Page:Anon 1830 Remarks on some proposed alterations in the course of medical education.djvu/11

 permanent, not a tinsel and temporary, title to excellence in it? Ask any respectable physician, even in ordinary practice, how much time he can spare for keeping pace with the progress of medical science, and for contributing to its advancement? Ask any Professor how much leisure he can afford, from the faithful and conscientious discharge of his duty in his own individual sphere? And is it considered disgraceful or disqualifying in them, not to be competently acquainted with every branch of literature and science? Why, then, should it be considered so in a candidate for graduation? Yet all this is imperiously demanded of the graduate. Tyro is required to be infinitely more wise and learned than Philo: these scavant revolutionists would have him to be nothing short of a very conjuror—a Dr Faustus—a Peripatetic Encyclopædia.

If the possession of this universal knowledge is considered essential, before passing under the yoke of a diploma, the same reason in a higher degree holds for retaining it afterwards, or it degenerates into a display of pernicious and deceptive pedantry: but is it not found that many even of the professional preparations for graduation are necessarily laid aside, after the degree has been conferred? Much more must those be abandoned which have no connexion whatever with the discharge of professional duty. These are not calculated to maintain themselves, as strictly professional attainments are, in