Star.
London, England, 1829-10-02 00:00:00

. Mr. Charles NU yesterday delivered the Introductory
Lecture to the Medical Classes at the University. He observed,
that he felt great embarrassment in the execution of this delicate
and difficult task; but he should rely on the experience afforded
him last season, that a well-meant effort was sure of receiving
their approltation. They were now assembled in an University
differing in the manner in which it had been founded from all
that had preceded it. In ancient times religion was the only
cause capable of producing so great an effect, and ascord(kgly
we found that all Universities which were formed at those
periods were founded and endowed with a religious object, and
were placed under the direction and controul of ecclesiastics.
In these Universities the proper method of studying, and not the
science to be studied, was the principal object 'of attention. The
Professors, even in those sciences which were now made to
depend principally on verified and repeated experiments, caring
less for the amount of knowledge acquired by the student than
for the way in which he had acquired it. The writings of Aris-
totle held a despotic dominion over the minds of men. They
were reverenced almost as a divine production, and were net
unfrequently taken up into the pulpit along with the sacred
volume which they alone were thought worthy to accompany.
The consequence of this mode of education was, that the Stu-
dent might, in time, be able to defend any set of propositions,
with a degree of skill that defied almost the possibility of defeat ;
but could scarcely ever hope to discover whether those propositions
were founded in truth. This habit of teaching continued, in some
places, long after wiser men had renounced it; and Locke related,
that during his travels he was assailed by one of these scholastic
champions, who, after the usual salutation, attacked him so
fiercely with argument, as to afford him no chance of escape ;
but, fortunately, the champion's lungs being unequal to sustain
this effort for ever, be was, after some time, obliged to desist
from continuing this Aristotelian lecture, which else might hardly
have come to a termination. This system had been the work of
the Clergy and the Lawyers—the latter of whom, for a very long
period. framed their pleadings on its rules ; but it was a highly
curious fact that it was first broken through by a Lawyer, who
substituted in its stead the inductive mode of proof, and taught
men not to look in fanciful thecnies,but in accurately performed ex-
periments for the truths of science. But for that great man, science
might have been in the same state now as in the dark ages of Euro-
pean History. Some changes had been made by time and circum-
stances, and a few men of great genius had begun to adopt the induc-
tive method; but it was Bacon who invested it with authority, and
destroyed the power by which mankind had been so long enthralled.
Instead now of following a certain routine of teaching without re-
gard to its deficiencies, or to those varying circumstances which
in time required a modification of any even the best system that
human Ingenuity could form, the objects of modern Professors,
especially of those in ibis University, was to adopt such improve-
ments as experience might suggest. This University possessed
within Reef not only all the means but all the incentives to
Improvement, and could scarcely ever, under any circum-
stances, be found behind the advanced state of the age.
In the first place, there was the constant intercourse kept up
between the !Infectivity and the public by means of the large
body of shareholders, whose interests of every kind would
prompt them to see that no usages were obstinately adhered
to merely because they had once been established. In the
next place, it was the interest of each Professor to adopt every pos.
Bible improvement in the mode of teaching by which he might Insure
an increase of advantage and reputation ; and lastly, there were the
Members of the Council, who, themselves men of science and men
of the world, would take care that the University, with the pros-
perity and success of which they had so identified themselves,
should not want any of those advantages that an increase of know-
ledge in any part of the world might be able to confer. The Pro-
fessor here went Into considerable detail, to show the great exer-
tions that bad been made by the Council and the Professors to
renter the education afforded to the medical classes complete. He
.observed •that the industry and application of the Medical Students
cool& never fail of its reward ; and it was with pleasure he was
enabled to state, as some encouragement to exertion, that the Right
Hon. C. Wynn had presented to the Council the disposal of a
Surgeoney in the East India Company's Service—(applause). The
Professors would feel the greatest interest in the improvement of
the students of their class, and each Professor would use his utmost
endeavours to arrive at that perfection of teaching the art of
interesting the student. They would, in that respect, imitate the
example of the excellent Author of the Theory of Moral Sentiment,
and the Wealth of Nations, who, when Professor of Moral Philo-
sophy in the University of Glasgow, observed among his class one
young man whose attitude was usually that which marked profound
attention ; and whenever Dr. Adam Smith observed that student
throw himself back in his seat in a manner that marked weariness
or inattention, he felt that he must either have omitted some link
in the chain of his reasoning, or had fallen into some obscurity
in his illustrations, and accordingly exerted himself to remedy
the defect, never teeling satisfied till he observed that pupil
again listening with earnest attention to his discourse—(Great
-applause). The Medical Science was that which never
failed to repay the labour of the industrious student ; the phy-
sician at the bed-side of the sick patient seemed occupied in the
discharge of duties of the most amiable kind, and the mem-
bers of the medical profession were always treated with great
and deserved respect. Self-love overcame the fiercest prejudices,
and the man who might owe his life to the care and skill of another
reverenced him, notwithstanding even religious antipathies. At
the moment of executing the massacre of St. Bartholomew, Charles
IX. observed to Ambrose Pare, his physician. that the time had
come when all people in France should be of one religion. "By
Gun's light, Sire," said the physician, "do you forget the four
things you promised me—that I should never reenter my mother's
womb—that I should never go nut to battle—that I should never
quit your Majesty's service—and that I should never go to mass?"
The King was struck with the recollection of his promise ;
he acknowledged to Pare that he was sick in mind and
body, for that the murdered Hugonots seemed to rise in judg-
ment against him ; and the edict that stopped the massacre was the
consequence of the conversation. The Professor concluded his
Lecture by observing on the advantages which the University en-
joyCd, from the time, the place, and the circumstances of its foun-
dation ; and by exhorting the students, not only for their own inte-
rests but for those of the University. not to afford by their conduct
any just opportunity to the prejudiced opponents of this great un-
dertaking:to cast censure upon it or upon its members.
The Professor was warmly applauded at the conclusion of his
Lecture.; and the majority of his auditors, who amounted to
between three and four hundred, quitted the Theatre to pay a
visit make Medical Museum, which, it was publicly announced, had.
. been opened for the students.
, •
Captain BASIL HALL says that, on two occasions, at
American inns, he " was obliged to boil his water in a frying-pan,
and make tea in an earthen* jug." Of course such remarks are in-
sufferably impertinent in.the eyes of brother Jonathan, one of
whose newsmongers tlaucpolitely introduces a critique upon the
Captain's book :—" Mau. Kw, —The Editor of the Notional
Gazette continues to use the cutry-comb upon the back of this con-
ceited vagabond."