rImaTRxITIN 221 J'ULY 30, 1904.] ANNUAL MEETING: PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. IMIDICAL JOURNAL I spondent, signing himself "A Member of Convocation,' wrote a long and bitter letter complaining of the tway in which the study of was entirely overlodked .t DBLIVERED AT THE . As a Oxford, he declared, had SEVENTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING OF THE within the preceding quarter of a century entirely ceased to BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, exist. No teaching in the. preliminary subjects of medicine BY was being given, and the medical faculty had recently lost even its nominal existence, and now appeared under the head WILLIAMI COLLIER, f.D.CAMB., of physical science and mathematics. He attributed this F.R.C.P.LOND., decadence largely to the influenceof the then Regius Professor , Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford; and Litchfield Lecturer in of Medicine, and to the Professor of Physiology. They Medicine, ; were ably defended by several of their old students, President of the Associatioh. who showed how much the teaching of natural scienoe at Oxford owed to their personal efforts. The con- THE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE OXFORD troversy on medical teaching at Oxford was carried MEDICAL SCHOOL. on with vigour for, many months by many writers, of and while all, or nearly all, were in favour of I HAVE chosen as the subject my address this evening the making adequate provision for the teaching of anatomy growth and development of our Medical School. I wAs led to and physiology at the University, some were most do so by remembering that since the last visit of our Associa- anxious to establish a complete medical school, declaring tion to this city in i868 great changes have occurred, that in many of the most illustrious medical schools in Ger- e6pecially so far as the teaching of science is concerned in many the hospital population was not larger than it was at 1tliis University, and more particularly those branches of Oxford. Fortunately the subject was not allowed to remain science connected with the early training of the student of simply a subject of controversy, Our Association took it up, medicine. . New professorships have been established, a band and we find that the then Chairman of our Parliamentary Bills of and demonstrators has been organized, Committee, Mr. Ernest Hart, at a meeting of the Committee readers, lecturers, in 1879, read a memorial, which it was resolved to send to the buildings have been erected and fully equipped, with the Hebdomadal Council, to the House of Commons, and to the object of encouraging students of medicine to join the recently-appointed University Commission. It was pub- University for their early scientific training. Again, I remem- lished in the BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL' just a quarter of a bered that the members of this Association a quarter of a century ago, and signatures were asked for. century ago keenly interested themselves in the Oxford This memorial, after pointing out all the advantages likely Medical School, and took active measures to bring about the to follow the establishment of a medical school at Oxford, changes to which I shall refer. urged the immediate constitution of a thorough medical Twenty-four years ago, in i88o, when our Association held curriculum (on the same basis as the -medical schools of other its annual meeting at Cambridge, the then President, Sir English centres) in the following subjects at least: i. Human anatomy. George Humphry, in one of the most eloquent and forcible 2. Physiology. addresses ever given to the Association, used these words: 3. General . Has there not through the whole period of our academic history been enacted a divorce, a most unnatural divorce, between body and mind- 4. Materia medica. that is to say, between the nurturers of the one and the cultivators of 5. Clinical medicine and for beginners. the other? Has not Cambridge more than any University, with perhaps 6. State medicine, including medical jurisprudence and one exception, banished medicine from its walls and the men of medi- . cine from its schools? Can good reason be shown why medicine has The memorial was signed by upwards of 2,000 members been allowed to profit so little by the accumulated liberality of many including a large number of highly influential and well-known generations, which has given such impulse to art and literature, to persons; it was forwarded in due course, not only to the classics and theology, mathematics and philosophy, to astronomy and House of Commons, but also to the Hebdomadal Council of logic ? the Univelsity, md by them referred to a Committee whieh He pointed out that originally the Faculty of Medicine had had been appointed to consider the subject of medical been placed on a par with those of Divinity and Law, and the education. provisions for teaching and graduating in all these faculties A little later another petition was drafted on very similar had been made alike. lines by an entirely different body of men,- and was sent to A little later Humphry gave what was probably the correct the Commissioners who were at the time engaged in investi- answer to his inquiry. For he showed that the College of gating the affairs of the University. The petition was in London-founded by the influence of Linacre, signed by a large number of London teachers. I -will give with the privilege of licensing practitioners throughout the you a few names: Lord Lister, the late Dr. Bristowe, Sir kingdom, became in time the successful rival of the old Wm. Broadbent, Sir Lauder Brunton, Sir , Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. As London grew in David Ferrier, and many others. Oxford graduates in medi- size and importance the influence of its College increased, cine signed it, among others Dr. Southey, Dr. Payne, Dr. and in a short time little was left to- the Universities beyond Corfield, Dr. Bridges, Dr. 'Long Fox. It was signed in addi- the function of giving a preliminary training to the few who tion by a very considerable number of the resident; pro- could avail themselves of it. In no other European country fessors and graduates, many of whom, I am glad to say, are are their competing corporations similar to our Colleges of living with us in Oxford at the present time. Physicians and Surgeons, having power to grant licences to I have not been able to find that the University Commis- practise. In other countries the Universities are the only sioners ever published a report, though the evidence of wit- avenues to medicine. nesses was published in a voluminous Blue Book, but it is certain that they considered the petitions favourably. THE REVIVAL OF A MEDICAL SCHOOL IN OXFORD. In November, I882, Professor Burdon Sanderson was ap- Why should not the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge pointed to the newly-founded Chair of Human Physiology taketheir proper share in the training and educationof medical and Histology at Oxford, a first step towards the establish- students ? This question had for some years previously occu- ment of in Oxford on modern lines. pied the thoughts and minds of many earnest men at hoth Universities. Science had already obtained a sound ITS DEVELOPMENT. footing. At Cambridge the Honour School of Natural Having elected a Professor of Physiology, it was found Science had been established as far back as I85I, at Oxford in necessary to build him laboratories and class-rooms for the I853, while at Oxford the University Museum-the centre for purpose of teaching, and on June 5tb, I883, the members of scientific work-in which our Sectional meetings will be held Convocation were asked to grant a sum of £1o,oco for this this week, had been built thanks very largely to the purpose. The resolution met with keen opposition, partly on influence and exertions of the late Sir. Henry Acland. the ground that vivisection would be practised, and partly A correspondexnce had been carried on in the BRITISH on the ground that the expenses were beyond the existing MEDICAL JOURNAL for a considerable period on the subject of resources of the University. The resolution was carried by the Oxford Medical School, under the title of " A Lost the small majority of three votes. Medical School." On February 5th, I884, a decree was submitted to Convoca- So long ago as January 5th, 1878, an anonymous corre- Ition to empower the Ctarators of the Universityr Chest to [2274] TEZ ftrTm, j 222 KEDICAM IOURNAM-1 ANNUAL MEETING: PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. [JULY 36, i go4. 'raise a sum not exceeding£io,ooo to defray the cost of the two new departments-pathology and pharmacology-both erection of a laboratory and class-rooms for the Professor of well within the scope to which Oxford had restricted itself in Physiology. A circular had been sent round to those believed the building up of the medical school, and in the following to be opposed to vivisection, and only to those, calling upon year William John Smith Jerome was appointed Lecturer in them to showbytheirvotes their determination not to permit Pharmacology and Materia Materia. experimental researches in Oxford. There spoke in favour of In May, i898, in spite of the impoverished condition of the the resolution Dr. Liddell, the then Dean of Christ Church, University Chest, Convocation passed without dissenta decree and the late Sir H. Acland, and against it the late Professor empowering the University to spend £7,500 in erecting new Freeman and the present Bodleian Librarian; placets, i88; laboratories and lecture rooms for the joint use of the Pro- non-placets, 149; and so the decree was carried. Having fessor of Botany and Comparative Anatomy, Sir William built the laboratories and lecture-rooms for the Professor of Anson showing that this expenditure was rendered necessary Physiology, it was found necessary to ask for an annual sum by the increase in the number of medical students. of £500 for three years to defray the cost of heating, lighting, In I899 a generous medical student, Mr. Ewan Frazer, water supply, the salary of a demonstrator of histology, and offered the University a sum of £5,000 towards the expenses other incidental expenses. This was an opportunity not to of building a pathological laboratory. This sum was accepted, be missed; the antivivisection party, who had loudly con- the University at the same time agreeing to supplement it tended that the last vote was not representative, at once began with another £5,ooo, and to make an annual grant of £250 for an active campaign.2 A circular headed "Vivisection in upkeep. Oxford," signed by Mr. Ruskin, Professor Freeman, four Two years later, in October, I9OI, the new Pathological heads of Houses, five professors, and a number of Fellows, Laboratory was opened, and at the opening ceremony Dr. was widely distributed, calling upon Convocation to forbid Ritchie, Reader in Pathology, pointed out: the establishment of a centre of vivisection in Oxford. This That, in addition to giving those who were seeking degrees the oppor- gave rise to a counterblast in the form of a circular, signed tunities of acquiring the necessary knowledge in pathology, it was the the Dean of Christ fourteen heads of the desire of the University to provide opportunities for those who wished by Church, Houses, after graduation to return to Oxford to prosecute researches in path- Begius Professor of Divinity, Professor Max Muller, and a ology and bacteriology, and to this end there had been provided a large number of tutors and Fellows. special room for experimental pathology. In view of the fact that much The question came before Convocation on March ioth, I885. of the pathological work of the future must be in the direction of the There spoke in favour of the grant Dean Liddell, Sir William chemical examination of the products of disease processes, a chemical Anson, and Sir Henry Acland; against the grant Canon research laboratory had also been provided. Liddon and the then Bishop of Oxford, Dr. Mackarness. Already the importance of our new Pathological Labora- Others attempted to speak, but were not given a hearing. tory has been recognized, as a generous donor, Mr. Philip F. -One enthusiast in all sincerity and with much earnestness Walker, has quite recently endowed a studentship of the introduced, I suppose, the most fantastic argument ever put annual value of £200, the holder of which must devote him- forward in favour of vivisection, namely, that the Gadarene self to original research in pathology. Who can doubt that -miracle sanctioned it, inasmuch as it was a well-known fact this studentship will result in the production of much good that swine in swimming crossed their forelegs, and in so work, as we all know that many a man eagerly anxious and doing cut their own throats. The question was then put to in every way fitted to carry on investigations of the utmost the vote, and was carried by a majority of i68 in a house of importance to mankind is prevented from doing so by want 656. Since this division the antiphysiological party, as they of means ? were called, have not, as far as I am aware, been in evidence I must not omit to mention that in I9OI the Drapers' Com- in any meeting of Convocation. pany presented to the University the magnificent Medical *In the same year, I885, the Faculty of Medicine, which had Library, which you will find in close proximity to the 'been merged in natural science, was recreated, and Mr. Arthur Museum Buildings, and which will ever remain as a memento Thomson, Senior Demonstrator in Anatomy in of their generosity. UJniversity, was elected Lecturer in Anatomy. It needed a In 1902 Mrs. Ogilvie gave to the University a sum of £7,000 man of resolution and fixed purpose to cope with the situa- for the purpose of creating a Readership in , tion, for when he took up his work in Oxford Mr. Thomson to be held by the senior surgeon to the Oxford Eye Hospital, found himself with three students and a small wooden shed and this Readership is now held by the President of the in which to teach anatomy-a great contrast to his Edinburgh Section of Ophthalmology, Mr. Doyne, to whose untiring experience. A sum of money was immediately collected by efforts for many years past we largely owe the excellent Eye members of the University interested in the development of Hospital which now exists in this city. -the school, and a small temporary lecture room and a dissect- -ing room were built. In the following year the Curators of ITS PRESENT STATE. the University Chest built, at a cost of £5oo, a temporary You are now in a position to judge to what extent the iron-roofed building with rather more accommodation. By desires expressed by the British Medical Association in I879 -189I the lecturer's class had grown from 3 to 67. A sum of have been fulfilled. It asked that at least human anatomy, X7,000 was now asked for and obtained from the University to physiology and general pathology, and materia medica might -provide a permanent home for the teaching of human be properly taught. You will find that for many years past anatomy, and the present excellent building, in which the adequate provision and suitable accommodation and appa- .Section of Anatomy will be held, was built. In a year or ratus have been provided for the teaching of these subjects,. -two, largely owing to the success of Mr. Thomson as a teacher, and that at the present moment they are being taught by ,the lectureship was converted into a professorship. professors, readers) and lecturers whose ability and fitness- In i886 a most important statute was passed, by which for their important duties cannot be questioned. The Asso- -students in natural science were exempted from the first ciation desired that provision should be made for the ele- -public examination in classics known as Moderations. This mentary teaching of clinical med-icine and surgery. In 1883 -maaure enabled students of medicine after passing their the existing Litchfield Clinical Professorship was split up preliminary examination known as Responsions, which might into a Litchfield Clinical Lectureship in Medicine and one .bepassed before coming into residence, to devote their first in Surgery, and from that date to the present students are year in Oxford to the study of the preliminary snbjects in taught in the wards of the Radcliffe Infirmary the bare out- natural scien;ce, and so another and most important barrier lines of clinical diagnosis in medicine and surgery, and are to the establishment of a medical school disappeared. thus fitted to take immediate advantage of the most advanced In I891 Sir Henry Acland, who had always interested him- teaching and the excellent clinical material they find awaiting self in the study of pathology and bacteriology, inaugurated them at the large metropolitan hospitals. a new dep.rtment in bacteriology, and appointed, first, Dr. Yet it would appear from the questions so often asked Menge, of Munich, to take charge of it, and later, in turn, Dr. that little is known by the general public of these important EBertram Hunt and Dr. Ritchie. changes which have been carried out here during the past In i895- Sir Henry Acland retired from the Regius Pro- quarter of a century. Less than six years ago a member of fessorship, and Sir John Burdon Sanderson was appointed to our Asociation, living not much more than fifty miles from succeed him, Professor Gotch, Professor of Physiology in the this city, was reported to have used these words in an address University of Liverpool, and formerly Lecturer in Physiology he was giving at the opening of a medical school in the West at this U,niversity, taking Sir John's chair. of England, "Oxford still misapplies its medical endow- In 1896 the new Regius Professor, in an open letter to the ments and declines to reorganize its Medical Faculty." And President of Magdalen, pointed out that the time had come again, in the same address, " You must go to either Oxford when Oxford medical students should have the advantage of or Cambridge, where the demon of athletics reigns supreme, JULY 30, 1904.] ANNUAL MEETING: PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. JOUw 2 23

a and where professional studies are depreciated if not consummate anatomist and a most gifted teacher, we owe a despised." Had he taken the trouble to inquire he great deal, for I am sure that many generations of students have so glaringly displayed his ignorance, for he would acknowledge that not only his skill as a teacher, but found that medical students at Oxford and Cambridge the friendly interest he has taken in them, has done much to. as keen and as steady workers as any in the country, encourage the pursuit of medical studies in the University. every possible facility and encouragement were being Great praise must also be given to Professor Gotch, who came them for the proper carrying on of their work. A first as a Lecturer on Physiology under Dr. Burdon Sanderson, study of a list of prizes gained and important professional and more recently succeeded to that chair. Many others there posts held during the last few years by past Oxford are connected with the teaching of the preliminary subjects Cambridge students would have proved to him that in medicine whose names will be gratelully recalled by our spent at these universities was not wasted. medical graduates. The school owes much, too, to others in Oxford interested THE MAKERS OF THE REVIVAL. in medicine, though not themselves medical men. I will The building up of a modern medical school, recall the names of Dean Liddell, Dr. Jowett, Professor Bar- lines of which I have very briefly sketched, will always tholomew Price, and Mr. Alfred Robinson, all of whom are associated with the names of a few earnest workers. no longer with us. I will not attempt to enumerate the will only allow me to mention a few of the most prominent. many good friends and supporters she has at the present When Dr. Acland returned to Oxford in 1845 as Lees Reader time in Oxford, lest I omit some whose names I should in Anatomy, he found that in spite of the efforts of least wish to Dass unnoticed. Lastly, our school will Kidd, and Daubeny, and, too, in spite of the great always be under a deep obligation to those medical graduates had lived in and influenced Oxford thought during in London who for many years have given up much-needed previous centuries, scientific studies at the University hours of their scanty leisure in order to attend the meetings almost extinct. The University had not a single laboratory in Oxford of the Board of the Medical Faculty. We all of for students of science, and indifference and even open hostility us realize that their ripe experience as teachers and- exa- to all subjects connected with science marked this period. miners, and as men engaged in the practice of their profes- is true that for a time Dr. Buckland had attracted sion, must be of the greatest possible value in helping the audiences to his lectures on geology, but inx845 these Board to decide from time to time on its course of action, ceased to exist. "3Buckland," said Gaisford, Dean and I for one should much like to see our Board strengthened Church, has gone to Italy, so thank God we shall have by a larger number of London teachers than it has at present. more of this Geology." Two years later Acland first the subject he had at heart-the collecting together of THE INFLUENCE OF THE SCHOOL. departments of the natural sciences under one roof, Now let us ask ourselves whether the advantages claimed up a memorandum on the subject dated July 27th, more than a quarter of a century ago as likely to accrue by which was signed by Charles Daubeny, Professor of Chemistry associating the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge with and Botany; P. B. Duncan, Keeper of the Ashmolean medical teaching have in any way been achieved. Museum; Robert Walker, Reader in Experimental For some years a considerable number of medical gradu- sophy; and Henry Wentworth Acland, Lees Reader ates have been passing forth into the larger world after- Anatomy. Thlis was the origin of the University Museum'in spending three or four of the most impressionable years of which we hold our Sectional meetings during the week. their lives at one or other of the two Universities. Have Bucklandhad been asked to sign, but refused. Some they benefited? I cannot for one moment doubt that the ago," he said,"I was sanguine, as you now are, as majority of these graduates if appealed to would declare with possibility of natural history making some progress in Oxford, no uncertain voice that they recognized fully that their but I have long come to the conclusion that it is mixing with men of their own age, who were taking up other hopeless." subjects for their life-work, and interesting themselves in It is impossible for me to dwell on the struggle to other mental pursuits, had done much to widen their own, the suggestion gave rise or to the enormous amount general culture, and to develop in them interests outside and labour freely given by Acland in gaining over their own work. his way of thinking. It was not until June 20th,I855-eight Has the University benefited? I think so. The establish- medical school years later-that the foundation stone of the Museum ment of the on a modern basis has introduced laid by the Earl of Derby, Chancellor of the University. into the University a body of students starting their univer- Every one admits that Acland was the originator sity career with a definite object in view, and compelled by scheme for a Museum of the Natural Sciences. and the very nature of the case to lead a steady, strenuous life, life and soul of the movement. It is doubtful whether for no student can hope to pass his professional examinations- other man in the University could have brought the without a due amount of steady work. influence to bear as Acland, the friend of Dean Liddell, But to my mind the greatest advantage to be noted has been Pusey, and Mr. Ruskin. An admirable account the influence the university student has had on the other struggle, with the names of many others who wrought Medical students of our great metropolitan schools. All of, thought and toiled for the same end, may be found in Atlay's us are familiar with the Bob Sawyer type of medical student Life of Acland. as depicted by Charles Dickens-that is to say, we are familiar As Acland hoped, the building of the University Museum, with him in fiction but I rather fancy as a living type he has furnished with proper apparatus, gave a great impetus for many years ceased to exist. Many of us can remember the teaching and study of the natural sciences the time when any more than usually disgraceful outbreak of University. Nor was the influence confined to Oxford. rowdyism in London was invariably attributed, rightly or have more than once heard Sir George Humphry say wronglv. to medical students. But this is a matter of the Acland's success at Oxford gave an enormous IMDetus past. The medical student of a quarter of a century age encouragement to the study of the sciences at Cambridge undoubtedly bore a very bad character in the eyes of the and to the efforts then being made there to develop public; he no longer does so. Why the change? I shouldi medical school. attribute it, I believe with truth, largely to the influence of Professor Burdon Sanderson was appointed to the newly- the university graduates who have come among them. These founded Chair of Physiology in 1882. In the leading article university graduates are older men, and have long passedt these words were in our JOURNAL on his appointment used: their first experience of freedom from school discipline, ; ave a Dr. Sanderson has a grand opportunity. He has much more settled purpose in life; have a clearer and better idea of order to take up the noble work of organizing a real what is so difficult to define, but so easy to recognize-good' at Success in such a work would be the Oxford. and bad form. It is these older students who, in recent years, of a lifetime. There will be a universal feeling of confidence have largely dominated the standardl of life at our London man who has now put his hand to the plough will schools, and their influence has been all for good. will finally surmount every difficulty to his own high great gain of the profession of medicine. Lastly, let me point out that if the standard of general All of us present this evening will be able to realize culture is distinctly raised bv all the advantages of the coming week, if we have not already done so, fully university education, as we believe it is, then asthe Sir John Burdon Sanderson has repaid the confidence numbers of those participating in this education is increased- certain in him, and how nobly and successfully he has carried the status of the medical profeesion is the work he took in hand sometwo-and-twenty years TheTe Fre some, I know, who do not wish to see a large To Professor Thomson, who was appointed Lecturer medical school at Oxford. They argue that. the standard'

described should be a one, men of Anatomy in i885, and who was at the time as a high and only quite exceptional? Bamom 2 mCLThu 1I ANNUAL MEETING :, PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 4 JOUNL = [JULY 30, I9O4 -I ability should. be encouraged to seek the Oxford D.M. had left Oxford and taken up residence in London, where they degree. Surely this is a somewhat selfish and exclusive orgaxiized theRoyal Society inI662. policy. Every one would agree that, the standard should be I now mention our greatest benefactor, John who high. Some, and I trust most of us, would wish that it waa.born in i6soand. diedin 1714. At the age ofRadeliflpe,IS he became should not be too high for the man of average ability with an undergraduate of University College, ten years later'he the capacity for work well developed. To such men every took his B.M. degree and his D.M. at the age of32. For'nine' encouragement should be given to participate in all the years,he practisedas aphysician in 'Oxford, and we are'told' advantages to be gained by a few years' experience of uni- that he incurred the anger of the older practitioners in, the versity life. townbecausehe paid so little regard to protessional conven-' EARLIER BENEFACTORS. tiorialities.. In1684 he moved to.Ioondon,and his apothecary I pass now from Oxford of to-day to Oxford of the past, and tells us that he ha'd scarcely been in town a year before he was will recall the names of a few of our greatest men, members earning more than 20 guineas a day. His lively conversation, of our own profession, who have been associated with tlle it was said, soon.made.him the most popular physician in Unirversity. London'. We are told that he succeeded more b. his ready I first mention Linacre, who at the ageof 24, in 1484, was wit than his learning, for while at Oxford his library con- elected a Fellow of All Souls, and was incorporated a D.M. sisted of some phials, a skeleton, and a herbal. In I692 he of the University on his Padua degree. While at Oxford he lost some£5,ooo owing to the capture by the French of a ship seems to have devoted most of his time to giving lectures in in which he was interested. When his friends condoled with physic and to the teaching of Greek. Not only was he a him he replied that it did not matter, for he had only to go profoundscholar and a successful physician, but he was also up 250 pairs of stairs to make himnself whole again. If this a member of the clerical profession-indeed, the last few be true the physicians' fees in those days would seem to have yearsof his life were entirely devoted to clerical work. His been very much higher than at present. At any rate, we can wealth was very largely acquired by his numerous ecclesi- admire his philosophical way of putting up with a financial astical preferments. He bequeathed considerable sums of loss-" a little more work will putme right again." money to both Oxford and Cambridge for the purpose of If it be true that his witty tongue helped him to succeed in encouraging the teachers of medicine, but unfortunately his profession, it is also certain that it lost him many owing to the imprudent management by his trustees, a good influential patients. Early in his London career he gave deal of this money was lost. We still have the Linacre Pro- great offence to the Princess Anne by neglecting to visit her fessorship of Comparative Anatomy to remind us of one of when sent for, and by saying that her illness was nothing but our oldest and most distinguished benefactors. It was the vapours. I suppose in these days we should give the mainly due to Linacre's efforts that the Royal College of disorder a longer and more classical name. Later, he greatly Physicians of London was founded in i518, he being elected offended King William III bytelling His Majesty, afterinspect- the first President. It was probably due to his influence, too, ing the King's swollen ankles, that hewould not havethe King's that a statute was passed in Henry VIII's reign that no two legs for his three kingdoms; a remark so free that the person should practise R5 a physician or surgeon until King never saw him again. A few months before his own examined and approved by the bishop of the diocese in death he fell into great disgrace, because, when summoned to which he lived, who was to call to his assistance expert attend Queen Anne in her last illness, he delayed his visit, persons in the Faculty. This privilege of the bishops con- and was said to have replied that as he understood Her tinued for a very long period. Majesty's case was desperate, it would be best to let Her For some years Harvey, the discoverer of the circulation of Majesty die as easily as possible. This sounds rather brutal. the blood, dwelt at Oxford, where he worked at anatomy and but it was said in reference to the Queen's well-known great made many dissections. He was incorporated a D.M. of the antipathy to him, and Radcliffe urged that he feared his 'University, and in I645 by Royal mandate was made Warden presence would do more harm than good. of Merton College, but did not retain the post long, as the fol- In I695 the King offered him a baronetcy, which was lowing year, after the surrender of the City to the Parlia- declined. We are told that though rough in manner and mentarians, he returned to London. fond of flattery, he was generous to those in need, a good It was while Harvey was at Oxford that another great ana- friend, and a munificent patron of learning. He died in 1714, tomist who studied under Harvey was preparing himself for and lies buried in St. Mary's, our University Church. future fame-Thomas Willis, well known to all of us by his Although he was given an,almost Royal funeral by the Univer- description of the anatomy of the brain, and more particu- sity which benefited so greatly by his bequests, his grave was larly by the circle of Willis. Willis was born of Oxfordshire left more than Ioo years unknown and unnoticed. In 18I9, parents within a few miles of our city, and for many years during some alteration in the church, on disturbing the pave- practised his profession in a house opposite Merton College. ment his coffin was discovered, not even a slab marking the Associated with Willis was Christopher Wren, the architect spot where he was buried. A simple engraved slab now of St. Paul's Cathedral. Born in i632, Wren left school at the marks the spot, near the north entrance. During his life he age of 14, and was engaged by Sir Charles Scarburgh to act as gave largely to his old College and to several charities. and at his assistant and demonstrator at his lectures on anatomy at his death he left by will his Yorkshire estate to the Masters Surgeons' Hall, London. Three years later, at the age of I7, and Fellows of University College for ever, to be held in he was entered as a fellow-commoner at Wadham, and at 21 trust for the founding of two Radcliffe travelling Fellowships, was made a Fellow of All Souls, and at 28 Savillian Professor of *the overplus being paid for the purpose of buying perpetual Astronomy. It was while at All Souls that he made elaborate advowsons for the College. In addition he left for the drawings to illustrate Dr. Willis's work on the anatomy of the enlargement of the College and £4o,oao for the 65,ooobuilding of a brain. medical library. With money derived from his estates two In I679 he made experiments which led him to the inven- other buildings were erected in this city by his trustees, the tion of a method for the transfusion of blood from one animal Radcliffe Infirmary and the Radcliffe Astronomical Observa- to another. It was at the age of about 3o he began to follow tory, and money was further granted towards the building of the profession of architecture, and one of his first works was the College of Physicians in London. this Sheldonian Theatre, the first stone of which was laid in The Radcliffe. Library in Radcliffe Square, completed in 1664 and completed five years later. At the age of 9 he was 1747, is one of the most conspicuous buildings in this city, -capable of writing an elegant Latin letter to his father, but it and doubtless will be visited by all of you. was science and mathematics that attracted him. A splendid It was in this building that your first meetingat Oxford was mathematician, a great experimentalist, always working out held in I835, on your third anniversary. In it you will find a the most difficult scientific problems, a distinguished very pleasing portrait of Radcliffe painted by his friend, the astronomer. and a famous architect all combined in one. King's painter Kneller. I cannot refrain from recording a No wonder that Barrow described him as a boy a prodigy, as passage of wit between these good friend's. They lived in a man a miracle, nay, even something superhuman. He died adjoining houses, and for the sake of convenience Kneller aged 9I. had allowed Radcliffe to make a doorway in his garden wall; It was about this period that the Royal Society sprang into in course of time this doorway becamea source of great annoy- existence, largely, as is asserted, by the influence and co- ance to Kneller, as Dr. Radcliffe's servants frequently used it operation of Oxford men. About 1648 Willis, Seth Ward, to gain entrance to his garden and pick the flowers. At last, Robert Boyle and other members of the 'University dis- ilR a fit of anger, Kneller wrote to Dr. Radcliffe, and told him tinguished in theology and science were accustomed to meet that if he could not coRtrol his servants he should be obliged in the rooms of Dr. Wilkins, the Warden of Wadham, for the to take the door away and brick the aperture up. Radcliffe at purposes of discussion. Ten years later the maiority of them once sent his servant to Kneller to tell him that he might do 3JULY 30, 1I904.] ANNUAL MEETING: PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. EMSDicTir TBzOrnJoumm 225 what he pleased with the door so long as he did not paint it. pine in this University, and of those who in our own genera- Zneller having received the; message was equal to the tion have helped to keep the lamp of medicine burning; lut occasion, and at once replied, "Go tell Dr. Radcliffe with what of the future? We all of us realize that the provision my setvices to him that I can take anything from him but whichlhasto.be made for a modern scientific educationis of physisc." Fortunately for Oxford Radcliffe was not happy in necessity a costly undertaking, involving the building and tislove affairs, for we are told that after passing many years upkeep of museums and laboratoties, in addition to thesupply for a misogynist, the result of an early disappointment, of costly apparatus; and lastly, and by no means least, the he again in his old age fell in love with the daughter of a adequate endowment of professorial chairs, readerships, and weealthy citizen, but the match was eventually broken off-a lectureships. I should wish more particularly to emphasize very short time before the appointed wedding day; had it not this latter point, because for manty years past the amount of been we might well have lost our library, oar infirmary, and work done in the way of lectures and instruction in the our observatory. scientific departments of this University by some of our (I624-89), who has always been regarded professors, readers, lecturers, and demonstrators for a totally as one of the chief masters of English medicine, was also inadequate remuneration is well recognized and much deplored connected with the University. His career at Oxford was by all who are interested in the teaching of science at OAford. certainly a chequered one. At the age of I8 he entered as a Fortunately, the urgent need for fresh endowments and the fellow commoner at Magdalen; a few months later he joined appeal to persons of wealth and position in this country. has the Parliamentary forces and fought against the Royalists; been made by the most influential men of the day. Mav I four years later, -1646, when Oxford and the other royal quote the words of the Patron of our Association-His garrisons surrendered, he resigned his commission, and was Majesty the King? In his gracious reply to the loyal address on his way to Oxford when he chanced to meet with of the sister University, on the opening of the new science Dr. Thomas Coxe, who was attending his brother, and who buildings at Cambridge on March ist of the present year, he persuaded him to take up medicine. He then joined made use of these words: " The older universities must receive Wadham College, and the following year was elected to a new endowments, if education within my realm is to be kept Fellowship at All Souls. In 1648 he obtained his degree of at its proper standard of efficiency." B.M. in a very irregular manner, as he was created B.M. by Quite recently a most influential deputation, on which command of the then Chancellor of the University without both Oxford and Cambridge Universities were represented, having taken a degree in Arts and with little knowledge of waited on the Prime Minister to urge the Government medicine. For a time he studied at Oxford under the Regius to give substantial money grants to the various universities Professor of Medicine, whose lectures, we are told, consisted throughout the country. While receiving a sympathetic merely in reading the ancient medical classics. Again he audience from both the Prime Ministerand the Chancellor of joined the army, and beoame captain of a troop of Parlia- the Exchequer, the members of this deputation were very mentary Horse. On one occasion he was left on the field of plainly told by the latter that the Government would not be battle among the dead, and lost, as he tells us, a great deal of able to find them the money. blood. On another occasion-he nearly lost his life at the OurUniversity owes its existence to generous benefactors in hands of a drunken soldier, who broke into his bedroom at the past, and one can but hope that in the present and in the night and discharged a pistol at his breast. Fortunately the future these new endowments of which His Majesty spoke, and soldier's left hand was interposed and was shattered by the of which theUniversity now stands in such urgent need, will be bullet, while Sydenham escaped unhurt. Having again forthcoming. We have seen in the last decade large sums of retired from the army he studied medicine at Montpellier, money given or bequeathed for the endowment of education, in and a year or two later began practice in London. In I676, at many of the big provincial centres, Liverpool, Manchester, the age of 52, he incorporated as M.B. at Pembroke College, Birmingham. One can admire and understand the local Cambridge, on his Oxtord degree, and immediately took the patriotism which incites such gifts, but one finds a difficulty M.D. of that University. It is supposed there were political in understanding how it is that a university such as this, reasons for his not taking the Oxford degree. By his methods with its noble traditions and its long roll of illustrious dead- of studying disease and by his masterly description of dis- a university which for many centuries has been, with the eases Sydenham is admitted to have made an epoch in medical sister University of Cambridge, the acknowledged training science. In I894 a life-sized statue of Sydenham was pre- school of the leaders of thought and action in this country- sented to the University Museum. by Sir Henry Acland and fails to appeal to those fortunate individuals who are in a others. position to do their country and education a service and to Time will not permit me to mention others who attained enrol their names in that imperishable record of benefactors the highest positions in the medical world. I can only draw whose memories we honour and extol. Surely the explana- your attention to the fact that during the first century of the tion must be that the needs, the urgent needs, of the Univer- existence of our College of Physicians, of the 34 presidents sity are not widely known and are insufficiently recognized. whose names are recorded, 21 were graduates of the University of Oxford. PREvIOUS MEETINGS OF THE ASSOCIATION IN OXFORD. There are, however, one or two other benefactors whose In conclusion, let me turn from the subject of the Oxford names I must mention, such as Dr. Mathew Lee, of Christ Medical School to that of our own Association, and let me Church, who, after practising some years in Oxford, went on refer very briefly to past visits of the Association to the to London, became a Fellow of the College and in turn city. As most of you are aware, the Association was founded Censor and Harveian Orator; was for some years physician at Worcester in I832, chiefly by the energy of Mr. (afterwards to Frederick, Prince of Wales, and died in I755. He Sir Charles) Hastings. I am glad to note that at the first bequeathed a sum of money to be held in trust by the Dean meeting Dr. Kidd, the Regius Professor of this University, and Chapter of Christ Church for the purpose of paying a was present and was elected a member of the first Council. reader in Chemistry and one in Anatomy Three years later the Association held its first meeting at Ox- Lord Litchfield, by his will dated 1772, left money for the ford under the presidency of Dr. Kidd; the Council met the foundation of a Professorship of Clinical Medicine in asso- day before and arranged all the details of the meeting, ciation with the Radcliffe Infirmary. He stipulated that the which was attended by 300 members. Professor was to be elected by Convocation, that he was to The chief meeting was held in the , the -visit his patients daily from November to March and was to dome-shaped building to which I have alluded, and one or two read a lecture two days a week; and, further, he provided incidents connected with this meeting are worth recalling. that if the Professor neglected his attendance he was to The Address in Medicine was delivered by Dr. Pritchard, and forfeit a year's stipend to the infirmary and to pay £5 to that the University conferred on him the degree of M.D. Although institution for each lecture omitted. I am much afraid that this same Dr. Pritchard had studied in Oxford, he had been this most wise stipulation was never really enforced. In 1883 unable to take his degree because he was a Dissenter. The this Professorship. was converted into a Lectureship in conferment of the degree in this way was taken at the time as Medicine and in Surgery. a proof that a more liberal spirit was beginning to exist in the Dr. George Aldrich, by his will dated I803, left a sum of University. The Regius Professor pointed out that such a money for the endowment of a Professorship of the Practice degree could not be procured by any ordinary medical student of Medicine, which Professorship goes to increase the very with less than eleven years' classical servitude and applica- inadequate stipend of the Regius Professorship. tion-mark the words "classical servitude," as they imply that even in those days some students did not take kindly THE FUTURE OF THE SCHOOL. to the classics. I havre this evening spoken of the past benefactors to medi- The chief attraction of the meeting was the public per- 226 yTMI BJOURNAL1 ANNUAL MEETING ADDRESS IN MEDICINE. [JULY 30, 1904. formance of lithotrity by Mr. Costello before a very crowded the various organs of the body can be examined, ther audience in the Town Hall, the School of Anatomy not being presence of disease demonstrated, the changes in our bodies sufficiently large for the spectators. You will notice that at accompanying disordered health recognized; and, perhaps that time a dissecting room seems not to have been thought more important than all, the exact methods of science an unsuitable place for a surgical operation. point out the way in which the more complex questions It was remarked at the time that not a single Oxford gra- presented in living bodies should be studied. It would occupy duate in medicine attended to support the Regius Professor too much time, even if I were competent for the task, to trace of Medicine. a portion of the benefits which the exact sciences have con- The second meeting of the Association at Oxford, which ferred on clinical medicine during the years that have passed now numbered I,630 members, was held in July, 1852. Dr. since the Association last met in this university city, a Ogle, the Regius Professor was the President, and the meet- meeting at which addresses which still stand out as memor- ings, which extended over two days, were held in the House able among the numbers which have, been given on similar of Convocation. On this occasion the honorary degree of occasions were delivered by Acland, Rolleston, and Gull, who D.C.L. was conferred on three members, Sir Charles Hastings, will for many years yet to come be remembered not only as- the founder; Dr. John Forbes, of London; and Dr. John ornaments of our profession, but as having done much to Conolly, of Hanwell. In the evening of the first day the promote medical and scientific knowledge-leaders to whom Association was entertained in the Radcliffe Camera by Dr. we can still look for guidance for the manner in which the' Acland. different subjects they treated of should be approached. Another sixteen years passed, and in i868 the Association The meeting of the Association in i868 is for another reason visited Oxford for a third time. It had now grown to a of unusual interest, for it may be taken as marking the date total membership of 3,672, of which some 5oo attended the of the parting of the ways. TJp to that period our concep- meeting. Dr. Acland, the Regius Professor, presided, the tions of the causes of morbid changes in the body had not general meetings being held in the Hall of Christ Church, undergone any great modification from the views held by the while the Sectional meetings, of which there were five, were originators of pathology-Morgagni, Hunter, Baillie, Carswell, held in the University Museum. Among the Sectional Secre- anL others. Our knowledge of the infective processes leading taries on that occasion I find the name of W. S. Church, to inflammation and suppuration may be said to have been M.A., B.M., now President of the College of Physicians, who at that time non-existent. The symptoms and course of the has kindly undertaken to give the Address in Medicine specific fevers as well as the circumstances under which they to-morrow evening. I am glad to add that the three local occur had been thoroughly recognized and worked out, but Secretaries, Dr. Gray, Dr. Tuckwell, and Mr. Edward Chap- we were still ignorant of the true nature of the specific man, now a Member of Parliament, are all living. The poisons on which they depended. Medicine remained open honorary degree of D.C.L. was conferred on the following to the taunt to which Bacon two hundred years before ha&b members: dir Charles Locock, the Rev. Samuel Haughton, given utterance, " That it had rather professed than laboured M.D., Dr. Gull, Mr. Jamps Paget, Mr. John Simon, and Mr. and yet more laboured than advanced, as the pains bestowed James Syme. thereon was rather circular than progressive, for I find great, To-day our Association numbers over I9,ooo members, and repetition and but little new matter in the writers on. we are expecting more than three times the number who physic.'' visited Oxford in i868. More than this-and it is, I think, a It was in the year preceding the Oxford meeting that Lister matter for hearty congratulation-the influence of our Asso- read at Dublin his paper on the " Antiseptic Principle in the ciation has grown world-wide, for since i868 Branches have Practice of Surgery,"2 founded on the results of his treatment been formed throughout India and in nearly all of our of compound fractures, abscesses, and wounds3 during the' Colonies. This traly remarkable growth of our Association preceding three years. It was at this time also that the infec- in magnitude, power, and influence has been due to the tivity of tuberculous matter began to be generally recognized*. fostering care and unremitting labour of many workers. Into twenty years before, Klencke4 had produced tuberculosis of our hands they have entrusted a great inheritance, and it will the lungs and liver in rabbits by inoculation with human be our duty to see that no negligence nor unwise and ill- tubercle, but he did not pursue his investigations, and his ex- considered action on our part tend in any way to jeopardize periments attracted little notice, and it was not until its further growth and development and power for useful- Villemin's work in i86z, and the account of his numerous and' ness. careful experiments published in 1868,6 that attention was REFERENCES. again drawn to the subject. Villemin's work was carried on April 26th, 1879. 2 Ibid., vol. i, x885, p. 548. by Sir J. Burdon Sanderson,7 late Regius Professor of Medi- cine in this University, who explored and demonstrated the channels by which the tuberculous process is disseminated within the organism; yet many years had to elapse before'