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and warned them against the evil of procrastination andagainst the spasmodic efforts which were engendered by thathabit.
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UNIVERSITY COLLEGE.
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS BY MR. BILTON POLLARD.
IIP. POLLARD began by offering a hearty welcome to thestudents who were entering University College. As an old
student of the college himself, he congratulated them on theiichoice of a medical school. Some had criticised these intro-
ductory addresses as being obsolete and useless ; for his part,he thought they had special value, particularly in a centrelike London, in bringing prominently before the students at thecommencement of their career the fact that they were membersof an institution-members of a corporate body, on which theircareers might reflect distinction, just as its glorious pastwould reflect distinction upon them. The profession ofmedicine was very exacting and would not tolerate any seriousrival, but he hoped that, so far as their studies allowed, theywould not neglect any of the educational influences withwhich the metropolis abounded; its restless activities, itsvast extent, its wealth and its magnificence must surelyinfluence for good the veriest sluggard and urge him topersonal effort and honourable ambition ; and London withits buildings, its museums and its art collections was an edu-cation in itself. In pursuing their special work they couldnot do better than adhere strictly to the order of study pre-scribed by the curriculum, for that had been arranged withdefinite educational objects-to lead them on from the moreexact and fundamental studies of chemistry, physics andanatomy, through the less exact, but for their purpose equallyfundamental, studies of physiology and pathology, to the finalstudy of clinical medicine and surgery. Neglect of theirearlier studies would soon bring them face to face with insur-mountable difficulties-they would be handicapped in alltheir subsequent work ; but these studies also served toeducate their powers of observation. Accuracy and thorough-ness in observation were the foundations of success. If theyonce acquired thoroughness they had the root of the matter inthem. In all their studies they must discriminate clearly intheir minds between the facts that they could observe forthemselves and inferences from facts and mere theories.Theories and inferences were liable to vary with additions to
knowledge, but facts were good for all time. They mustbring their own intelligence to bear on debatable questionsand not allow their individual judgment to be warped byreverence for authority. Had not the generations imme- ’diately preceding their own broken away from the trammelsof authority and gone straight to nature herself for inspira-tion and guidance, neither the science nor the art of medicinecould have made the wonderful progress which they had donein recent years. It was the great privilege of a large medicalschool, by the contact of mind with mind, of youth withexperience, to keep alive the spirit of scientific investigationand inquiry. It would be the aim of their teachers to foster inthem enthusiasm for medical study ; and he, the lecturer, couldassure them that the zeal and progress of students con-stituted the most contagious and stimulating influence whichacted upon their teachers. The lecturer then consideredsome of the modes in which their studies were to becarried out. He defended instruction by systematic lec-tures. By attendance on lectures they would feel the stimulusof the lecturer’s personality and perhaps imbibe some of hisenthusiasm for his subject. Old facts might strike them ina new light when they were clothed in the lecturer’s ownwords and perhaps amplified and illustrated by his ownspecial observations and experience. After advice abouttheir own reading he dwelt on the importance of practicalwork, the time required for which was often begrudged bystudents. They might read descriptions of anatomical factsand relations over and over again without accurately retain-ing them ; but if they once acquired an accurate picture en-grafted upon their minds it was wonderful how vivid and howlasting that picture might be. Even after the lapse of manyyears, and even after they had repeated dissections manytimes, there would be parts of the body which, when theytried to recall them, they would picture neither in the lastdissection they had seen nor even in a purely imaginaryone. They would fancy themselves at their old placeat the dissecting table and they would see their part"before them ; muscle and artery and nerve would begin, as
in a photograph in course of’development, to assume moredefinite shape and clearness, until at length the relation of
d one to the other was distinct. They were urged to dissect-Lt not merely to verify, but to observe. In the course of his
remarks to those students who were about to commence
hospital work the lecturer impressed upon them the duty ofmaking painful manipulations as brief as possible consistentlywith their objects. With that intention it was necessary for
them first of all to determine clearly what they proposed toe investigate, and then to carry out their examinations
d systematically and rapidly. It was positively wrong as wellr as unscientific to fumble about an injured or diseased part)- with the hope, as it would seem, that something might turn; up by doing so. Every manipulation should be directed
eto the solution of some particular point in diagnosis.e It was sometimes said that. medical men’s feelings becames blunted by familiarity with suffering ; he believed, on ther contrary, that this tended rather to intensify the sym-t pathetic side of their natures, whilst at the same time theirf training enabled the will to keep the emotions in propers control and thus made it possible for them to arrive at soundP’
decisions amidst surroundings well calculated to disturb their1 judgment. He advised the students to cultivate a kindlys and sympathetic bearing towards poor patients, for theyr might rest assured that if they possessed the personal quali-) ties which secured them the confidence and affection of poor1 hospital patients they possessed also the qualities with which. alone, as men of self-respect, they would strive to win the con-L fidence and esteem of patients in higher ranks of life. Afterdis-
cussing their proper attitude towards the various departmentsI of hospital work mapped out for them the lecturer insisted
upon the great value of holding the resident appointments.l They not only provided the students with the means of self-, instruction, but they afforded them the opportunity of gainingI that confidence in themselves which was so essential. As holders: of hospital appointments their first and paramount duty was
unremitting attention to the patients and the maintenanceof the reputation of the hospital; their second duty was to
, neglect no opportunity of advancing their own knowledge.;but there was a third duty which they should impose uponthemselves : they could do much for the younger students,they could train them in thoroughness of work and indeedteach them, and by so doing they would realise the true
spirit of collegiate life. The mental effort of calling upand summarising knowledge in a form exact enough to
carry conviction to another mind was an excellent trainingfor themselves. In his concluding remarks to those ofthe students who were approaching the completion cf theirstudies, whilst heartily wishing them success in life, hetrusted that they would carry away with them - a highideal of what true success should be and a lofty conceptionof the attitude which the members of a scientific pro-fession should assume. They were justified in feeling pridein the powers which their knowledge conferred on them, buthe cautioned them against posing as knowing more thanwas known and against adopting the easy resource of cover-ing ignorance by a semblance of knowledge, adding thatwithout a living sense of their deficiencies in knowledge andskill active progress was impossible. They must decline tocountenance the many popular fallacies which were often sosatisfying to those who believed in them that acquiescencewould relieve them of immediate trouble. The dignityof a great profession demanded that they should be
willing to face difficulties and opposition rather thansanction views which were not only wrong but fruitful indisastrous consequences. It was felt by some that themembers of the medical profession did not receive the publicrecognition to which they were entitled. The art of healing,it was true, had an intrinsic nobility about it ; but, after all,it was not his profession which ennobled a man : it was theman who ennobled his profession.
LEEDS SCHOOL OF MEDICINE.
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS BY DR. T. CLIFFORD ALLBUTT,REGIUS PROFESSOR OF PHYSIC IN CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY.
DR. CLIFFORD ALLBUTT began by a brief retrospect of thework and career of past members of the Leeds School of Medi-cine who had distinguished themselves in their profession, andsaid he felt assured that when in a few months’ time thestudents stepped over the threshold of what they would soonlearn to call " the old School of Medicine " for the last time
they would bear away with them the traditions of a schoolwhich had developed into a part of a university, which university, although founded in our own day, had become already
870
a great one. In 1889-90 the number of Leeds students pre-paring for university degrees in medicine was 43 ; of these, 21were preparing for the London degree, 10 for Durham, 6 forCambridge, 5 only for Victoria, and 1 for Edinburgh. Lastyear, 1892-93, of the 209 students who had actually passedinto the medical department 15 more-namely, 58 in all-were reading for University degrees-5 for Durham, 5 forCambridge, 22 for London, and 26 for Victoria. Besidesthese numbers 23 students still in the Arts schools were pre-paring for medical degrees. Victoria University had thusgained no less than 21 more candidates for her M. B. degree-that was more than one-third of the whole number. Whatwere the reasons for congratulating themselves thus on theincrease of university students ? The chief reasons were two-firstly, that a university was especially the seat of a liberaleducation ; and, secondly, that the rapidly increasing gainsof Victoria University were not due to any paltering with
. the high standards of her teaching or of her examina-tions. Dr. Allbutt then went on to point out that VictoriaUniversity was a university in the proper sense of theword, and not an institution to be judged by examinationand the results of examinations only. In medicine this testwas more than usually important, because the public musthave some guarantee that its medical men know the prin-ciples of their profession ; but it was true, nevertheless,that an examination could not test the better part of astudent’s education-that part which was gained by mem-bership of a university as compared with membership of atechnical school. Such thoughts as these, he doubted not,passed through the minds of Hey, Teale and others of that far-seeing band of pioneers who, lamenting the antiquated theories,the shallow, scrappy rules and the technical devices whichmade up the education of the ordinary master and apprenticeof their day, desired, in founding their school, to initiate aformative scheme of education on a wider, deeper and morepermanent basis. Thus they founded what became a greattechnical school ; thus they did, ably and honourably, thework of their generation, perhaps seeing darkly the greaterwork which was to come after them and bring honour to theirsuccessors. For it must be remembered that the educationof a technical school differed from a university education inthe fact that the former was no more than a special adaptationof a man to a special sphere of usefulness, but the latter wasa liberal education. He claimed that the student couldobtain in Victoria University this broader education, whichwas the very essence of university training. In 1884 thefusion of the Leeds School of Medicine with the York-shire college took place, which was already and wouldin the future be more and more the source of a larger,richer and more generous education than a school of anysingle faculty, however admirably equipped, could give.But a university, however comprehensive, could scarcely bemore than a stepmother to her children unless they livedwithin her walls, unless her children of all callings assembledand united together. For many of them continuous residencein the college was impossible, but those were happier towhom it was possible. For those who could not reside theymust continually increase the facilities for meeting and for lithe free intercourse of all classes of students. By the ’iencouragement of students’ societies, by the growing senseof good fellowship and by the consolidation of much ofthe teaching he trusted that even the non-resident mightbreathe the proper academic atmosphere. Dr. Allbuttthen spoke of the dangers which had beset VictoriaUniversity, as they had beset stronger and older institu-tions, and congratulated the young university that itssuccess had not come of any yielding to temptation, of anypaltering with her standards. The first danger was the tempta-tion to grasp at a quick popular success by offering a courseof instruction which would by its low standard encourage aprecocious maturity in the student. It was greatly to thecredit of the Yorkshire College that it, of the three colleges ofVictoria University, founded as it had been and nourished as itwas in a city devoted to gain and by- men hard driven by thepressure of instant competition, had been not the least sturdy inits defence of a large and sound training for its children and inits protest against all devices for forcing the pace. He wasnot protesting against technical education ; on the contrary,he rejoiced in it. The very function of a university, asopposed to a technical school, was that by seeing things,great and small, in the light of wider experience it so trans-figured them that nothing should be called common or basein itself, but only in the commonness or dulness of him whodid so regard it. If, therefore, he spoke of the tech-
- nical bent as the second danger of Victoria University he- spoke not with reference to the subjects taught but: with reference rather to the one-sided interpretation of life; that a technical education might lead to, in contradictionL to the liberal views that should be the result of a university- training. As the second danger to be dreaded was but. another aspect of the first, so was the third of the other two.I Not in the medical only but in other schools large changes. had been made in the methods of teaching. Truth was no! longer sought only by contemplation of the bottom of wells.. They now provided laboratories in which to study the; sciences of physics, chemistry and biology, or the arts, of engineering, medicine and the like, in what was called
a practical way. Lectures were no longer in fashion;demonstrations had taken their place. Their thoughts hoppedabout deftly from fact to fact, as they turned their hands
L from tool to wheel ; truth, they said, was learned not byarguing but by working and observing. Now he did not saythey had gone too far in this saving reform of their methods ;he said, however, that they might suffer if they regardedonly the tenacity of their hold upon those facts with whichthey were severally in contact. Dr. Allbutt concluded byreminding his hearers that the true university education, asunderstood by our wise forefathers and proven by the lapseof time, was one that inculcated a love of learning, not forits immediate uses, but for its own sake.
JAUNDICE, DUE TO SIMPLE OBSTRUC-TION, SUCCESSFULLY TREATED
BY OLIVE OIL.BY THOMAS OLIVER, M.A. DURH., M.D. GLASG.,
F.R.C P. LOND.,PHYSICIAN TO THE ROYAL INFIRMARY, NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE.
IN this article I wish to remind the profession, withoutattempting to explain the modus operandi, of the beneficialresults that follow the administration of large doses of oliveoil in certain forms of obstructive jaundice, and in particularrecurrent jaundice due to gall-stones. The subject havingbeen on more than one occasion dealt with in the pagesof the medical journals, I shall be brief and give only thedetails of two cases in which this line of treatment has beenfollowed by signal success.A male patient seventy-eight years of age, whom I have
seen on several occasions with Mr. T. A. Dodd of this city,and who was successfully operated upon five years ago bythe late Prof. Heath for vesical calculus, became the subjectof malaise in August, 1892. In two or three days this wassucceeded by jaundice, which gradually deepened in tint andwas accompanied by all the symptoms-general and gastro-intestinal-met with in these cases. When I saw him five orsix days later there were considerable debility, a slight rise oftemperature, a rather rapid pulse and short cough. Onexamination pleuro-pneumonia of the right base was found.The condition of the lungs confirmed the opinion that in allprobability the illness was due to a " chill " and that thejaundice wascatarrhal. Under the employment of alkalies, sodasalicylate, nux vomica and calomel the jaundice gradually dis-appeared and the condition of the chest improved. For severalmonths afterwards, although there were no positive symptomsand the patient meanwhile looked well, there was the com-plaint that he never felt quite well and at that time perhapsthere was a degree of physical inability for exertion and mentalsluggishness that we did not sufficiently take into consideration.The bowels ceased to act regularly with the gentle aperienthe was in the habit of taking, a mild diarrhoea with fetidstools alternated with constipation and there was considerableflatulent distension of the abdomen. This flatulent conditionof bowel on a few subsequent occasions rather misled us. Inthe early part of 1893 the patient, who had for several weeksbeen becoming heavy and listless, but in whom no othernoticeable deviation from health was discernible, began tosuffer from recurrent attacks of severe pain, sudden in theironset, deeply seated and generally referred to the right of theepigastric region and extending towards the umbilicus. Ocea-
sionally this pain was preceded by a slight feeling of shivering,and it would last for only a few minutes or an hour or two,being somewhat controlled by hot drinks, carminatives and