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

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 the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    a sense, and in behoof of countless historical and present associations,—are well named National; but it also, I would hope, is not far removed from that ideal standard of a school, which, more than any actual pattern, should be contemplated as the paradigm of construction. With- out questioning other appropriations of the word,—and assuredly not grudging its titular dignity to any learned association, where Science labours in subservience to hu- manity,—I shall proceed, according to my own conception of a Collegiate Model, to examine briefly, how far this should be imitated, and how far it can be attained, in respect of Medical Education. (1.) As regards the means of intellectual training, I believe the association of medicine in the circle of collegiate in- struction to be of extreme advantage to the Profession ; so much so, that I confidently anticipate a time, when medical schools will only exist, as departments of colleges,*—when physiology and medicine will be only taught beneath the same roof with literature, and history, and ethics. And my belief rests not only on general considerations of utility and convenience, but especially binds itself with my conviction of the need for preliminary education. For the time cannot be far distant, when changes in the present system of medi- cal apprenticeship must suggest—no less to society at large, than to those more nearly interested—the grave problem, which that system so long slurred over with the semblance of an expedient answer,—this problem, viz.; what is to be the state and occupation nf youth, from the period of leav- ing school to that of commencing professional study ? It would indeed be a rash reply, that should seek the solution by proposing an immediate transference from the school to the dissecting-room ; and, barring this answer, the vital necessity of providing for those intermediate years the means • Of colleges, I need scarcely add, which would make hospitals their theatre of practical observation.