Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: [Prospectuses, 1864/5 to 1883/4]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.
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![it is Goethe who says, God Joes not settle accounts with a man every week. I need not say how trae that is in spiritual things; but it is true also in the affairs of this world. The wages of yoiu- school-work may be ftu' off, but tliey will be paid; the more you learn, the more able you will be in practice : and the more able the moi'e will be your reward. On every ground, then, of duty and of interest, I can see but one rule for you—Get all the knowledge that you can. I wish I could give advice equally plain and simple as to the kind of knowledge you must get. But I cannot even attempt to assign its relative value to each of the many subjects that you must st\\(]y. This only I xAll siiy, that from the beginning to the end of your career, and day by day, you must study diseases and their treatment in actual practice. There is nothing of which the observation of the careers of students has made me more sure than of this. If I except the few—the unhajipily too few—^who, after taking high degi-ees in the Universities, have studied medicine, I should say that, as a constant rule, the best students, and they who have proved themselves the best, not only in the Schools, but in after life, have been those who, in the beginning of their studies and for the most part before attending lectures, have been pupils in provincial hospitals, or with active and intelligent general practitioners, who have enabled them to see practice every day, and helped them to study it. I am aware that this opinion—that the study of actiinl practice should extend through the whole period of mediwil education—IS not held by some who have carefuUy thouo-ht upon the subject. They would not have this practical study, as I would, fii-st, last, and in the midst of all. I have, therefore, agam_ and again considered the point; but tlie fact always remains to me convincing, and not strange, that the best students are those who have from first to last, and alway.s, combined the study of actual practice with that of the principles and foundations of our profession; or who, if they have be.nin with om of these, have begun with practice, and then studied the principles together with it. It is said that you must first acquire by lectures or readino- some knowledge of elementary subjects, in order to undor..tand](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21507326_0022.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
