Dr. Carpenter has recorded the wide-spread recognition of this dangerous aspect of medical study when he says: ‘There seems to be something in the process of training students for the medical profession which encourages in them a laxity of thought and expression that too frequently ends in a laxity of principle and of action’; and he further condemns the tone of some works issued by the medical press. Now, this judgment of a very cautious teacher so many years ago, is worthy of the most serious consideration in the present day. The freedom of entrance now accorded to women into the medical profession, lays a very heavy responsibility upon us, to prove that this new and increasing movement will be a future blessing to society. We are happy in drawing into our schools a large number of capable women--women who may not only be a gain as physicians, but who may exert a most beneficial influence on the profession itself, if they bring into it fresh and independent life. It is much to be regretted that our students are now compelled to go abroad for the completion of their medical education, for methods of study injurious to morality are exaggerated abroad. The abuse of the poor as subjects of experimental investigation, in whose treatment all decent reserves of modesty are so often stripped away; the contempt felt for the mass of women where chastity is not recognised as an obligatory male virtue; the atrocious cruelty of their experiments on animals--all these results of active intellect, unguided by large morality, as seen in full force abroad, make me deplore the necessity which drives so many of our best but inexperienced students away, in search of more efficient training than they can obtain at home. The two special dangers against which I would warn our students are: _First_, the blind acceptance of what is called ‘authority’ in medicine. _Second_, the narrow and superficial materialism which prevails so widely amongst scientific men. In relation to the first point--viz., distrust of authority--although I fully recognise the respect which is always due to the position of the teacher, and the consideration to be shown to all who are called ‘heads of the profession,’--I would very strongly urge you to remember that medicine is necessarily an uncertain science.