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810 THE LEADER, [Satxtrda^
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A WORD FOB THE DOCTORS. Education is the...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The "Accident" At The Crystal Palace. As...
to form the scaffolding entirb along at least half the transept without any attempt at shifting it . Prom the description we have here attempted , and without the henefit of any professional knowledge of engineering , it will he seen that the seven tie-bars of iron stretching across had to bear nearly the whole weight of the scaffolding , somethinglike 70 tons . The tendencywould be' then to press it away from its . fixed extremities , provided it resisted sufficiently at its centre . Another line of strain would be on the outside trusses , and most on their outer side ; and here it may be stated that these were the weak parts of the first scaffold , they broke first , and in the second attempt they were all braced with inch boards , as were most of the other trusses
employed , the engineers seeming , however , to overlook this great addition to the weight of one-fifth at least . The scientific tell us that , in . opposition to this downward and lateral pressure there is a , force of intention exerted on the inner trusses which tends to support the tic-bar , and thus compensates the strain ; and that the scaffolding , when complete , is a sort of strung bow . But still this tie-bar must be pressed downwards by a force of many tons , and its ends not being allowed to be fixed to the upright columns of the building , the chief support it gets at the ends is derived from the dead weight of the outer trusses , and the general distribution , to other trusses of any strain exerted upon the ends of the outer trusses to which it ( the tie-bar ) is fixed .
So long as every truss retained its vertical position the scaffold was safe , but the moment one section diverged , the pulling together of the whole was destroyed , the tie-bar is twisted by immense force of leverage , and down everything must come , till some lucky break here and there stops the progress of the terrible sway ; it will be observed , too , that the collapse proceeded until it was stopped by the two iron ribs that had been erected and fixed . This kind of scaffolding , however applicable to spanning for arches between strong piers of masonry , does" not seem to be either safe or economical for the
purpose required at Sydenhanr . Having watched it fall on both occasions , the same defect presented itself to my mind , viz . a tendency to overbalance into the transept—to topple over ; both times it poured forward like water out of a jug , and on examining the tie-bar ; they were always found to be twisted round and round like ribbon , and doubled up into loops , in each line or row of them . I am quite aware that it needs very little strength to keep these trusses perpendicular , and the " diesquare " timbers may not have been too weak for this ; nevertheless , I think sufficient precautions were not taken
to keep the trusses upright , considering the great downward strain there was , and this especially in adding the advanced line of them , which process the men were engaged in when , the fall occurred : even during the gale of wind , when the first scaffolding fell , there was no sort of main stay erected . Again , I think the tie-bars were deficient in horizontal . support , even if they were capablo of resisting the innnen . se down strain . At tho risk of being considered presumptuous , I doubt very much if the behaviour of this complicated scaffolding under pressure , and unsupported by lateral buttresses , wjis thoroughly understood and provided for
by the engineers . Tho concluding paragraph of tho official report — a production put together in the most practised « 1 yle of the bamboozling art—is u concatenation of unwarrantable assumptions and engineering . so phistry . Because a portion remains undisturbed ( that is to say , it did not fall ) , thcreforo all was sufficiently strong . Then , because the first portion escaped falling' while being pushed forward in tho construction , thez'o was , therefore , no " essential defect" in the arrangements . Then come tho excuses of defective material and careless workmen—tho one totally inexcusable—tho other almost equally so ; and , moreover , even less probable than fault of material , because not u nmii but felt that his own life depended upon
his good work . In fact , that accident happened which they now nialco it si merit to have foreseen ; whereas an accident of thin kind is inadmissible , and if forenoon could niid should have been prevented . Tho whole burdon of thin report in , indeed , an attempt to confound , un accident with an error . If this great liability to accident—or more properly , this great clmncu of its falling , was inseparable from the kind of scaffold used , another kind nhould have been adopted . Tho Crystal Pnlueo Company did not dictate to tho " great engineei'H . " Perhaps it would have been better for all parties if they had forbidden thin Tcarian attempt ; the constructors would them have been . spared tho hiiniiliution of returning to earth , crestfallen , after two failures , with all the curses of tho widow and tho fatherless heaped on their heads—not to mention the h ' ttlo blow ou the pocket which cannot bo agreeable .
The inquest will be performed in the usual way in such cases . The great engineers will envelope everything in a cloud of their calculated impossibilities ; and , at lastj settle down into a careless workman or a defective rivet— -having related all in that peculiar style of melancholy diplomacy so suited to the occasion , and with which they are by this time so familiarunless any one of the jury becomes troublesome , and refuses their gospel , in which case the verdict may not turn out to be that convenient refuge " accidental death . " -
It is both lamentable and vexatious , that in the carrying ' out of . such , a noble and magnificent scheme as that of the Crystal Palace , this sad affair should have occurred ; yet it has this much of consolation in it , that such a tremendous crashing and tearing away of pillars and girders was confined to the immediate spot , without even shaking the rest of the building , and proved by a severe test the strength and perfect stability of the new and beautiful structure . G .
810 The Leader, [Satxtrda^
810 THE LEADER , [ Satxtrda ^
A Word Fob The Doctors. Education Is The...
A WORD FOB THE DOCTORS . Education is the desire of the age . Our universities have received a salutary fillip . At the inns of court the benchers have been induced to give a modicum of attention to something less material than dinners ; and the reams of popular writing on popular education would abash the man who having waded through the JSncyclopcedia Britannica is progressing satisfactorily through the Metropolitana . Only one branch of the subject has remained unheeded — Medical education . On this the public have been content to remain in ignorance , or , if they ever trouble their heads about the matter , they appear to think that Bob Sawyer and Mr .
Hogmore are types of the class , and contentedly resign themselves to the belief , that those in whom they confide under emergencies the most trying are selected because they are unfit for anything but Bridewell . Under these circumstances it may not be amiss if we give such notions as we have been able tp _ glean concerning the cultui'e of the medical man , as it extends from turndown collars to the red lamp and night bell , pointing out its deficiencies , and premising that the youthful followers of - / Esculapius and the Sandwich islanders are not justly included in the same pithy sentence— " manners none ; customs too bad to be recorded . "
Our aspirant for medical fame is removed from Dr . Birch's academy at the age of sixteen , and transferred to some venerable practitioner , whose revolting compounds ho is for a heavy consideration benevolently allowed to mix . In the whole three years during which he must remain in the house of bondage we solemnly aver that nothing is acquired which might not bo mastered in a month . To our unprofessional intellect this appears a blunder at starting . To a man of limited income it is doubtless pleasant as a point of domestic economy ; as a feature of education not- only sanctioned but insisted on , it strikes us , to eay the least of it , as odd . The very tareo years so wasted are perhaps those of a young man ' s life which most contribute to make his character . Tho various
uses of which they are capable wo need scarcely indicate ; their abuse is preposterous . The spreading of blisters , the scraping of gallypots , may possibly conduco to science ; if so it is by somo tmbtlo link to us inappreciable . The cry is , what then is to bo done with tho boy ? Wo can hardly bo expected to prescribo for the doctors ; but suppose you raise the ( standard of preliminary education ; suppose you insist on the student matriculating at tho London University ( which ho may do very well at sixteen ) , and taking a B . A . ( which he may accomplish comfortably by eighteen ) ; this leaves a year
for him to learn tho manipulation of drugs . At any rate nothing can be worse than tho present odious system of apprenticeship , in whose favour we never heard a sonsiblo man say a single word , against which there has been some clamour , and will be more . The respectable old ladies at Apothecaries' Hall persist in being deaf , but a shout will one day roverberato in their ears , which will effectually rouse them from their plethoric stupor . For nearly forty years they ( quite n subordinate class ) have been invested with a power exceeding any ever possessed by tho College of Physicians or { Surgeons . They havo beon content to' sacrifice
Bcience to their own partial omls , and havo fiecm-ed their aggrandisement by giving a " heavy blow and groat . discouragement" to tho profession at large . It in moiiio satisfaction to think that this stato of things cannot last for ever . It should not have endured ho long ; but tho seniors while crying aloud their own grievances from the house-top , overlook those who aro to succeed them , whom for tho hake of their profession they should cherish , and whom tho public should not forget , for evory deficiency among them in folt through thousands of all ages , nexo « , and conditions ,
Let us , however , try to persuade ourselves that our tyro has discharged his almost menial functions without having been vulgarized ; that he has passed three years in semi-idleness without having belli vitiated ; what is next in store for him ? That he may have every fad . lity for going to tho dogs , after , such admirable preparation , he is thrown on the surface of London , life usually without a hand to guide or guard him . Our hospitals are not collegiate institutions , but is it suffi . cient that a father , on entrusting the education of hi g son to their professors , should have nothing more in return for his heavy entrance fee than their " hope that he will take care of himself ? " In some of the
hospitals there is an arrangement by which a verysmall proportion of the students are accommodated but this is utterly inadequate to its real end . Indeed the chief good that results from it is to be looked for in the tacit avowal that something of the kind is required . If unnecessary , why is it done at all ? If necessary , why is it not done thoroughly ? To accomplish it would not require miraculous ability . If there be no other way , what is to prevent the licensing of boarding-houses in which all students should be compelled to reside ? Are trustworthy people to undertake the management so rare ? Is London so destitute of vacant and commodious houses ? Our hero now
commences walking the hospitals , and if , as a popular author has contended , vagueness is one - element of sublimity , the prevalent notions oil this point can be nothing short of Miltonic . We , however , have made a discovery , of which we are rather proud—viz ., that the student can by no means live hi the paradise of pothouses he is fashionably supposed to enjoy . Listen , Mr . Jones , while we tell you what the young man lijid
to go through , who attended your Amelia in the measles , then go and pay the bill you ought to have settled long ago , and do not call his money lightly earned . The course lasts three years . The first ( and partly the second ) of these is employed in mastering scientific details . A great- deal of , chemistry * is required ; botany ( just enough to swear by ); a thorough practical knowledge of anatomy ; and one or two equally formidable items . How all this is to be done without
a great deal of good honest industry we don't know . People are not born anatomists . The student is supposed to be assisted by lectures . In the former scarcity of good books they might have been an aid : they are now ( with the exception of practical demonstrations ) a bugbear . From the nature of the case , lectures can be little better than diluted books , and the young men think they can get more by a quarter of an hour ' s reading than by an hour ' s listening . Moreover , wo have been told by a teacher of twenty years' standing , himself deservedly one of the most eminent of London physicians , and beyond compare the most eloquent of London lecturers , " that he wished with all his heart fill lectures were to cease but clinical . " This we havo
reason to believe is the opinion of the most enlightened members of tho profession . In consequence , as might bo expected , the half-sleeping beauties in Water-lano not very long since issued an edict , requiring that tho exact number attended should bo endorsed on tho schedule of every pupil . Never mind ; before a hundred years havo expired , tho appointed man will break through tho hedge , and do what . Tudgo Crampton tried to effect for Kir wan—bring thorn to a sense of their " degraded and dreadful situation . "
Wo think that the efficacy of medical ' education for mental training has been much underrated . Let us sco what is required to insure moderate success : —Muc ' patience and perseverance—great acuteness of observation— accuracy that must be like Cuc-wir ' s wife , beyond suspicion—a very retentivo memory—and as muuli tact as is required by a cross-examining barrister . Pure Baconian induction must bo the law of study than which ( the tmnseendentulists may way what (; l >»> y like ) there can be no better training for tho mind . " a man is a genius , it serves as a valuable corrective t . <> his impetuosity : if ho is a dolt , it is by far the safest method of training his limited faculties .
Having now the greater part of his book-work at I "" fingers' ends , the student is prepared , to enter on t ' praetico of medicine . For this there " is ample room and verge enough , " amid many hundred casos of n kinds and degrees of intensity . Ho has every rensoiiablo facility for personal investigation . H « "" / himself interrogate and examine tho pat ient , form '" own estimate of the dison . vo , and project his own p '
of treatment : ho may then accompany the 8 iirf ?«<>» ° physician in his rounds—ask nny questions—h » ftn ^ difficulties removed . The discip ' les of Py thagor as woi ^ constrained to unbroken silence : hero tho cn » o very different . Tho feeling i « entirely "' P " " ! , ' ^ To judge from our own observation , tho <> < ^ professor will tender an explanation , or rofl ' ()> v . argument with unruffled amenity—and ovon " " ledgo himself in error without a sign of discompos "
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 20, 1853, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_20081853/page/18/
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