An inaugural lecture on botany, considered as a science, and as a branch of medical education : read in King's College, London, May 8th, 1843 / by Edward Forbes.

Edward Forbes

Date:: [1843]

Credit: An inaugural lecture on botany, considered as a science, and as a branch of medical education : read in King's College, London, May 8th, 1843 / by Edward Forbes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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$and in the cabinet of the naturalist: its fost element, correct observation, leading to correct diagnosis; the second, accurate discrimination, leading to sound methods of treatment in the one case and philosophical views of affinity in the other. It may be objected, that the student had much better learn all this at the bed-side than among fields and flowers. To this I would answer, that no training is so strengthening as that which separates the process from the object of the pro- cess. I believe the confounding of the two has been a gi'eat evil in medical education. It leads to habits of loose reason- ing, and blunts the most valuable power of detecting fallacies. Too many professional works notoriously aboimd in bad logic resulting from such confusion. May we not remedy this defect by making the scientific branches of medical study—the col- lateral sciences as they are termed—means of educating the mind of the student, so as to enable him to enter on his prac- tice with a truer eye and soimder judgement ? It is well kno\vn that medical men who have had the benefit of a good scho- lastic education previous to the commencement of then* pro- fessional studies enter upon the latter doubly armed, and thi'oughout life often maintain their superiority over their brethren equal or even superior in natiu'al talent, though wanting the benefit of such training. May we not remedy the defect in the case of the latter, and specialize the superi- ority of the former by means of the mental exercise afibrded by the study of natural history ? I do not mean that men should be made natm-ahsts before entering on then* medical studies, but that the practical and more abstract branches of the medical cun-iculum should be pm-sued equally together, and that, while the acquiring of professional information is a gi-and object of the student's pursuits, the training which gives the power to apply that infonnation with precision be not lost sight of, but occupy a prominent place in the division of his time.$