The truth is, that operations, to be performed properly, must be properly studied. They must be frequently performed on the dead, and afterwards carefully examined. There is a wide difference between neglecting a necessary study and making that the test of science which is the most emphatic proof of its imperfection. We have ourselves had no lack of experience in this branch of the profession, and have included not a few operations which are too commonly delivered over to men who are said to devote themselves to special objects. The result of our experience satisfies us in entertaining the views which the most distinguished men have held on this subject; whilst we are persuaded that few things have contributed more to impede the progress of science than the _abuse_ of operations. To return to the surgical appointments of the hospital. The positions which had at first been left without any remuneration, become, by the machinery described, very lucrative; directly, by the fees paid by the pupils; and indirectly, in some cases, by keeping the surgeon constantly before the public. Any _prestige_, therefore, in obtaining these appointments, is of great value; but, if that do not really involve _professional excellence_, it is as plain as possible that the public may be very badly served, and an evil generated equally opposed to the interests of science and humanity. It is obvious that the only legitimate grounds of eligibility are moral and professional superiority, as determined by the test adopted at public schools and universities—namely, public competition. Now, what are the tests employed? Without meaning to insinuate that moral or professional eligibility is _wholly_ disregarded—no system in these days will support that—still the eligibility depends on a qualification which few would beforehand have imagined. It is certainly something better than Mr. Macaulay's joke in relation to the proposed franchise to the Militia—namely, that the elector should be five feet two—but something not much more elevated; namely, that a bounty should have been paid to one of the hospital surgeons in the shape of an apprentice fee; thus making the holding one of the most responsible offices in the profession—a condition, which absolutely ignores relative eligibility of skill, steadiness, assiduity, and humanity; and which recognizes them only in such shape that the possession of office is practically made to depend on a point absolutely extrinsic to any one important requisition recognized by the public or the profession. We need not insist on the tendency of this system to the protection of idleness and incapacity, or the injustice inseparable from it to the young gentlemen whose interests it is supposed to guard. One necessary consequence is obvious—namely, that the hospitals, instead of having to select from the general body of pupils, or from the more industrious or talented of them, is obliged to choose from a very small minority.