[Circular letter. Begins] Dear Sir, For some years past the College have required from every candidate.

  • Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
Date:
[1835]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: [Circular letter. Begins] Dear Sir, For some years past the College have required from every candidate. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    for some time before this. The fear of being refused a Certifi¬ cate has recently begun to operate as another motive; and every one who has had much intercourse with Students must have ob¬ served the beneficial influence of this fear. It is to be regret¬ ted that our system of instruction in this School offers so few inducements to excel, (and I hope this subject will be seriously considered) ; but were the Certificates given in strict accordance with merit, the hope of obtaining a good testimonial would ope¬ rate as strongly as the fear of obtaining none. Now, if a young man, who has no extraordinary love of study, and who feels powerfully the temptations to idleness by which he is surround¬ ed, finds that his neglect of duty will be unnoticed by his teacher, and that his irregular attendance will be rewarded by a “ regular” certificate, what consequence is to be expected but continued misconduct ? I cannot suppose that any Lecturer in Edinburgh will give a false certificate; the body are too respectable to allow me for a moment to cherish so unworthy a suspicion. But I fear that in¬ stances are not infrequent of certificates being given where the teacher has not actually ascertained, but merely presumes, the re¬ gular attendance which he certifies. The natural unwillingness to disoblige, and the amiable desire of hoping the best, operate, it is to be feared, in the present competition which prevails among the Teachers, in the way of giving certificates with too little cau¬ tion, and too little discrimination. It is the strong belief that such cases do occur, and my having learned, in conversation with Lecturers, the want of those means by which regular attendance can be ascertained, that have led me to take the liberty of ad¬ dressing these remarks to you, with the view of requesting your serious attention to the subject. You are well aware of the method lately adopted by the Pro¬ fessors, to enable them to ascertain and to record the attendance of their pupils. It is an imperfect system,—it is at best an ap¬ proximation only to the truth, and I fear that in some cases it is rendered nugatory by fraud ;* but still it is a decided improve- * The method adopted by one Professor, of requiring each pupil to lay down a card on his table, instead of merely giving it to the door-keeper, is much more likely to be successful.