Page:Introductory lecture delivered at the Middlesex Hospital, October 1st, 1877 (IA b22447258).pdf/14

14 sketching and painting will become hereafter a part of our own curriculum.

One has only to glance at the beautifully executed drawings of Sir Charles Bell and Sir Robert Carswell to feel that such men have set us an example in this direction, which all must admire and more of us might follow with gain.

The advantage of conveying to our mind anatomical facts by diagrams and drawings, by appealing directly the eye, is becoming more and more apparent.

Gray's 'Anatomy' is justly famous for its plates. If you take the trouble to examine and compare the earlier with the later editions of Quain and Sharpey's 'Anatomy' Carpenter's 'Human Physiology' and Kirke's [sic] 'Handbook,' you will see how the editors have slowly, but surely, recognised the value of illustrations.

We may even now hope to see the enormous mass of details, which but a small knowledge of anatomy implies, gathered with less labour and more easily retained when diagrams change places in our handbooks with descriptions.

The charts on which the physician traces the daily variation in the temperature of his patients and other conditions which may be important tell him more at a glance than the notes in his case book. It may be hoped, moreover, that drawings of diseased organs or of injuries will take the place of complicated descriptions, and that the pathological specimens so largely represented on the shelves of our museums will, when possible, be supplemented