The clinical training consisted of two parts: `The professor would pause at the bedside of each patient long enough to question him and examine him properly; he would draw the students' attention to the diagnostic signs and the important symptoms of the disease'; then, in the lecture hall, the professor would take up the general history of the illnesses observed in the hospital ward, and he would point out their `known, probable, and hidden' causes, make a prognosis, and provide `vital', `curative', or `palliative' indications.'