Genre:

Diary, Drollery, Serial

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Education, Hospitals

Institutions mentioned:

University of London

    Describes how the protagonist of the story, Joseph Muff, undergoes the process of 'grinding' in anatomy, before presenting himself at the Royal College of Surgeons. Describes medical students' preparations for their last examination at the college. Students irritate the 'grinder' again by giving sloppy and jocose answers to medical questions. Compares the college examination favourably with those at the Apothecaries' Hall. The conclusion states that the articles have 'endeavoured to show the medical student as he actually exists—his reckless gaiety, his wild frolics, his open disposition'. Adds that students look back on their education with affection but also with a sense of the 'lamentable inefficacy of the present course of medical education pursued at our schools and hospitals, to fit a man for future practice'.