On the medical profession and medical education in Canada : address delivered at his installation as professor of the institutes of medicine, Queen's University, January 10, 1865 / by Donald Maclean.

  • Maclean, Donald, M.D.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the medical profession and medical education in Canada : address delivered at his installation as professor of the institutes of medicine, Queen's University, January 10, 1865 / by Donald Maclean. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    mater. But the insufficiency and imperfection of the present system of medical education in Canada and the necessity which exists for its improvement and reform do not require to be proved or illustrated by any such invidious inquiries or comparisons ; for any person, with even a very moderate acquaintance with human nature, who will take the trouble to make himself acquainted with the present mode of administration of our medical schools, will have no difficulty in forming an estimate of its inherent imperfections and the necessity for its reform. If any additional proof were wanting, it can be obtained to an overwhelming extent from history, from the history of the English and Scotch Universities. In this fact consists our chief comfort and ground for hope. Only a few years have elapsed since the medical schools of Scotland were oppressed and their progress inpeded by exactly the same causes which now oppress those of Canada and impede their progress. This fact, together with the fact that the Scottish schools have succeeded in obtaining the removal of all those causes of oppression and impediment, should not only nfford us comfort in our present unsatisfactory condition, but should also stimulate us to make every exertion, and to rest riot till we have the satisfaction of seeing our Canadian schools freed from all the existing obstacles to their progress in the path of usefulness and great- ness. In Canada there are several medical schools between which of course there is maintained a good deal of competition, and herein consists the greatest obstacle to the efficiency and suc- cess of medical education in these Provinces. For each school being naturally desirous of enrolling the largest number of students, and turning out the largest number of graduates, and there being no uniform standard of examina- tion, either preliminary or final, and the pro- fessors, who in this respeet have everything in their power, having considerable pecuniary interests at stake, the result is, that no matter how ignorant an applicant for admission to the medical classes may be, he is permitted to enter ; and in like manner the aspirant to the honour of a medical degree is almost sure to