Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 15.djvu/236

224 which he would receive by going through a course in chemistry would be of value to him. His eye and mind would become somewhat accustomed to dealing with natural phenomena. His powers of observation would be exercised, and a certain ability to distinguish between the important and that which is secondary would be cultivated. With such preparation, and other appropriate accompanying preparation, he would be much better able to undertake the study of medicine proper than without it. Hence it is much better to introduce the study of medicine by that of chemistry and other allied subjects, than to take up all the subjects together. The study of chemistry should form a part of the preliminary, fundamental training of every medical student.

That, owing to the arrangements of our medical schools, very little time can be given to chemistry is a misfortune. The amount of the subject usually taught is scarcely worth the trouble of acquiring it. I know what the amount usually is. I remember distinctly that, on the occasion of my graduation as a doctor of medicine, I was asked six questions which any one who had ever looked at a text-book of chemistry could have answered. I answered most of the questions incorrectly, as I have since discovered, but the Professor thought I was right, and I thought so too, and that was all that was necessary. Instead of possessing the "chemical sense," I was the possessor of considerable chemical nonsense.

But, while it requires no arguments to prove that a chemical training is desirable for the physician, it is not sufficient simply to acknowledge the truth of the statement. If it is true, then it is the sacred duty of every one, who has any influence with those who have a medical career in view, to put them upon the right track, to see that the best kind of preliminary training is furnished them.

By what I have said, I do not mean to imply that the physician is to be a chemist. This is an impossibility. "No man can serve two masters." I mean simply that he should have sufficient chemical knowledge to enable him to see when chemistry can answer a question of importance to medical science, and to know what value to attach to a chemical fact. It is plain that this kind of knowledge, which, so to speak, should pervade the mind of the physician, can only be acquired by studying pure chemistry as a science, and not by taking up the special study of physiological chemistry or medical chemistry. These latter rest upon pure chemistry, and can only be studied intelligently upon this basis. The specialist in medicine does not study eye-diseases or lung-diseases or diseases of the nerves, without first studying medicine. The analogy suggests itself.

But chemistry, even sufficient for the medical man, can not be studied alone by means of lectures and text-books. The medical student should be brought, in the laboratory, in direct contact with the substances, the relations and properties of which he is studying. By