Intracapsular Cataract Extraction

Dr. F. M. R. Walshe:-" So I believe," he says, " that while technical methods of investigation and experimental studies have now to be included in the essentials of a complete neurologic training, clinical observation remains the foundation of neurologic medicine and on it all else must be built. Only the adequately trained clinical observer can evaluate the relationship of the results -of laboratory and other technical methods -of investigation to the symptoms of disease presented by the individual patient, for it is the individual :that is the material of ourstudy, be it remembered, and not an abstract thing called' disease.' " The importance of the training and acumen of the observer is admirably expressed in the words of your great authority on -medical education, A. Flexner. He writes, "There is a widespread impression that the scientific quality of medical education 'and practice -is in some fashion dependent upon the part played by thelaboratory. This is not the case. Science is essentially a matter. of-observation-, inference, verification and generalization. Not only is the part played by the active senses the essential criterion of science; one may go further, the vast and complicated paraphernalia* ofscience are merely means of extending their scope." I have, no hesitation in stating that in my opinion clinical medicine is better taught,. and therefore better practised, in England and the United States than in any other part of the 'world; and this is largely, if-not-chiefly, due to the fact that British .and American students have not only freer access to the hospital patient than in other countries. but are compelled by careful notetaking themselves to investigate the signs and symptoms of disease and to exercise their own wits in arriving at a plausible diagnosis.