medical profession, with the exception of those who are educated at the English Universities, are not subjected to any such control during the trying period of youth. They alone, they whose character is, next to that of the clergy, of the most moment to the country, from. the intimate relations into which they are admitted in all families, go through their education almost without check, or control, or superintendence, as to what relates to religious or moral discipline. But this is not all. Where is it that the system of medical education is carried on? Where is it that its improvement in a scientific point of view attracts such crowds of students? It is to London, which, as the mightiest of all cities, abounds in every temptation, and every facility to vice. Let us not at the present moment inquire into facts; but let us, on the most superficial knowledge of human nature and human passion, ask ourselves whether, if many hundreds of young men are thrown into a great city, and are left, without anything of moral discipline, to choose their own abode, and their own hours, to attend or not attend the worship of God from year's end to year's end,-whether, in too many cases, the effects must not be of the most calamitous kind to their own welfare and peace,-whether persons so educated (speaking of the mass) are those whom a man would be glad and ready to admit with unhesitating confidence into his family? Doubtless, in many cases, early principles of religion, under God's grace, rescue young men so exposed from evil, and they come forth from the fiery trial corrected, strengthened, and improved. But is this the natural result of such a system? Are such exceptions any defence of it? Is it a perfect system of education? Is it a desirable one?

The writer is perfectly certain, from his own knowledge of several illustrious teachers,-men as much distinguished by their high moral tone and their sincere religion as by their attainments in science,-that they will go fully along with him in this view, and in the earnest wish to remedy this great evil; that as far as their warning voice, their influence, and example, could prevail, nothing has been left undone to prevent the full operation of it. Nor ought it to be overlooked, as was before noticed, that they, and those who (being entrusted with the management of great institutions) have either given them the impulse or co-operated with them in introducing such perfection into medical education, in some quarters at least, have some opportunities of giving a more favourable turn to things, and that they faithfully and earnestly improve these occasions, and are seeking for

more.

There is reason to hope that the tone of the students of latter years has been considerably raised.* Nor can it be denied that something more may be done, even as things are, to raise it still higher. If some testimonial of character were required before a young man

It may fairly be taken as a clear sign of right and good feeling that the students of Guy's Hospital (distinguished generally for good conduct) collected no less a sum than 791. for the distressed Irish clergy, and this purely from their own feelings. No doubt can be felt that where such strong and right feelings exist, everything might be hoped.

was admitted into institutions which stand high in public estimation, (and they who know what is said and thought by foreigners, as well as Englishmen, of some of our establishments, are aware that there are such, and that such a step would not diminish the numbers of their students,) if they gave the student the means of attending religious instruction, if they gave him when he left them a testimonial that he had profited by those means, and, as far as their opportunities enabled them to judge, had conducted himself in an orderly and regular manner, and if they strictly refused such a testimonial to those of whose conduct they had cause to think ill, a good deal would be done. And, in all probability, such or greater improvements are contemplated. Still the great evil remains. It may be and doubtless is true, indeed, that many lecturers feel and shew interest about young men who fall under their particular notice. But it is to be remembered that all such kind notice is beyond the sphere of their duty, that they engage for nothing more than scientific lectures, and have no kind of connexion with discipline. Nor is it possible, under such circumstances, for a lecturer to have much knowledge of a numerous body of students beyond the lecture-room.

Whatever partial counteractions, therefore, of this kind may exist, it still must remain true that the large mass of medical students in London go through their education without moral discipline or control, and entirely as their own masters. It still must remain true that this is a great evil-that it will in too many cases operate with medical students just as it must with every other class of young men so placed, frequently injure their moral character, and deteriorate even their tone of manners and demeanour.* Neither let it be forgotten that in one respect they stand worse than other young men. ruptio optimi pessima, is a great moral truth. Their very studies, admirable and calculated as they may be to exalt and elevate a religious heart, and to bring it to a greater love and humbler adoration of God, are beyond all doubt calculated also to supply nourishment to evil already existing, and farther to corrupt what is corrupted and unrenewed by higher and better feelings and tempers.

Cor

If, then, this is undeniably the state of things, and if these are the evils to be complained of, how will the New University affect them? There can be little difficulty in seeing that. It will give the London schools the power of completing a medical education, from first to last, in London. The convenience of the arrangement, the cheapness of the education, the distinguished reputation of the teachers, will probably then make London the regular and only place of education for physicians. Heretofore very many of the leaders in the profession have been educated first at the older universities, subject to the same control, and acquiring the same feelings, habits, and manners as other English gentlemen. But, in all human probability, this will not be the

It is always better to refer to the past than the present. And what could be more decisive as to the perfect lawlessness of the system than what the public journals related of the conduct of the students in Gower-street three or four years ago, where they hissed and hooted their professors, and took the lecture-rooms into their own hands?

case when education can be completed in London. To Oxford and Cambridge, as far as numbers go, this is of no consequence, as the number of medical students was, of course, always a small one; but to the country it is a matter of great moment. For, in this way, one of the partial checks to the evil of the present system of education-and a very efficient one-will be removed. The leaders of the profession hereafter may be doubtless men of distinguished attainments in professional science; but, if educated in London, from first to last, is it at all certain that they will in future be anything else? Great talents, great knowledge of science, do not necessarily imply either a great general education, gentlemanlike manners, or high principles; and without looking at so fearful a result as likely to be general, nothing can be more likely than that, by the instrumentality of this new university, very frequently men of the most irreligious character will be sent forth, with distinction and degrees, into the world. The groundwork of the institution is, that no notice is to be taken of religion. Consequently there can be no earthly reason why every examination may not send out, high in its list of honours, men who believe in no God-nay, mock at the notion; and who have lived, from the first hour of their coming to London till that in which the metropolitan university sent them forth as M.D.'s, as their own masters. It is all very true that a large body of scientific men and a large body of reformers are always ready to cry out, (in words already used in the House of Commons,) What does it signify to me what a man believes, or what he is, if he cures my fever or performs an operation better than any other man? But the scientific and the reformers had better in this matter consult the public, whom they profess to serve; and we shall soon see whether the public really will think it good and desirable that men should be admitted into a degree of confidence and intimacy beyond any others, nay, should be allowed to witness scenes of domestic distress which one would wish none but a Christian and a gentleman to witness, when there can be no satisfactory testimonial of moral conduct before they were stampt with academic honours-when there is no earthly manner of knowing whether they may not be even wholly devoid of every religious sentiment. That this may be so, all must see; and if the scientific and the reformers say it never will be so-if they will venture to say that they know of no facts which must lead them, if they will speak the truth, to confess that such things may not very unfrequently happen, they must have even more courage than they, who know them best, give them credit for. But it is not merely the possibility of this result, it is the certainty that the tendency of the measure must be to degrade the profession, which causes the objection to the new university. If it is an effectual measure, in short, it will make London the great and only scene of medical education-that is to say, on the one hand, it will prevent the leaders of the profession from having any

* Mr. Spring Rice's projết talks of a testimonial of moral conduct before the degree. After what has been said, it is unnecessary to point out how little it can say as to any one, and how wholly silent it must be about most. A few richer men may be placed by their parents in respectable families; but what becomes of the mass, who cannot afford this? 2 F

VOL. IX.-Feb. 1836.

longer the same education, and, in the course of it, acquiring the same views, feelings, manners, and habits as the large mass of English gentlemen whose feelings and views are acquired very much at college, and thus from imparting (as far as their influence extends) the same feelings to the profession at large. And then, by being expressly built on the basis that no notice whatever is to be taken of religion, it will effectually destroy all reasonable hope of any improvements in the general tone of medical education. The examination must be scientific solely; the previous character of the party, when privileges are extended to a variety of schools not so regulated as to be able to give any, or any satisfactory, account of their students, must be, whatever may be said as to testimonials, mere matter of conjecture; and it cannot even be asked whether, before the student comes to receive, by national legislation, a degree which gives him certain rank and privileges, he even believes the being of a God. What possible motive, then, can any of the schools of medicine have, under such circumstances, to improve the general tone of their pupils, or the general tone of education ? What motive can they have to endeavour to impress on the student the great truth, that a scientific education only is a very miserable one-that he ought, even on that ground, to look farther and higher; but, above all, that for any profession, and, most of all, for his, a high religious and moral tone is the only one for his own good, and the good of others? What motive can they give him for acquiring that tone, when those who are to inquire into his proficiency, and to distribute to him the meed of academic honour, cannot know, or even ask, whether he believes in another state, another and higher Being than man, and the necessity of worshipping him?

If it is asked, in conclusion, whether, even admitting the evil complained of, and admitting that the Metropolitan University, by taking away the present counteractions to it, and all reason for improvements in the great institutions for medical education, will do harm, the writer is sanguine enough to hope that any remedy could be found for these evils which he acknowledges to exist at present, his answer would be unquestionably in the affirmative. It seems to him (without going into details) no day-dream to suppose, that, in connexion with great schools, arrangements might be made, whether by means of extra buildings or otherwise, under which the strictest attention to economy should be practised, and the same kind of moral discipline and control might be exercised, as at the university. In the meantime, he feels fully persuaded that the attention of many persons connected with the medical profession is awakened-that they feel that it is time to inquire, not what foreigners say of their improvements in science, but what English parents say of their improvement of the education and discipline of their sons, and what the English public look for at their hands in the students committed to their charge-that they have suggested

• Of course it must be remembered that the hospitals are already benefactors to the country, in allowing the existence of medical schools in connexion with them. It is certainly no part of their direct or legal duty to see to the young men, or to have any school at all. The appeal is only to their high feelings and general wish to do all the good that can be done.

many improvements, and are anxiously looking for others, until this more complete scheme could be realized-and that it would be their fixed and anxious purpose to give to every student the means of knowing his high destiny, his awful responsibilities, and his dangers, as an immortal and a moral being, and to send no one into the heart of a family, a sick room, and a dying bed, as the Metropolitan University may and will do, whose creed may be, that he was born by chance, and will perish in the grave.

P.S. Since these remarks were written, a circumstance has occurred which brings to the writer's mind that he has been deficient in passing over one point of some importance in looking at the condition of medical students in London-viz., the evil advisers by whom they are beset. The circumstance is this-A young man, it appears, was plucked by the examiners at Apothecaries' Hall, a body to whom the country is under obligations for very great improvements effected in their examinations, and the steadiness with which they refuse to pass incompetent persons. A person, whose business it would appear that it is to prepare young men to get through, has had the ill luck to have two or three of his pupils rejected, and is consequently afraid of losing his business. It is said, that after the young man's rejection a certain number of persons collected at a public-house opposite the examination-room, and broke the windows. By whom, and by whose advice, this was done, as there is no proof, shall not be entered on here. But a meeting was called at the Crown and Anchor, which was attended by a very large body of students, and this tutor made a most inflammatory speech, reviling the Apothecaries' Company and their examiners in the most violent language, and assuring these poor, deluded young men that parliament should redress their wrongs. No comment shall be made on the presence or the letters of some very well known personages, but Mr. Warburton professes to be a man of character. What can he think of himself when he writes to a mob of students, in course of education, on the necessity of reform among their instructors, and courts a miserable popularity among boys or young men by thus degrading himself, and misleading them?

The meeting was most disgraceful. There was a great tumult and rush at the platform, fearful noise and shouting all through it, and at the end it broke up with "three cheers for Mother H.'s, and three cheers for the Cider Cellar." Now, on the conduct of the students themselves, no comment shall be made. The most respectable students were not there; and of those who were, it is to be remembered that many went from idle curiosity, and that most of them are young men, for whom, on the score of their youth and various disadvantages, much allowance must be made. Let them remember, however, the certain consequences of such conduct to themselves. They may attend radical meetings, and may abuse their instructors, and be told that parliament will redress their wrongs. But they have their bread to get, they will be known and marked, and no radical meetings and no radical measures can compel any man to employ persons whose life and manners lead them to join in "three cheers for Mother H.'s, and three cheers for the Cider Cellar;" who shew, in short, a taste for that which most offends