Page:Introductory lecture delivered at the Middlesex Hospital, October 1st, 1877 (IA b22447258).pdf/12

12 in the face of so much in other branches which is new and pressing.

The college demands all this, and therefore you must have it at your fingers’ ends.

Do not think for a moment I undervalue a knowledge of anatomy. It is the kind of knowledge, and not the amount, which I am disposed to call into question.

All that by your skill as dissectors you can demonstrate and verify is valuable; much of the knowledge you gain by reading alone is useless. The difference between seeing a thing and reading about it is not to be measured. The knowledge gained by the one method is practical and lasting, that gained by the other is theoretical and fleeting. Therefore let me urge you to work diligently in the dissecting room, for though you will forget much you will learn more, and if you do not become accomplished anatomists you will have learnt enough, I promise you, to make you cautious hereafter. But there is a more encouraging side to all this; you are learning whilst you dissect—not anatomy simply—you are gaining habits of observations, you are training the eye and you are educating the hand.

The value of sketching in outline will assist you much in your work. You should, if possible, sketch all you see under the microscope, and make outline drawings of your dissections. Dr. Acland has, I think, very wisely insisted on the value of drawing. In an address, delivered nearly ten years ago, he said, “ Of course you all practise out-of-door sketch-