Medical politics : being the essay to which was awarded the first Carmichael prize, of £200, by the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland, 1873 / by Isaac Ashe.

  • Ashe, Isaac, 1834-1891.
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical politics : being the essay to which was awarded the first Carmichael prize, of £200, by the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland, 1873 / by Isaac Ashe. 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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    deal more, since it is a matter of presumption that general education has nearly ended for those who are now to devote their energies to a special pursuit, while for university stu- dents in Arts, their general education is often only about to begin, at least in the direction of science. Or, if young men coming up to study medicine have actually spent 6 or 8 years in study, is it unreasonable to expect of them the possession of so much brains as shall enable them, after all these years of study, to have acquired something more than the know- ledge of a parrot and a rhymster for so limited a course. Or, let us ask, is it a good lesson to teach these young men at the very commencement of their medical studies, that “ cramming ” and u fluking ” may succeed at an examination, and save the trouble of study and application. Yet we are aware of cases in which young men, absolutely ignorant of the merest rudiments of education, have passed these bar- riers by force of cramming and audacity. We have heard of such a case as this :—A young man who had never opened a book, as the saying is, on the subject of the preli- minary examination, being crammed for a week in the open- ing page of St. John’s Gospel, learning off by rote two or three propositions in Euclid, deliberately requesting the ex- aminer to take him in these portions of the course, and com- ing off with flying colours for the present at least, but with a lesson taught him as to the relative value of work and cramming, which he would not readily unlearn, and the bad effect of which must have radiated far and wide among his emulating class-fellows. We would fain see a system adopted, both in classics and science, which should absolutely put an end to such imposi- tion, a system which, while allowing a candidate consider- able latitude in his studies, such of them at least as might be considered optional, should yet rigidly test his accurate and sufficiently extensive knowledge of all that was essential, and of any optional subjects that he might himself select, so that none should pass this first barrier without having given