mistakes in our system, when we alluded to surgical monopoly and surgical direction. As we proceed we shall have still further to insist on the necessity of a change in this respect. The great object of our past method seems to have been to develop surgeons. The diploma of the Royal College of Sur- geons in England is, beyond all doubt, valuable, but it does not afford an adequate test, and does not meet the wants of the present age. Our object, looking at the subject in its practical light, and in its effect on public security, is to direct the student's education into such channels as will afford the best possible guarantee of developing a medical attendant, whose practical knowledge and general attainments shall not only secure the respect of the community at large, but also command their confidence. In the arrangement of lectures, even at present, there is a special preference given to what has been termed surgical science. We remem- ber, in 1873, listening to the introductory lecture of Professor Erichsen, at University College, and we were struck at the time by the truth and spirit of his remarks. He doubted whether there was such a thing as surgical science, and contended that we spoke of the science of surgery in too concrete and definite a way. It was merely a development of general biological and pathological science, and consisted in the appli- cation of knowledge derived from other branches of science. He illus- trated this by examples from physics, in the application of electricity in the cure of aneurism; to the treatment of various deformities, in the use of the galvanic ecraseur ; from exact science, in the application of the laws of mathematics to ophthalmology ; from natural science, in the
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image