The future training of the medical profession : an inaugural address, delivered at St. George's Hospital, on October 1, 1888 / by William Ewart.
- William Ewart
- Date:
- 1888
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The future training of the medical profession : an inaugural address, delivered at St. George's Hospital, on October 1, 1888 / by William Ewart. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![activity the sluggish function, until gradually it becomes capable of that variety of ahments without which the perfection of nutrition cannot be secured. I should crave your forgiveness for this long digression, but that it had a purpose. An analogy exists between the physical training of the infant and the mental training of the student. In both the aim to be attained is a certain iiidependence of function. It is conceivable that the foster- ing heat of an Alma Mater might be apphed too long and too liberally; and that the continuance of predigested food might impede the development of that omnivorous quality, so vital to the medical mind. To those, no longer young students, who were spared no portion of the laboiu' of learning, the luxuiies enjoyed by the student of to-day are a vision full of envy. The improved facilities devised for him are a boon; nay, they have become a necessity : for more knowledge is expected of him, although not more time is allowed. They will be acknowledged as an unmixed boon if through them the capacity for independent mental effort suffers no detriment. But those qualities, of which the profession of the future will most stand in need, are not to be secured by a merely passive exercise of the brain. And it behoves teachers to endeavour to educate, from an early date, independent thought, as well as memory, in students. Had time permitted, it would have been a refreshing task to dwell upon that most helpful reviver of the long- suffering brain, that delight which is also a duty, the training of muscle. But, what need that I should instruct you in arts in which you are experts ; or that I should preach athletics within the walls of St. George's? The quality commonly called nerve exists ready- made in the majority of medical students; yet, in a sense, it is necessary that the medical man's nerves should be hardened. Well do I remember the occasion, many years ago, Avhen a schoolboy, badly cut in the t]iun;b, and](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22300715_0022.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
