number have been noted for combining great professional eminence with a spirit of genuine Christianity. Nor have there been wanting authors to maintain that the whole course of medical study is decidedly favourable to the production of a reverent and pious tone of thought. This was the opinion of 'Old Adam Littleton,' whom Southey quotes as arguing that 'his character of physician gave St. Luke no mean advantage towards the understanding of Christian truths, and apprehending the mysteries of faith.'* And a similar view seems to be taken at the present day by Mr. Maurice, who tells the students at Guy's Hospital that their studies lead them into depths they cannot fathom, and bring them at last into contact with the Christian mysteries.'+ Undoubtedly there is something of truth in these latter representations; religious-minded men will find the study of the human frame, its mechanism, structure, functions, diseases, and derangements, open a wide field for the profoundest and most solemn thought; they will find their religious feelings deepened and intensified by their researches into these matters, and from the excellence of the creature will mount up to the contemplation of the might of the Creator, and to the realization to themselves of His wondrous power and perfectness.

But with such as are not religious-minded at the outset, the case will be very different. It is an old remark, that the investigation of second causes has a tendency to induce men to rest in them, and to forget that they are secondary; and hence the danger of being exclusively occupied with physical science, which was noted as early as the time of Socrates. Browne includes the natural course of his studies' among those grounds which would be likely to make the world think him destitute of religion-and certainly there seems to be a peculiar temptation to such as are employed in examining the material frame of man, and in tracing the connexion of the vital principle with his structure, to slide gradually into a belief that life is but a quality of matter, the result of a certain conformation and arrangement of its atoms. The connexion of life with matter is traced so far, and the dependence of mental phenomena on the physical condition is seen to be so close, that it seems but a little step onward in the same direction to conclude that soul and body are absolutely one, and death the final end of both. This is that tendency to materialism' which medical students themselves complain of as 'pervading all their studies,' § and

* The Doctor, chap. cxix., vol. iv. p. 182.

+ Sermon preached at Guy's Hospital, March 4, 1838, and dedicated to the medical students of the metropolis.

Platon. Phæd. § 47.

De Leg. Lib. X.

S Letter from a Medical Student to the Rev. J. H. North. London, 1841.

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constituting one of the most fearful' of their dangers. Terrible enough at all times, when it assails a mind corrupted by habits of vice against which the conscience rebels, and hardened by the dread ordeal of the operating theatre and the dissecting room, its force is almost irresistible. The hard heart readily accepts the dry and heartless creed,—the vexed conscience gladly catches at it as a relief from all its fears. Hence, great numbers of the students become secret infidels, and the last restraints are removed against a career of reckless immorality.

*

We have painted these evils faintly-we have not dared to do otherwise; we could have told of scenes in the dissecting-room -'the irreverent treatment of the pale corpse, the ribald jest, the impure gibe, the hardened jeer.' We could have told of the encouragement of such things by operators and lecturers— we could have told of their leading the students to entertain doubts upon religion-we could have spoken of their coarse jests and ribaldry. Again, we could have told of scenes in lodging-houses, of the innocent entrapped and then corrupted. Ör we could have described minutely the progress of corruption from the first fall to the final taking refuge in infidelity. But we have thought it best to spare our readers these horrorsbarely have we alluded to them—what we have put forward is a mere indication of the several sorts of perils which must beset the medical student under the existing system. We have confined ourselves to heads of evil-we have kept back the sickening details.

Turn we to the remedy. Faint hearts may deem that the disease is past cure. Shame on them to think so meanly of the power of human energy! Shame on them to forget the might of that Divine blessing which attends all zealous efforts made in a righteous cause! We are not of their number-may we never be of their company!

Shall we then essay to cure the evil by the printing-press? Shall we, with Dr. Greenhill, publish the lives of Christian physicians, write 'Addresses to Medical Students,' and 'Prayers for the Use of the Profession? Shall we, with Sir H. Halford, give the students our essays in an octavo volume, or with Mr. Gardiner, reprint for their edification the religious writings of old and famous authors of their own body? These are good and praiseworthy efforts on the part of individuals. All honour to them for their noble striving in the cause of moral improvement! But what is likely to come of such petty isolated attempts to stem so vast an evil? What can books do? Let them be read, and even then how slight an effect do they in general pro

Sir Francis Palgrave (Merchant and Friar).

duce! But how are we to get them read? Unheard of by many, bought but unopened by others, tossed aside as dull or canting after the perusal of a few pages, by a third set-they will only be read by a select few, whom they may aid indeed, but whom they can never, by themselves, sustain. Here and there an individual may be preserved by means of a good book, when it is backed with other influences, and this is the utmost that such men as Dr. Greenhill and Mr. Gardiner propose to themselves; if through their labours two or three be saved who otherwise would have fallen, it is all they ask or expect—they have therein an ample reward.

While, therefore, we are far from wishing to discourage such efforts on the part of individuals, we cannot blind ourselves to the fact, that they are wholly inadequate to meet the present exigency. The plain state of the case is this :-We have an average of 1,200 medical students in London, and a much larger number over the country, constantly in course of education, and of these all but two or three hundred are exposed to the whole of those evil influences which we have enumerated. Through these evil influences and our total neglect of their moral and religious welfare, the body has become depraved, is saddled with an ill name, and thought quite irrecoverable. We, the nation, have sat by and seen this, and yet done nothing-attempted nothing. Schemes of Medical Reform' we have had, indeed, enough and to spare, but in none of them has it even been proposed to do anything for the poor student. The poor student, the Pariah of our land's inhabitants, receiving abuse on all sides, assistance on none, is given over to the enemy of mankind as his natural prey, and rightful property.

'But how is the nation concerned?' How, indeed? Is it nothing to the nation that one of its liberal professions lies under an opprobrium? Is it nothing to the nation, that they to whom the lives of its citizens, and the honour and domestic peace of all families, are to be committed, have, as a general rule, immorality and irreligion engrained into them during the whole course of their professional education? Is this nothing to the nation? Husbands, fathers, brothers, bethink you, is it nothing? or is it not everything?

'But what can the nation do?' We believe it lies in the power of the nation, at a small outlay, and with very little trouble, to effect within the space of a few years, an extensive, if not a complete reform. There is one very sufficient remedy for almost all the evils of which we have spoken-the COLLEGIATE SYSTEM. Every Hospital or Infirmary in the kingdom should have, as a matter of course, its College for students attached to it. These should be as nearly as possible modelled on the colleges or rather the halls at our Universities. They should be

each of them under a Principal, who should be a Master of Arts and a priest of the Church of England. In most provincial towns the chaplain would naturally receive the appointment. Strict discipline should be enforced with regard to attendance at the daily service, and at certain lectures to be given by the Principal, and with respect to hours. No medical man attached to the hospital or infirmary should be allowed to have any pupils who did not reside within the college walls or his own house. Expulsion from the college should involve the forfeiture of the indentures. Considering the youth of students at the time of their apprenticeship, we see no difficulty in the enforcement of a system of discipline even stricter than that which prevails at the Universities. With regard to gates, for instance, earlier hours might be fixed. The only point on which we should anticipate any difficulty is the matter of attendance at divine service persons not members of the Church of England could not, of course, be required to attend the church services. In all other respects, however, they might be made to conform to the same regulations as the other students.

In this matter a beginning was made some few years since at Birmingham. An institution was formed, not indeed on an adequate scale, and defective in many of its regulations, but still a college for students, under a clerical warden, with a chapel attached, daily service, lectures, hall dinners, an academic dress, &c. This we had hoped might have expanded into fuller proportions, and eventually have become a model for other large towns to work after. The reports, however, which we receive of it are, to our extreme disappointment, very unfavourable. The discipline is said to be lax, the accommodation very poor, and the economical arrangements bad. We fear that unless vigorous efforts be made to remedy these evils, the Birmingham Medical College will fail, and so prejudice instead of furthering the cause we had hoped it might subserve, the application, namely, of the collegiate system to medical schools throughout the country.

But however this may be, whether the Queen's College at Birmingham come to be looked upon as a pattern for imitation or a beacon for avoidance, still the movement cannot be expected to commence generally with the provincial towns. London must set the example. Cui bono?" men will say, to train up their students strictly during three years of their professional education, if during the remaining two they are to be exposed to that fearful array of temptation in the metropolis which was faintly pictured above. . And certainly, if the collegiate system is anywhere imperatively required, it is in London, where the peril is so greatly augmented, and restraint from friends so wholly withdrawn. London, therefore, must begin, and that not in the poor, paltry fashion in which efforts have hitherto been made

VOL. II,

D

there, but on a scale commensurate with the vastness of the evil, and the superabundance of her store of wealth.

There are two modes in which the collegiate system might be applied to the great hospitals. Either a single building might be attached to each, capable of accommodating the whole number of students, and a considerable body of Fellows or Professors be appointed to superintend and to instruct them; or the students might be separated into detachments, and distributed among several buildings resembling the halls of the Universities, cach under its own Head or Principal. The advantage of economy would of course be on the side of the former plan. The many small buildings would undoubtedly cost more than the one large one. A less sum annually might suffice for the same number of clergymen collected into a body than would be requisite for them if each had his own establishment and his dignity of Principal to support. And the cost of living to the students might be so reduced within narrower limits. But every other consideration is in favour of the opposite plan.

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Our experience is altogether against large colleges. Men are worst when congregated; detection is more difficult, vice finds more encouragement, discipline is enforced less easily. The difficulty of superintendence increases with increased numbers in far more than a mere regular ascending scale. If three men can sufficiently superintend one hundred students, to superintend two hundred, not six, but eight or nine will be required. Otherwise breaches of discipline will be sure to escape detection and to go unpunished. Again, in very large colleges there is more chance of a spirit of insubordination arising, and when it arises it is more formidable. And we should anticipate greater difficulty in procuring the governing body in the case of a single college than in that of many independent halls. Further, the simplicity of the hall system is in its favour; one can clearly see how it would work. And it is not quite an experiment, for it may be considered as having been tried to some extent at Queen's College, Birmingham, and at St. Bartholomew's, the latter of which admits but twenty-four, the former but twenty students. We are therefore strongly of opinion that the plan of several halls, each under its own Principal, would be found far more efficacious towards the ends we have in view than the formation of a single college on an extended scale. This, therefore, is the course we recommend. Let several distinct buildings on the plan of our University halls be erected in the vicinity of the great hospitals, each with its one gate, its chapel, hall, buttery, kitchen, Principal's lodgings, &c., capable of accommodating 30 or 40 men. Let the students on entering make a promise to obey the statutes. Let these require attendance at morning prayers and at certain lectures to be given by the Principal or