An introductory address delivered at St. Thomas's Hospital, on the occasion of the opening of the session of its Medical and Surgical College, October 1, 1858 / by John Syer Bristowe.

  • Bristowe, John Syer, 1827-1895.
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introductory address delivered at St. Thomas's Hospital, on the occasion of the opening of the session of its Medical and Surgical College, October 1, 1858 / by John Syer Bristowe. 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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    obtained, by lectures, by reading and by attendance in the wards and other equally practical departments of the institu- tion. I recommend you to neglect none of them ; for each is important, each has its own peculiar excellencies, and though they are in some measure distinct, yet they confirm, illustrate and suppliment one another. Lectures are the bones, reading the flesh, and practical experience the vital influence, which combine to create the living body of medical knowledge, which you are some day to take forth with you into the world, to aid you in relieving the sufferings and diseases of your fellow- creatures. It is a common assertion at the present day that students are over-burdened with lectures ; that they have so many of these discourses to attend, that their attention becomes distracted, their minds weary and confused ; that so much time is devoted thereto, that their opportunities of acquiring practical informa- tion are mischievously curtailed. I admit this with some qualification; there are, 1 fear, too many lectures for students to be able to reap the full benefit of all of them; but the mischief, I conceive, is not so much that the lectures are too numerous in proportion to the amount and variety of knowledge students are expected to imbibe, as that students are required to embrace a range of subjects too extensive for the limited time which they have at their disposal. The fundamental error, it seems to me, is not that the subjects are in themselves too difficult or too numerous, but either that too short a hospital career is dedicated to their acquisition, or that from the faulty system of our schools, more than one subject, which might better have been grounded in them, is left to swell the already too bulky list of sciences taught in the period of medical pupilage. But however that may be, gentlemen, I advise you strongly and earnestly to be constant and attentive attendants on