Speculum : The Journal of the Melbourne Medical Students' Society ...

THE SPECULUM.SZThe history of medicine abounds with achievements similar to that of Ross,and all emphasise the importance of the application of the scientific training inthe medical course to the study of medicine and disease. The reason why Ihave specially referred to the work of Ross is that only the other day, on the2nd February, 1927, Ross, now in his seventieth year, received from the CalcuttaCorporation an address, which contained the f ollowing"By your life-long researches and epoch-making discoveries you have laidthe people of Bengal under a deep debt of obligation by suggesting the possibility-of eradicating malaria, which claims as its victims more than 1,000,000 ofour people annually.""ti'd'e recall the dingy little military hospital, the old cracked microscope andthe medicine bottles, which constituted all the laboratory and apparatus whichyou possessed for the purpose of attacking one of the most redoubtable scientificproblems."In addition to developing a scientific attitude of mind, these early subjectsof your curriculum help in exercising powers of observation, in drawing conclusionsfrom facts observed and in bringing your judgment to bear on the solutionof various problems.They have, moreover, trained you in the use of certain scientific instruments,and have furnished you with technical knowledge essential to carry out yourclinical work ; it is important that you should properly assess the value of thisearly training and make full use of the same in your hospital work.A step further advanced in your curriculum, the study of Anatomy andPhysiology has taught you the normal constitution and. functioning of the humanbody.In the study of Pathology you will learn something of that body and itsfunctions gone wrong ; whilst a study of Pharmacology and Therapeutics willteach you some of the means by which disordered functions may be correctedor checked in their progress.Whilst it has always seemed to me that students should possess some knowledgeof Pathology and Pharmacology at the time when they commence theirhospital work, there can be no doubt as to the importance of continuing thestudy of Pathology right through your medical career. It is equally importantthat you should keep yourself well informed in the subjects of Anatomy andPhysiology, and apply your knowledge to the study and correction of abnormalconditions in the human body. In your hospital work you will find that thepractice of medicine and of surgery resolves itself in a logical application ofAnatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Pharmocology and various therapeutic measures.In order to assist you to determine the nature or degree of abnormal ordisordered functions, you will be taught the application of various chemicaland hio-chemical methods. In assessing the value of the results of thesemethods, you must learn 'to give (the closest consideration to the clinical signsand symptoms of disease. The work in the wards and in the out-patients' departmentof the hospital will give you ample opportunity to learn to appreciate thegreat importance of clinical signs and symptoms. You should give this aspectof your subject your closest attention. You should make it a practice never tointerpret a disordered or abnormal condition on the mere results of a chemicalor hio-chemical investigation. Every such result should be critically reviewed inthe light of the clinical phenomena.