Page:Stewart 1879 On the teaching of medicine in Edinburgh University.djvu/13

11 gives once in three weeks a gynaecological lecture. The class will meet in the theatre provided for its use in the University department of the new Royal Infirmary, Those of you who have experienced the discomforts of the old pathological theatre will rejoice in this change, although the old lecture-room had been consecrated by the labours of many masters in the art.

Bedside teaching is, as I have said, by far the most important part of the clinical course. When the medical school of the University was smaller, it suited quite well to have one Professor or two on duty at a time, but now with a clinical class approaching 200, it is necessary that the whole clinical staff should simultaneously engage in teaching. By this means, the class is distributed throughout the University wards, so that each student has the opportunity of really coming into contact with the patients. Four of the Professors even teach clinical medicine generally, while the fifth, the Professor of Obstetrics, devotes himself to the diseases of women. Every effort is made to enable you to perceive the facts involved in the cases, to teach you to discriminate between different conditions under observation, to reason soundly upon the facts observed, to determine the line of treatment, and to watch its result.

But this year our bedside teaching is, in consequence of the opening of the new Royal Infirmary, to be conducted under conditions vastly superior to those which have hitherto existed. The noble architectural features of the new Infirmary Buildings, the very remarkable position which they occupy, within easy reach of the poorest parts of the city, close to the University, and yet occupying an elevated and open situation, with views of hills and of trees, and abutting on one of the finest public parks of the city, constitute advantages which no one could overlook. But its internal arrangements have been determined after the most thoughtful consideration, and careful and extended inquiries on the part of the Architect, the Superintendent, and the Managers, and I am anxious that you should appreciate them. The first essential in hospital construction is abundance of air and light. The evils of overcrowded wards are well recognised in surgical practice, but although less obvious in medical cases, they are not less real. And this is