An account of the life, lectures and writings of William Cullen. Vol.1 / by John Thomson.
- John Thomson
- Date:
- 1832
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An account of the life, lectures and writings of William Cullen. Vol.1 / by John Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection.
669/690 (page 653)
![516 to the public by the most uneducated ; such apprentice¬ ships cannot but be considered as an arrangement in which the interests of those who are training to the me¬ dical profession are sacrificed to the interests of those who are already engaged in its practice. For it is in vain to expect that even the most conscientious master can compensate to his apprentices by his own instructions, for a want of those opportunities of acquiring a know¬ ledge of the different branches of medicine that are af¬ forded by attendance on the instructions and lectures of professed teachers. And when we remember how small a portion of provincial practitioners can have the time, even if they had the inclination and the ability necessary, for guiding the studies of their apprentices, we cannot be surprised that apprenticeships of this kind should be, as they are now very generally consider¬ ed by the liberal and enlightened part of the profes¬ sion, more frequently the nurseries of idleness and ig¬ norance than of industry and knowledge. The period at which an apprentices!]ip to a well employed practitioner, may be served with advantage, is when the student has acquired as much professional information as can be obtained from attendance on the instructions of professed teachers, and is thus prepared for availing himself of those practical lessons which are to be derived from witnessing and assisting in the treat¬ ment of actual diseases, by one older and more experi¬ enced than himself. Without the preparation afforded by this mode of [medical instruction, the young practi¬ tioner, when he first enters upon the practice of his profession, can supply the want of personal experience, only by the lessons which he obtains from the errors](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29347178_0669.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
