It is a difficult life that we enter upon, in entering upon a medical career; but if our Christianity is worth anything, it must be ‘a battle, not a dream.’ We must be members of the church militant if we wish to enter the church triumphant. Life is a grand preparation for the exercise of ever larger powers, and I heartily welcome you to this winter’s course of study, hoping that it may be a little step forward, but a sure one, towards that grand ideal which must be ever before us. ERRONEOUS METHOD IN MEDICAL EDUCATION _Addressed originally[1] to the Alumnæ Association of the Woman’s Medical College of the New York Infirmary_ ERRONEOUS METHOD IN MEDICAL EDUCATION Although it is many years since I have been able to assist in the management of the Infirmary and School which I helped to found in 1853, yet I watch its growth with steady sympathy, and rejoice in its success. The last Report of the School, which has just reached me, contains a very important item--viz., the effort of the Alumnæ Association to ‘Equip a Physiological Laboratory and place it under the superintendence of Professor W. Gilman Thompson,’ a New York Vivisector. In relation to this effort, I desire to bring before you some grave considerations which are the result of my long experience in Medicine. These considerations refer, _first_, to the kind of work that should be carried on in a Physiological Laboratory, and, _second_, to the special influence which women are called on to exercise in medicine. A Physiological or Pathological Laboratory arranged for the legitimate investigation of the material composition of the tissues and secretions of the human body, is an interesting and important department of medical study. The laboratory, however, is now commonly used as a place for experimenting upon living animals as if they were dead matter, or simple machines. This method of research is proving in several ways extremely injurious to the progress of the Healing Art. The practice of Vivisection and unlimited experimentations upon our humbler fellow-creatures must be considered by us both under its intellectual and its moral aspects. From both these points of view very careful observation has led me to the conviction that this method of investigation is a grave error. Let me here state distinctly that I willingly acknowledge the good intentions of all and the ability of some of the clever physiologists of the present day, although their method of experimentation is erroneous and the effects of that method injurious, being founded on a fallacy. What I now say, however, is directed chiefly to the instruction of medical students and to the practice of our young women doctors.