SKETCH for a MEDICAL EDUCATION. by J*L. M D. F R S.

After having attained a competent knowledge of the Languages neceſſary to acquire thoſe Sciences that are requiſite to the ſtudy of Medicine; and to enable the Student to read and conſult the va⯑rious Authors that have written on Phy⯑ſic. MATHEMATICS claims his firſt attention.

Without the knowledge of Mathe⯑matics it is impoſſible to underſtand NA⯑TURAL PHILOSOPHY, a Science by which the Laws, and Oeconomy of na⯑ture, and the Human body, can only be underſtood; as alſo the many cauſes that operate upon men and all nature.

ANATOMY being the foundation of medical knowledge, it is therefore to be ſtudied with the greateſt care and attention. Its intricacy alſo requires the aid of the beſt Profeſſors; and that the Pupil himſelf practice frequent diſſections to attain this moſt neceſſary part of a Medical Education. Without the know⯑ledge of Anatomy, it is impoſſible either [2]to diſcover the ſeat, nature, or cure, of Diſeaſes. In Surgery no operation can be performed with ſafety or with much probability of ſucceſs to the Patient. From diſſections he likewise learns the nature of many hidden Diſorders, and when ſimilar ſymptoms occur to know the Diſeaſe under which the Patient la⯑bours. It alſo enables, the Phyſician or Surgeon when called upon by a Court of Juſtice, to determine with certainty whether Death has been occaſioned from a natural cauſe, or from violence; hence he becomes the means of acquitting the innocent, and of condemning the guilty; but if ignorant of Anatomy, perhaps the contrary.

CHEMISTRY is an other neceſſary part of a Medical Education, as with⯑out a knowledge of it we muſt ever be ig⯑norant of the various chemical Proceſſes that are constantly going on in the Ani⯑mal oeconomy upon whom depends health or diſeaſe, and from a true knowledge of whom, we are greatly inſtucted how to preſerve the firſt, and to cure the latter alſo the Phyſician is liable to give Pre⯑ſcriptions that cannot be compounded or [3]if they could, He is ignorant of the means by which it can be done. Some efficacious medicines he frequently deſ⯑troys by his injudicious compoſitions, while other ſubſtances even innocent and inert ones, are rendered injurious and highly poiſonous.

A knowledge of the MATERIA-MEDICA is alſo neceſſary to every prac⯑titioner of Medicine, without which he is ignorant of the means of cure, notwith⯑ſtanding the Diſeaſe is known to him: Alſo, altho he is acquainted with the powers of a few medicines, he will find himſelf foiled for want of a more extended knowledge of the Materia-Medica, the conſtitutions of ſome people, differing as much from that of mankind in general: as if they were of a different Species. Therefore what proves uſeful in a diſ⯑eaſe with moſt people, with ſome it may be injurious.

The Materia-Medica being an ex⯑tenſive Science, requiring the aid of me⯑thod, BOTANY and NATURAL-HIS⯑TORY ſhould therefore make a part of the education of every Phyſician; the knowledge of them alſo helps to abridge [4]the ſtudy of the Materia-Medica, there being frequently an analogy in the vir⯑tues of bodies of the ſame Genus.

Lectures on the THEORY of ME⯑DICINE, may now be ſtudied. In this courſe is alſo taught PHYSEOLOGY & PATHOLOGY, both abſolutely requi⯑ſite to a Medical Education. Although the different Syſtems of Phyſic are im⯑perfect, yet as they ſerve for a clew to guide and direct a Phyſician in his pro⯑cedure of Cure, by keeping him from confounding one thing with an other, they are therefore of the greateſt utility in the Practice of Medicine; more eſpe⯑cially as all Practitioners have a natural tendancy to empiriciſm.

The PRACTICE of PHYSIC is the laſt, and chief deſign, of medical ſtudy. This part of medical knowledge is to be attained from hearing the Lectu⯑res of eminent Profeſſors, and by reading, but particularly by attending Hoſpitals, where Clinical Lectures are delivered to the Students, in which are generally given the Hiſtory of the Diſeaſe under which the Patient labours, the purpoſe propoſed, for the adminiſtering, of this [5]or that medicine, and their effects up⯑on the Patient pointed out; laſtly if the patient dies, the cauſe of his death is more evidently pointed out and ſhown to the Students, by the diſſecton of the morbid body.