A handbook of the theory and practice of medicine / by Frederick T. Roberts.
- Frederick Thomas Roberts
- Date:
- 1873
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A handbook of the theory and practice of medicine / by Frederick T. Roberts. Source: Wellcome Collection.
22/1060 page 18
![telligible. It is the more necessary to insist upon this, because many students seem to act as if they thought that what they have previously learned is of no use whatever to them when they enter upon their hospital work, and they make no effort to retain it in their recollection. Presuming that this information is pos- sessed, the further knowledge needed to justify any one in assum- ing the position of a practitioner of medicine is obtained in two ways: ]st. By the study of its principles, theories, and facts, as stated in books, or as taught in systematic lectures. Thus certain general principles may be learned, the result of induction from long-continued experience and observation, and also such facts with regard to different diseases as can be conveyed by de- scription ; in short, medicine is thus learned theoretically, or as a science. 2dly. By the practical and personal observation and examination of individual cases, in which the principles and facts are exemplified. This constitutes clinical observation and in- vestigation, which the student must carry on for himself, but in which he may be materially aided and guided by clinical in- struction. In this manner the knowledge gained becomes of practical use, and medicine is acquired as an art. Neither of these methods ought to be neglected, and they should bear a proper relation to one another. So much is constantly said about being practical, that not a few are apt to imagine they can easily gain all the information they need, by observing disease in the wards of a hospital, and may thus save themselves the trouble of reading; whereas the truth is, that a great deal of time and power is wasted in this way, and if students only came to the investigation of individual cases, having, at all events, some pre- vious theoretical acquaintance with medicine, they would find their labor greatly lessened and facilitated, and likely to lead to much more satisfactory results. A mere book knowledge of medi- cine is, however, worse than useless, and hence its practical study justly deserves to be considered as by far the more important. The usual fields for observation of examples of disease in the living subject, in the case of students, are the wards of a hospital, and its out-patient department. Each has its advantages, the former presenting cases of the different acute, or more serious chronic diseases; the latter affording illustrations of the common](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20402740_0022.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
