Introductory Address on the Present Position of Medicine
Authors: A. B. Duffin
Journal: BMJ (1879)

THE Lecturer, after offering a cordial welcome to the old and new stu- dents of the School, said to the latter:I have alluded to the great trust that you are on the eve of confiding to us.It will obviously be a matter of extreme concern to you to know something of the method in which it will be met on our side; to ascer- tain something of the principles which will guide us in assisting you prepare yourselves for your future career.I say advisedly, prepare yourselves.This I take to be the true meaning of the term "educa- tion".We may help to develop the abilities and faculties you may possess, provided you co-operate with us.We may sow the seed, but the return depends primarily upon the soil.It rests, then, ultimately with yourselves whether your residence here shall be a season of profit or of loss.Now, the experience that you will gain here may be referred broadly to three chief sources-precept, practice, and association.The first can acquire from your teachers; the second you must obtain for selves; the last you will get from your friends.Under the term precept, I would include much more than a series formal lectures.It comprehends the whole system of instruction between teacher and pupil.Lectures, doubtless, form no inconsiderable part of this method.Some men are apt to decry lectures.They that they could acquire from books all that is to be obtained in class-room, and that the facts brought before them fly by too rapidly produce any lasting impression.Now, both these arguments, however specious, are unsound.It would require a vast extent of reading cover anything like the ground often occupied by a single lecture.teacher has already gone over and analysed this mass of material your behalf.He has selected those subjects which it is most important should be presented to you early.He has made it his business to weed out all extraneous matter, to sift controverted questions, and to epitomise results.These he imparts to you clearly and concisely.There moreover, a vividness, a reality, about spoken language, which no written symbols can convey.But the lecturer has much more than to communicate.His individual experiences, his observations,his coveries, are often to be found in his lectures, and nowhere else.regards the transitory impression producedby lectures, that I venture affirm depends upon the listener.Attention and note-taking will dissipate that difficulty.To take notes that shall be of real service an art calling for no little skill ; but it is one well worth acquiring.You will refer years hence to your College notes as to one of your valuable possessions.The fault of most beginners is the attempt to down too much.You cannot reduce to writing the ipsissima verba of the teacher.Try for the governing words that are the key sentence or paragraph.Jot these down at the time in any order may happen to fall.WVhen you get home, while the subject is still in your memory, expand them into readable shape.The advantages this system are twofold.On the one hand, you do not, in your zeal transfer remark No. to paper, lose its context remark No. 2. On other hand, you apply your critical faculties to your notes, and them into a consistent whole.Should you fail in accomplishing set aside any obscure passages for reference to your teacher when next meet.This leads me to the second and perhaps more important application of the term teaching by precept.It is colloquial instruction, that each man will obtain for himself from the individual professors, and demonstrators in the form of question and answer.The source of your experience will be practical.Here you must rely your own hands and ears.Almost every class has its practical associate: the practical chemistry and toxicological classes, the practical biology demonstrations, with their microscopical and chemical subdivisions, pre-eminentlythe dissecting-room.In alluding to the dissecting-room, I feel that I cannot do better than repeat to you the words that I from the lips of my revered teacher, Professor Bowman, when I for first time sat upon those benches: "'They are a scene of study to no other profession affords a parallel.While they retain their novelty, you cannot enter them without a certain reverential awe, inspired thought that you are walking among the dead.An earnest and