egrees, so
that the course by which a degree is obtained shall mark approximately
an equal amount of labour and of acquirements, in all cases. But this
equivalency can hardly be secured in any other way than by prescribing a
series of definite lines of study. This is a matter which will require
grave consideration. The important points to bear in mind, I think, are
that there should not be too many subjects in the curriculum, and that
the aim should be the attainment of thorough and sound knowledge of
each.

One half of the Johns Hopkins bequest is devoted to the establishment of
a hospital, and it was the desire of the testator that the university
and the hospital should co-operate in the promotion of medical
education. The trustees will unquestionably take the best advice that is
to be had as to the construction and administration of the hospital. In
respect to the former point, they will doubtless remember that a
hospital may be so arranged as to kill more than it cures; and, in
regard to the latter, that a hospital may spread the spirit of pauperism
among the well-to-do, as well as relieve the sufferings of the
destitute. It is not for me to speak on these topics--rather let me
confine myself to the one matter on which my experience as a student of
medicine, and an examiner of long standing, who has taken a great
interest in the subject of medical education, may entitle me to a
hearing. I mean the nature of medical education itself, and the
co-operation of the university in its promotion.

What is the object of medical education? It is to enable the
practitioner, on the one hand, to prevent disease by his knowledge of
hygiene; on the other hand, to divine its nature, and to alleviate or
cure it, by his knowledge of pathology, therapeutics, and practical
medicine. That is his business in life, and if he has not a thorough and
practical knowledge of the conditions of health, of the causes which
tend to the establishment of disease, of the meaning of symptoms, and of
the uses of medicines and operative appliances, he is incompetent, even
if he were the best anatomist, or physiologist, or chemist, that ever
took a gold medal or won a prize certificate. This is one great truth
respecting medical education. Another is, that all practice in medicine
is based upon theory of some sort or other; and therefore, that it is
desirable to have such theory in the closest possible accordance with
fact. The veriest empiric who give