Page:Stewart 1879 On the teaching of medicine in Edinburgh University.djvu/18

16 Professors supplied with an ample number of beds, and with a full staff of assistants. It is, I have no doubt, much regretted by the Managers of the Infirmary that they have been compelled to refuse to open one male ward more, so that each Professor should at once have a sufficiency of beds for clinical instruction. We hope that the generosity of the public will soon enable the Managers to comply with this reasonable request of the University authorities. I am sure that its opening will not be long delayed if once it is understood that not only is teaching hampered, but that many an urgent case must be refused admittance, although spacious wards are standing empty, merely because of the poverty of the Institution.

Longer attendance in the wards is also desirable, and if the number of students goes on increasing, a further development of the tutorial system may be required. After a time the tutorial class may have to be conducted, not by one tutor, but by a group of tutors, each training and drilling a small party of students with individual attention, one or more taking up the subject of the physical examination by means of percussion and auscultation; one training in the examination of urine and other secretions; and one in the use of the laryngoscope; one in the use of the ophthalmoscope in relation to medical diagnosis; one in the applications of electricity to diagnosis and treatment; and one, perhaps, in the special details of bedside management, of which the young practitioner is so often ignorant.

From what I have said it will be apparent that, in my opinion, the time has now come when the period of study for the degree of Bachelor of Medicine should be extended to five years. The amount of information presented to the student during the curriculum is so great that, were it not for the improved modern methods of teaching, it would not be possible for him to acquire an adequate knowledge of it. And even with the advantage of these methods, to the average student the work is very severe. But if more time could be allowed, so that, at the end of the third year, he could have finished with the purely scientific departments, and upon the grand foundation of knowledge and capability which our University training affords, he could proceed during the remaining two years to the study of the practical subjects, his work throughout would be less arduous, and the education more complete.