The Hunterian oration : delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons, February 14th, 1889 / by Henry Power.

  • Henry Power
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Hunterian oration : delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons, February 14th, 1889 / by Henry Power. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    cramming cultivates some qualities of the mind, as memory and attention. No, the real defect of our modern system is the far too brief period during which the student is expected to develop from a schoolboy into a doctor—nay, to become a homo doctissimus. It is not too much to say that every lad who enters the profession should have already had a fair training in chemistry, in mathematics, physics, and elementary biology, so frequently is some acquaintance with these subjects demanded in physiological research and in medical practice. Two years is not too long for the study of anatomy, histology, physiological chemistry, and physiology, and at least three years are required for clinical and practical work in the wards of a hospital. Hunter’s mind was certainly influenced to a slight degree only by the theoretical doctrines of his contemporaries and predecessors. He was indeed to some extent imbued with the “ animism ’’ of Stahl, as may be seen by a perusal of the earlier chapters of his work on the f Principles of Surgery.’ That doctrine was to the effect that the soul is a separate entity from the body, the principle of its organisation, the cause of its vital activity, that which ministers to its reparation and preservation, which presides over all the acts of nutrition, secretion, and reproduction, and over the senses. It governs the animal economy and maintains the harmony and integrity of the functions, whilst by its contest with morbific influences it produces congestion, haemorrhages, and fevers. Stahl made phy- siology consist in the study of the vital phenomena con- sidered per se and quite apart from the form and structure of the several organs, and of the physical and chemical actions of which they are the seat. Hence in his view the study of these subjects is secondary and subordinate to that of the mind, and he actually proposed to banish physics, chemistry, and anatomy from the study of medi- cine. The soul in his pious mind played the chief part in the cure of disease, and to its condition the attention of the physician should be directed. He thought that art ought not to pretend to govern nature, but should only
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