For ordinary purposes a limited
amount of such knowledge is all that is needful; but for the pursuit of
the higher branches of physiology no knowledge of these branches of
science can be too extensive, or too profound. Again, what we call
therapeutics, which has to do with the action of drugs and medicines on
the living organism, is, strictly speaking, a branch of experimental
physiology, and is daily receiving a greater and greater experimental
development.
The third great fact which is to be taken into consideration in dealing
with medical education, is that the practical necessities of life do
not, as a rule, allow aspirants to medical practice to give more than
three, or it may be four years to their studies. Let us put it at four
years, and then reflect that, in the course of this time, a young man
fresh from school has to acquaint himself with medicine, surgery,
obstetrics, therapeutics, pathology, hygiene, as well as with the
anatomy and the physiology of the human body; and that his knowledge
should be of such a character that it can be relied upon in any
emergency, and always ready for practical application. Consider, in
addition, that the medical practitioner may be called upon, at any
moment, to give evidence in a court of justice in a criminal case; and
that it is therefore well that he should know something of the laws of
evidence, and of what we call medical jurisprudence.
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