Observations regarding medical education ; in a letter addressed to the President of the Royal College of Surgeons / by John Simon.

  • Simon, John, Sir, 1816-1904.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations regarding medical education ; in a letter addressed to the President of the Royal College of Surgeons / by John Simon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    ripening, and yet more special education, than belongs to ordinary schools. The training of this period should be transitional; so that while it would serve to fix, and give form to, the acquirements of boyhood, cei'tain additional studies might be engrafted on these, with a care to anticipate the future career of the stu- dent, and to prepare him for a right valuing and apprehen- sion of technical pursuits. In this view I would wish to see him instructed in the elementary sciences of nature, —zoology, botany, and physics: he should learn the prin- ciples on which these kingdoms in nature are constituted and classified; should survey their boundaries, ascertain their points of contact, and acquire an early comjDrehension of their mutual relations. There can be no doubt, that it lies within the authority of the professional examining bodies, to require from candidates any amount of instruction in these matters, which to them may seem sufficient. But I believe the most effectual manner in which the requisition of such attainments could be enforced, and that too the one best calculated to secure the end of preparation for technical studies, would be for the teachers in medical schools un- reservedly to reject from admission to their classes those who could not pass a satisfactory preliminary examination. With your permission. Sir, I will more particularly specify what I conceive might be the scope and character of this examination. (1.) It might require such a general acquaintance with natural history, with the principles of classification, with the forces which act upon matter, with geometrical nomenclature and rudimentary mechanics, as would best be defined in making particular text-books, or chapters, the criteria in these subjects.* * It would be superfluous to enumerate such works: they are, for the subjects above mentioned, both plentiful and good, each school commonly possessing or re-