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630 MODERN TIMES.
examiners than persons who are not specially concerned
with these branches of knowledge. Those only who are
masters of a subject know how to put proper questions
upon it and correctly to estimate the value of the answers
given* It is therefore best to entrust the carrying on of
examinations to the teaching-staffs of the medical faculties
and schools. But the Government of the State claims, even
in this department of educational administration, to act as
counsel for society watching the proceedings in its interest,.
and taking care that doctors are educated in such a way as
to be equal to the demands of their calling.
The question at once presents itself whether doctors
should be educated in institutions conducted by the State or
independent of it. The answer is that in every case power
of control over studies and examinations should be conceded
to the State, to be made use of in the interest of the population.
While in the examination for the license to practise,.
the chief question is to determine whether the candidate
possesses the requisite ability for his calling, in granting
the degree of Doctor of Medicine severer demands should
be made on scientific knowledge, and the candidate for this
academical honour should be required to show that his
acquirements exceed those of ordinary practitioners. The
examination, which affords him this opportunity, should
therefore go thoroughly into the various branches of medical
• science, and should touch upon subjects which, like the
history of medicine and medical geography, are disregarded
in the examination for the license, being desirable,
but not indispensable, subjects of medical education.
In the same way Care should be taken that only works of
scientific value are accepted as essays for the doctorate..
The custom of requiring that they should be written in Latin
has been given up nearly everywhere, and rightly so ; for,
as J. V DOLLINGER says,f " in the devious by-paths of the
* PRUNELI.K : Discours des etudes de me'decine, Paris 1816, p. 21.
f J. v. DOLLINGER : Die Universitaten sonst und jetzt, Miinchen 1867, S..
16.