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FINAL CONSIDERATIONS. 617
position of the medical profession. This, it might justly be
feared, would be in danger of impairment if it were pro­
nounced that for doctors a preliminary education in science
only is necessary, such an education being, according to
views very widely prevalent, of a value inferior to that
which is found necessary in the case of the other learned
professions. Unfortunately in certain places the mistake
was made of not treating this as the only objection
but, at the same time, of bringing an indictment against
the Realschulen by alleging that they had no ideal aims,
and engendered superficial and narrow views in the minds
of their pupils—accusations which naturally met with a
sharp denial from the parties concerned.*
The question of admitting students leaving the Real­
gymnasien to the university can only be answered in one
way—by throwing open all the faculties to them and by
recognizing their general education as equivalent to that
given by the classical gymnasia. Justice demands this
course, for the curriculum of the Realgymnasium is as good
as that of the classical sister-institution ; it is also a duty
owed to those youths who are not naturally fitted for the
study of the ancient languages. Can we consider it justi­
fiable in the case of one showing a remarkable gift for natural
science and promising to make an excellent doctor, to throw
a stumbling-block in his path because he does not possess
-as much knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages as a
philologist considers necessary for his future profession ?
A uniform plan of general education is certainly very
convenient for systematizing school-teaching, for it serves
as a sort of intellectual cathetometer, showing at a glance
the height of a student's attainments ; necessary or con­
formable to nature, it certainly is not. The differences of
inclinations and of talents shows that there is not one
single and only method of intellectual education.
* P. WOSSIDLO in the Padagogischen Archiv, Stettin 1880, H. 2.—E.
SPECK: Die Berechtigung der Realschul-Abiturienten zum Studium der
JVIedicin in the Padagogischen Archiv 1883, H. 9, 10.