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means congeniality of principles ; and judg-ment is but another name for elective pre-destination. The evil does not terminatehere, (though the disadvantage of inefficientteachers is sufficiently great,) it extends its

malignant influence throughout the wholebody-represses the energy of the pupil aswell as of his master-and thus contami-nates the professional embryo in his firstmoments of scientific existence :

" For who would virtue of herself regard,Or wed without the portion of reward 1"

Where there is no object there can be nopreparation, no more than there can be imi-tation without a model ; for human naturecan rationally aim only at what is attainableby human means. Whatever is placed be-yond its reach by a contingency over whichit can exercise no control, excites no ex-

pectation, and of course the means of se-

curing success are neglected, to the mani-fest injury of the public and the advance-ment of the science. It may, therefore, beof greater importance than the acts of theYork-street legislators would as yet evince,that those prizes in the lottery of life, thoughfew, should be generally understood as theinvariable bounty of excellence ; that all ob-stacles to ambition, which are but too nu-merous without the adventitious aid of cabal,should, as much as possible, be diminished,and that the humblest may hope to obtainthe reward, if his strength carries him tothe goal; as it is only by extending the cir-cle of competition, procuring the higheststandards of instruction and example, andscrupulously dispensing patronage, thatscience can be diffused, emulation excited,the profession raised to its destined eleva-tion, and when lecturers are removed fromtheir mortal toils and wept for their virtues,that worthy successors maybe found amongstthe living ; as the rose, plucked at eve fromthe healthy stem, will be followed by ano-ther, as fresh and fragrant, ere the returninsun go down.

EniNENSis.Dublin, Jan. It, 1827.

THE ART OF ADVANCING BACKWARDS ; OR,REFORM OF THE SCOTCH UNIVERSITIES.

To the Editor of Trir. Lavet:r.Sm,—I learn that the Royal Commission

for visiting the Scotch Universities, sittingifi modern Athens, are playing the verydevil, and are such adepts in the art of

advancing backwards, that they bid fair, intheir retrograde course, speedily to re-enter

the enviable darkness of the monkish ages.With the medical department they seemdetermined to meddle the most, probablybecause they know it the least. In attend-

ing to the numerous and urgent demands ofthese left-handed reformers, the time of theprofessors, and especially those of the heal-ing art, is almost wholly occupied. After

having examined all the professors, and suchother persons on the spot from whom theyexpect to get information, it is understoodthat the Royal Commissioners intend to callupon the learned public at large, for viewsand suggestions as to the means of increasingthe value of degrees in all the departmentsof the Scotch Universities (i.e. of renderingthem as costly as those of Oxford and Cam-bridge), and for the mode of improoing (i.e.lengthening) education for each. If, withrespect to medical education, their opinionswere to be considered as laws, or their de-cisions as final, it would be unfortunate in-deed, since there is not an individual amongthe whole set who is at all acquainted withthe medical profession, or with the quali-fications of the various classes composing it.They consist principally of legislators andlawyers, educated in the English Univer-sities, interspersed with a few divines bredin those of Scotland. Their composition,even for general purposes, would be ex-

tremely faulty, if such a commission werenot in its very nature objectionable ; but forthe consideration of matters connected withmedicine, they must be deemed to be in-competent in the highest degree, an incom-petency indeed which has been already fully

evinced ; for if the views which appear tobe at present entertained should prevail,the effect will be to favour the Universitiesof one part of the United Kingdom at theexpense of those of another. There willbe an end of Scotch degrees in medicine ;they will be inaccessible to Englishmen andIrishmen, and indeed to all who cannot

afford to reside eight years-a great part ofthe life of a man-within the precincts ofa University; and, in such a’case, thoseUniversities in which anatomical, medical,and surgical instruction is oit the smallestscale, would, as they are suffers4 to assume

peculiar privileges, be preferred. The

scanty outlines or rudiments of medical edu-cation, which would be thus supplied in a

period of eight years, might, it is true, fitthe graduates of those favoured seminariesfor being fellows of the London College ofPhysicians, but would by no means fit themfor the skilful practice of physic or surgery.The Royal Commission to visit the Uni-

versities of Scotland was the result of a

petition from the University of Edinburgh

for a royal visitation, to determine and fixthe relative rights of the honourable patronsand the Senatus Acadoinicus. Some eircum.

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stances connected with the other ScotchUniversities having also been brought underthe notice of his Majesty’s Ministers, a

Commission was issued with very largepowers of inquiry, and to report before the1st of January 1828. I am much mistakenif the University of Edinburgh have notdiscovered by this time that they have

caught a tartar. Every professor of thatUniversity has been already examined at

great length by the Commissioners, and dif-ferent individuals have published pamphletsand articles in newspapers endeavouring tobias their judgment. Many persons also, notbelonging to the University, chiefly surgeons,have been examined by them. With the

exception of the medical professors, the pre-judice that a doctor of physic should belearned in philology and philosophy hasbeen the general opinion impressed uponthe Commissioners. The inevitable con-

sequence of acting upon it would be, thatthe number of physicians, already much toosmall, would be further limited, and almostentirely restricted to those whose parentsreside in the seat of an university.

It has, in pursuanee of these notions, beenproposed that all the Scotch Universitiesshould be rendered equal and uniform, bothin the requisites for obtaining a degree andin the mode of teaching the profession, notby assimilating Aberdeen and St. Andrew’sto Edinburgh and Glasgow, but by addingto the practical requisites deemed essentialin the latter, the philological and philoso-phical attainments now required in the for-mer, which have already, I believe, had theeffect of putting a stop to medical gradua-tion in. them, and would, I am persuaded,soon produce the same effect in the others.Another strange notion is, that the stu-

dents should not be allowed to use their ownjudgment, or that of their friends, in theselection of the university classes they haveto attend, but that they shall be bound tofollow a certain cMTt’:ftf<M?M, whatever mayhave been their previous education, altoge-ther overlooking that if such a curricldum ishould be enforced, it must be complete, iand embrace all that is necessary to obtain Ia degree, without paying any regard to thevaluable instruction which, in the prelimi-nary and fundamental branches especially, isoften to be acquired from private teachersand other sources of information.

Another object of animadversion has been,the mode of teaching clinical medicine.While it is admitted that, in Edinburghonly, in the British empire, clinical medicineis systematically taught; Dr. Thomson ar-gues, that there should be a separate pro-fessor of clinical medicine, who alone shouldteach it, and should teach nothing else. Onthe other hand, Dr. Clark, late of Rome,now of London, contends that the clinical

teachers should be greatly multiplied, andthat the advanced students should have the treat-ment of individual patients, under the sUPGrin-tendence of those teachers. But it is b) nomeans probable that the manaaers of the

Royal Infirmary will ever give their consentto such a plan, or that the philanthropists,who watch over the proceedings of all pub-lic institutions in Scotland, will ever permitthat the medical treatment of the hospitalpoor should be committed to students. Dur.

ing this season a considerable improvement,it may be observed, has taken place in themode of visiting the clinical wards. Twophysicians, having different sets of patientsin different wards under their care, maketheir visits at the same time, whereby onlyone half of the students attends each, buthave access to the case books of both, andare required to attend the lectures of both,amounting to four, often five, per week; anadvantage, probably, no where else to befound.The honourable the patrons of the Univer.

sity have instituted, and are carrying on anextensive law-suit against the Se)tatus Aeude.micus, praying that it may be declared thatthey (the patrons) have the sole right oforiginating and enforcing all regulations andcourses of study for obtaining the variousdegrees in the University, and that theSenatus Acadeariacus have not even a-negativevoice in the matter, but are bound to carrytheir dictates into effect. They even wentthe length of insisting, that a regulation ofthis kind should have a retrospective ope.ration, with which the Senat1ls Academicuswould not comply, and this law suit, whichwill not terminate until the retrospectiveperiod is long past, has been the conse-

quence. Should the patrons succeed, thewhole management of the University will beconfided to the deacon of the College ofSurgeons, who is the only individual of aliberal profession among them, and is atthe head of a rival school, at least of sur.

gery, and what is worse, is a functionarynecessarily changed every second year, sothat each would desire to distinguish hisreign by some innovation or interference.It is singular that, by their charter, theRoyal College of Physicians of Edinburgh is

interdicted_f-rom teaching medicine, or interfer-ing with the rights of the Universities,whilst no jealousy was entertained of the

surgeons, who have since acquired such anascendency.

Thus, notwithstanding the origin of thiscommission, and although it ostensibly em-braces all the departments of knowledge,there is not a doubt, from the history of itsproceedings thus far, that the result of itslabours, by whatever biases or influencesthey may be directed, will tend, as far asmedicine is concerned, to withdraw the

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public attention from the opposition, whichhas recently arisen, to the dreadful mono-

polies which disgrace that profession anddestroy the people, and to fix it upon theuniversities, as if in the discipline of thesewas to be found the source of all the exist-ing evils. Judging from the nature of theevidence sought, it seems to be the aim toassimilate the best medical universities ofScotland to the worst, and the whole of themto the worst of all possible medical univer-sities&mdash;those of Oxford and Cambrige. Thisis at once a striking specimen of the art ofadvancing backwards, and beginning at thewrong end. Why are not the worst univer-sities for medical education sought to beassimilated in discipline to those that areadmitted to be the best in that department 1Here, if we have not the influence of theLondon College of Physicians, and of theEnglish Universities, actually in operation, !,we have at least the biases of an educationreceived at these schools. Must it rot beobvious to every person of common sense,that, unless the head of a medical studenthave an infinite capacity for knowledge, theless it is loaded with attainments not ne-

cessarily connected with medicine, the moreit is likely to imbibe of strictly professionalacquirements The maxim of Hippocrates,11 vista 6i,evis, ars longa," is, by this RoyalCommission, reversed ; and life is consi-dered by them too long to be employed ex-clusively on the study of physic. Some partof it must, therefore, in mercy be bestowedon philology, philosophy, and other extra-neous pursuits. One would think the poli-tical economists were here at work, in order,by indirect means, to obviate surplus popu-lation.

It is neither from a deficiency in the timeof study at the principal Scotch Universi-ties, of medical instruction, or of tests offitness, that the public health at presentsuffers any detriment, but from the real or-ganisation of the different branches of themedical profession throughout the Britishdominions, from monopolies of the most ex-traordinary and disgraceful kind ! t This,however, is a cause of evil, which, althoughpalpable, there appears to exist no disposi-tion to investigate, but a great reluctance z,to admit. The information which is nowafloat upon the subject is, happily, too dif-fused and potent, to allow of its being anylonger treated with indifference. The at-tention of the legislature and the people isimperiously called to its investigation. Inthe mean time, it is incumbent on the pub-lic, in the course of the inquiries that mayarise, and the disputes between the univer-sities, as well as those between the differentbranches of the profession, to watch overtheir own rights and interests, and moreespecially to keep a vigi.u.t eye upon the’

proceedings of the Royal Commission toScotland. Such tribunals, however intend-ed, almost invariably become of the natureof secret inquisitions, and are, therefore,very much to be distrusted. When it is notthe object, it is the general tendency of theirmeasures to smother discussion, to directinquiry into wrong channels, to misplacepower, or to leave all things discretionary,uncertain, and arbitrary; whilst it is onlyby its agitation among the public, that animportant and involved subject can be tho-roughly ripened for legislation. I should be

exceedingly curious to see the evidence andthe reports furnished by this body to his

Majesty’s ministers, upon the present oc-casion. They will probably form the basisof some new laws, which, perhaps, some ofour fellows have already prepared, but notdigested, by anticipation. If we suffer fromlegislation, God knows, it is not from pau-city of enactments.The Scotch Universities, it is hoped, will

entertain a due sense of the indignitieswhich may be heaped upon them, whetherby mistake or design, by this foreign tribu-nal, injudiciously called in, upon this occa-sion, to settle their civil differences, by oneof themselves. It is also incumbent uponthe whole medical profession, but more

especially upon the graduates of those nor-thern schools, and, most of all, upon thepublic at large, assiduously to watch its

progress, throughout its reforarai2:g tour, andto guard against whatever may appear to beits machinations. "Quis custodiat custodes

ipsos?" The press. With a view the more

effectually to frustrate any insidious or erro-neous designs that may be entertained orcontemplated by this body, and to secure anefficient reform of the medical profession,which is the grand desideratum, not thatof the universities, persons on the spot areintreated to communicate, through the pub-lic press, or private correspondence, withpermission to give it publicity, the earliestpossible intelligence respecting the pro-ceedings of those Commissioners, in orderthat, if good, they may be promoted, if bad,opposed. At present, the very aspect ofthe case, I must say, is calculated to createthe most serious apprehensions, if not ofsinister designs, at least of disastrous results;disastrous, if they should be found to con-sist in the maintenance and perpetuation,by indirect means, of those most destruc-tive of all monopolies, which regard thelife and health of men, which in decencyadmit not of direct support, and which eventhe most profligate would now shrink fromopenly upholding under their proper desig-nations.

AN ANTI-MONOPOLIST.

London, Feb.8, 1827.