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FINAL CONSIDERATIONS. 627
that the work of this department of teaching is less than
that of others. But the duties of a German professor are not
confined to teaching: he must also work as an investigator
for the advancement and extension of his science. A wide
and hitherto but little cultivated field of labour is here open
to the historian of medicine.
Medical geography, too, a subject which for teaching
purposes may be combined with the history of medicine,
presents to the teacher and investigator a number of pro­
blems which press for solution in view of the increasing
intercourse with foreign lands.
It is difficult to decide how much time should be devoted
to medical education : this depends upon the natural gifts
and the application of students, upon the quantity and
quality of the teachers and appliances for teaching, and
upon many other circumstances. In subjecting a student
to no constraint in his choice of lectures, and leaving him
completely at liberty to get his knowledge how and where
he pleases, it is assumed that, like a reasonable and
prudent man, he will follow the advice which is offered
him by persons of special experience in these matters.
But if from want of intelligence or from carelessness he is
inclined to neglect such advice there is nothing to prevent
his doing so. The result is seen in a defective education,
the opportunity to remedy which he cannot perhaps find, as
the period of his studentship draws to a close. If he does
not make good his deficiencies before he enters medical
practice the patients who fall into his hands have to suffer
accordingly.
Unlimited freedom for the student in choosing what
lectures he shall attend nowhere has such bad results as
in the study of medicine; for here the health and lives of
men are at stake.
In some countries—and among them such as pride
themselves upon their liberal institutions—freedom of this
kind has been discountenanced, and a curriculum has been
Jaid down for medical students, and is closely adhered to.