MEDICAL EDUCATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXX, Issue 10214, 7 December 1893, Page 6

MEDICAL EDUCATION .

[Per Press Association.] WELLINGTON, Dec. 6/ On Oct. 11 the Wellington branch of The New Zealand Medical Association appointed a Committee 'to enquire and report upon medical education and examination in the Colony. The Committee has submitted a report, of which the Post to-night published a summary. The Committee says” it ia of opinion that the time has not yet arrived when medical degrees may with advantage ha granted in the Colony, and it bases its opinion upon consideration of the following facts.: —-(1) Owing to the sparaeness of population, there is not enough material from which to provide for the effective clinical instruction of students; (2) That facilities for t* aching morbid anatomy and practical midwifery can scarcely be said to exist; (3) That it ia impossible for a small staff, composed of busy general practitioners, to devote the necessary time to clinical instruction.” The concluding paragraphs of the report s ate that, assuming, however, it is desirable to grant degrees in the Colony, the Committee has to report that the present system of examination is wrong in principle and , dangerous in practice, for in the first and second and portion of the final examination students ore examined by their own teachers. This gives the public no guarantee that a proper standard has been attained. Finally, the Committee was of opinion that oflly such scientific subjects the materials for teaching which do not depend upon population could be taught with advantage in Dunedin, and that students ought to ha compelled to seek i or their clinical work a wider field thau New Z-aland can, for many years to come, possibly afford. In no other way could the University fulfil its undoubted duties to the public by turning out safe and reliable practitioners, who had been properly and soundly trained, not only in scientific but in practical work.