Page:The Medical School of the Melbourne University - an address delivered on the twenty fifth anniversary of the opening of the Medical School, in the Wilson Hall, March 23, 1887 (IA b22293346).pdf/9

9 credit, therefore, that, while doing the arduous work of a teacher in the School, he attended the lectures and hospital practice necessary for the obtainment of degrees in medicine and surgery, and these he secured. His promotion to the distinction of professor was, therefore, both a recognition of his fitness for the office, and an acknowledgement of the perseverance with which he had added to his qualification for it. He was a thorough chemist, an unquestionably good teacher, and a genial warm-hearted man.

Looking down the long list of those who have worked in the School, it is impossible to feel other than saddened to think that so many have passed into the land of shadows and are now known only as memories. That both they and those who followed them have all been earnest in their work I am quite sure, and I quote the prosperity of the School in proof. In addition to the lecturers and professors, it has been found necessary (from time to time) to appoint, in several of the departments, skilled assistants, and at the present time these are represented by Dr. Moore and Dr. Syme, as Demonstrators in the Dissecting Room; Dr. Barrett, as assistant to Professor Halford in the Physiological Laboratory; and Mr. Kirkland, a son of the late Professor Kirkland, as Professor Masson's assistant in the Chemical Laboratory.

The Medical School buildings, some years ago, were found inadequate to the requirements of the students. When they were built, they were declared to be unnecessarily large, although, as I have said, architecturally mean, and for some time they were more spacious than appeared to be necessary, so that, for several academic years, I and some of the other lecturers used to meet our classes in the library, and sit comfortably by the fire, so small was the party. This was not perhaps very dignified, but then it does not seem easy, and indeed it is, in its way, absurd, to insist upon dignity when you are talking to only three or four persons. But when the class mounts up to thirty or forty, it is different. Dignity and deportment are then unavoidable. But it was not alone the maintenance of dignity and deportment that was necessary. The dissecting room was found to be altogether too small, the chemical laboratory had out-lasted its suitability, and the physiological laboratory would hold only a percentage of those who desired to work there. So, on the 23rd of May, 1883, a deputation from the Council waited upon the then head of the