one has heard of the physician who said in Latin to his colleague in a hospital, "Let the experiment be tried on this vile body," in reference to a poor man who was under their care; "The body is not so vile," said the patient, who happened to understand Latin, "for which Christ himself has not disdained to die."* If at all adapted to the duties of your profession, you will readily learn to disregard, in some respects, the artificial distinctions of rank and fortune; you will be able to view the poorest and humblest as your fellow creatures; and to feel that the noblest attribute of the true physician is prompt, earnest and cordial sympathy with the sufferings of humanity.

Results. How much you will be profited by your opportunities for observation will in a great measure depend upon yourselves. Clinical study is said to be more neglected than any of the other methods of acquiring knowledge that are recommended to students. Dr. Latham, the distinguished physician of St. Bartholomew Hospital, asserts, that five out of six who profess to attend the medical practice of that institution never watched a single

* "Fiat experimentum in corpore vili. Corpus non tam vile est pro quo Christus ipse non dedignatus est mori." This repartee has been often quoted. I venture to repeat it, because it imbodies a sentiment which can never be too deeply impressed upon the minds of all who are engaged in the study or practice of Medicine.

case of disease through its entire course during the whole of their pupilage. "I say this," he adds, "with great sorrow, and as a warning to those whose pupilage is yet to begin.”*

In every class that I have known, there have been some who have laboured diligently to turn their opportunities for clinical experience to the best account, and who have succeeded, and have been abundantly rewarded. There have also every year been others who have visited the hospital to no purpose, who have observed nothing, and learned nothing. Such students find it difficult to force their way through the crowd and approach the beds of the patients; difficult to examine and understand the cases; difficult to endure the sad and disgusting appearance of the sick; and they have judged it easier and wiser to complain of such difficulties than to exert themselves to conquer and surmount them. Such students-I hope they form but a small proportion of your number-should consider what ex

*It is a well known fact, that but very few pupils, comparatively speaking, avail themselves of the advantages to be derived from hospital instruction; and the number in actual attendance at the hours of visit, is surprisingly small. We are credi bly in formed, that, in New York and Philadelphia, not more than one in ten attend regularly at the hospitals.—“Transactions of the American Medical Association, vol. 2. Report of Committee on Medical Education.

ertions they would be willing to make in quest of sport, diversion and pleasure. They should remember what others have done in the noble pursuit of knowledge. And they may be assured, that if they have chosen the profession of Medicine as a business in which success may be attained without the exercise of resolution, patience, and physical and mental energy, they have made from among all the various occupations of life the very worst possible selection.

CONVERSATION.

In addition to the means of acquiring knowledge which we have been considering-books, lectures, and clinical observation-the student of Medicine may derive great advantage from frequent conversation on the subject of his studies, with intelligent and industrious associates who are engaged in the same pnrsuit, reading the same books, or books on the same branches of science, hearing the same lectures, and observing the same cases in the hospital.

Such conversation is useful in various ways. It keeps the student's mind more constantly applied than it would otherwise be, and with less fatigue, to the subject which he is investigating. Again, the doubts, difficulties, and misapprehensions which have occurred to one, may be corrected or removed by the fuller and more accurate knowledge of

another. Again, in talking over a subject and explaining our views to others, we are often enabled, from the increased activity to which the mind is excited, to understand it ourselves better than we had previously done; we increase our knowledge by our efforts to impart knowledge to others; discit qui docet. And again, we generally remember well what we have learned or taught in this manner. If we have been learning, we are struck, perhaps, by the manner, voice, or some other peculiarity of the friend to whom we are listening; if we have been teaching, we have been compelled to think more earnestly and fully on the subject which we were discussing; and in either case, the memory is more permanently impressed.

"It is truly astonishing," says the enthusiastic Flemish scholar Ringelbergius, "how much clearer and more forcible our ideas upon any subject are, in the presence and with the assistance of a second person; so much so indeed that if you read in company with any one who is competent to give his opinion upon the subject under consideration, all difficulties at once unravel themselves, and you are enabled plainly to perceive what, had you been alone, you might have puzzled over in a state of drowsy stupidity till you had either imagined the stumbling-block too great for you to pass over, or

thrown your book down in a fit of desperation and disgust."*

The habit of conversation gives one a command of the knowledge which he possesses, and a power to use it whenever it is required, that are scarcely attainable by any other means. "Conference," says Bacon, "maketh a ready man, reading a full man, and writing an exact man." Persons of the most extensive information who have had but little practice in conversation, are apt to find themselves in a situation like that of Addison, who used to say of himself in respect to intellectual wealth, that he often had not a guinea in his pocket, though he could draw bills for a thousand pounds.

In connexion with conversation on the subject of your studies, there are certain dangers which you should endeavour to avoid.

In the first place, you should not suffer such conversation to occupy too much of your time, to the prejudice and hinderance of other modes of gaining knowledge. You will never become proficients in professional science if you depend exclusively upon oral discussions with even the most learned and able medical scholars.

You should also be discreet in, selecting the asso

*De Ratione Studii.