An account of the system of clinical instruction and examination followed in the Grant Medical College at Bombay, with remarks on medical education / by C. Morehead, M.D. (Principal, and Professor of Medicine.).

  • Morehead, Charles, 1807-1882.
Date:
1850-1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of the system of clinical instruction and examination followed in the Grant Medical College at Bombay, with remarks on medical education / by C. Morehead, M.D. (Principal, and Professor of Medicine.). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    November last, an extract from which is annexed for the infor- mation of the Council.* The Council will observe that to give effect to this method of testing the real practical knowledge of the Candidates for Diplomas, it will be necessary that the Government Examiner (assisted by one or more Assessors, if deemed necessary) should be present at the Hospital twice or thrice a week, if not daily, for about one month before the close of the Sessions of the year, * In publishing last week the list of successfnl Candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Medicine at the University of London, we noticed that, in accordance with some recent regulations of the Senate, the exami- nations for the Medical Candidates had undergone some remarkable modi- fications. These changes are of so important a nature, and are so well calculated to improve the status of the Graduates, that we are induced to advert more particularly to the subject. In Surgery, the Candidates were examined by demonstrations from dry and wet preparations, illustrative of various Surgical accidents and diseases, and of their treatment; but in Medicine, the Candidates were required to examine patients in the wards of an hospital, and afterwards to report in writing on the cases, and also to examine microscopically various speci- mens of morbid products. This is certainly the greatest improvement of all, and must elicit, better than any other test, the capabilities of aquirements of the Medical aspirant. It is comparatively easy for a person of ordinary attainments to pick up by reading a fair knowledge of the symptoms, the progress, and the treat- ment of disease ; but such a person is still very far from being qualified to practice his profession, with satisfaction to himself, or with benefit to his patients. So far may this mere book knowledge be carried, that we have known Students acquire by rote such an amount of information as to gain for them the highest prizes at the Medical schools ; and yet they possessed no knowledge of actual disease at the bedside of the patient; nay, more, they had probably committed the unpardonable error of neglecting their hospital practice, and their attendance in the dead house, for the purpose of cramming their heads with the contents of books, which, when unaccom- panied by Clinical experience, are of little practical value. Unlike other professions, the study and practice of Medicine are based upon experience and observation ; the human body is to be demonstrated and dissected ; the materials of our body and of all surrounding objects are to be chemically analysed, weighed, and otherwise physically tested ; the properties of Medi- cines are to bo investigated by their known effects upon the patients; Surgery ie to be learned by tho cultivation of the senses of sight and touch, and its