Education; Priestley, Joseph, 1733-1804; Science -- Study and teaching
is a comparatively easy matter--pray mark that I use the word
"comparatively "--it is a comparatively easy matter to learn anatomy
and to teach it; it is a very difficult matter to learn physiology and
to teach it. It is a very difficult matter to know and to teach those
branches of physics and those branches of chemistry which bear directly
upon physiology; and hence it is that, as a matter of fact, the
teaching of physiology, and the teaching of the physics and the
chemistry which bear upon it, must necessarily be in a state of
relative imperfection; and there is nothing to be grumbled at in the
fact that this relative imperfection exists. But is the relative
imperfection which exists only such as is necessary, or is it made
worse by our practical arrangements? I believe--and if I did not so
believe I should not have troubled you with these observations--I
believe it is made infinitely worse by our practical arrangements, or
rather, I ought to say, our very unpractical arrangements. Some very
wise man long ago affirmed that every question, in the long run, was a
question of finance; and there is a good deal to be said for that view.
Most assuredly the question of medical teaching is, in a very large and
broad sense, a question of finance. What I mean is this: that in London
the arrangements of the medical schools, and the number of them, are
such as to render it almost impossible that men who confine themselves
to the teaching of the theoretical branches of the profession should be
able to make their bread by that operation; and, you know, if a man
cannot make his bread he cannot teach--at least his teaching comes to a
speedy end. That is a matter of physiology. Anatomy is fairly well
taught, because it lies in the direction of practice, and a man is all
the better surgeon for being a good anatomist. It does not absolutely
interfere with the pursuits of a practical surgeon if he should hold a
Chair of Anatomy--though I do not for one moment say that he would not
be a better teacher if he did not devote himself to practice.
(Applause.) Yes, I know exactly what that cheer means, but I am keeping
as carefully as possible from any sort of allusion to Professor Ellis.
But the fact is, that even human anatomy has now grown to be so large a
matter, that it takes the whole devotion of a man's life to put the
great mass of knowledge upon that subject into such a shape that it can
be teachable to the mind of the ordinary student. What the student
wants in a professor is a man who shall stand between him and the
infinite diversity and variety of human knowledge, and who shall gather
all that together, and extract from it that which is capable of being
assimilated by the mind. That function is a vast and an important one,
and unless, in such subjects as anatomy, a man is wholly free from
other cares, it is almost impossible that he can perform it thoroughly
and well. But if it be hardly possible for a man to pursue anatomy
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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