s a drug in one case because he has
seen it do good in another of apparently the same sort, acts upon the
theory that similarity of superficial symptoms means similarity of
lesions; which, by the way, is perhaps as wild an hypothesis as could be
invented. To understand the nature of disease we must understand health,
and the understanding of the healthy body means the having a knowledge
of its structure and of the way in which its manifold actions are
performed, which is what is technically termed human anatomy and human
physiology. The physiologist again must needs possess an acquaintance
with physics and chemistry, inasmuch as physiology is, to a great
extent, applied physics and chemistry. For ordinary purposes a limited
amount of such knowledge is all that is needful; but for the pursuit of
the higher branches of physiology no knowledge of these branches of
science can be too extensive, or too profound. Again, what we call
therapeutics, which has to do with the action of drugs and medicines on
the living organism, is, strictly speaking, a branch of experimental
physiology, and is daily receiving a greater and greater experimental
development.

The third great fact which is to be taken into consideration in dealing
with medical education, is that the practical necessities of life do
not, as a rule, allow aspirants to medical practice to give more than
three, or it may be four years to their studies. Let us put it at four
years, and then reflect that, in the course of this time, a young man
fresh from school has to acquaint himself with medicine, surgery,
obstetrics, therapeutics, pathology, hygiene, as well as with the
anatomy and the physiology of the human body; and that his knowledge
should be of such a character that it can be relied upon in any
emergency, and always ready for practical application. Consider, in
addition, that the medical practitioner may be called upon, at any
moment, to give evidence in a court of justice in a criminal case; and
that it is therefore well that he should know something of the laws of
evidence, and of what we call medical jurisprudence. On a medical
certificate, a man may be taken from his home and from his business and
confined in a lunatic asylum; surely, therefore, it is desirable that
the medical practitioner should have some rational and clear conceptions
as to the nature and symptoms of mental disease. Bearing in mind all
these requirements of medical education, you will adm