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FINAL CONSIDERATIONS. 629
on any subject, and consequently while the impression is
•fresh, were permitted to pass an examination held by
the teacher or his representative. The certificates given
-after passing such would bear valuable testimony as to the
way the period of studentship had been passed, and would
•enable the examiners, who have to decide upon the fitness
•of candidates to engage in practice, to form a preliminary
•opinion upon their professional education.
The examination for the license to practise ought to ex­
tend over all branches of medicine, and to include all the
subjects with which it is necessary that a practising doctor
-should be familiar. If, after the conclusion of the first part
-of the period of studentship devoted to training in the
natural sciences, an examination is held on natural history,
physics, chemistry, anatomy, and physiology, it ought to be
made a rule that no one shall be admitted to the lectures on
.actual medical subjects before he has passed such examina­
tion ; for, failing this, the time he should spend in medical
study is devoted to preparing for the examination in science.
In the examinations which take place after the conclusion
of the period of studentship, and which precede the granting
•of the license, great weight is justly laid on practical proofs
of ability ; the candidate is given the opportunity of showing
that he understands how to make practical use of the medical
•knowledge he has acquired by the demonstration of anato­
mical preparations, attendance at necropsies, the examina- *
tion and treatment of patients, the performance of surgical
•and obstetrical operations, etc. The questions which are
set perhaps touch lightly upon the candidate's knowledge
•of other subjects as well; but they depend too much upon
•contingencies to form a satisfactory or sufficient test of his
.general professional education. For this purpose a final
viva voce examination is necessary to act as complementary
to, and as a check upon, the preceding practical examina­
tion, and to pass all departments of medicine in review.
There is no doubt that persons who are teachers of the
various subjects of examination are more suited to act as