Teaching from the chair and at the bedside

Teaching from the chair and at the bedside

Covers

Speeches

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1809-1894

Harvard Medical School

At the opening of the term and the beginnings of debate over educational reform at the Medical School, Holmes gave this address to the students, partly in defense of the summer term of practical instruction over the formal lectures of the winter. “The bedside is always the true center of medical teaching. Certain branches must be taught in the lecture-room, and will necessarily involve a good deal that is not directly useful to the future practitioner. But the over ambitious and active student must not be led away by the seduction of knowledge for its own sake from his principal pursuit. The humble beginner, who is alarmed at the vast fields of knowledge opened to him, may be encouraged by the assurance that with a very slender provision of science, in distinction from practical skill, he may be a useful and acceptable member of the profession to which the health of the community is entrusted.”

Cover of the address given by Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) to the Harvard Medical School in 1867, entitled Teaching from the chair and at the bedside : an introductory lecture delivered before the Medical Class of Harvard University, November 6, 1867

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1809-1894

David Clapp and Son

1867 November 06

The Harvard Medical Library does not hold copyright on all materials in this collection. For use information, consult Public Services at chm@hms.harvard.edu

Access to the original work depicted requires advance notice. Contact Public Services at chm@hms.harvard.edu for additional information

Harvard Medical Library Rare Books Collection (1.Mh.1867.H, c. 1)

text

1 cover

English

text

DigID0002172

From the collections of the Library of Harvard Medical School