While considerable use is being made of television in schools, colleges, and universities, it is difficult to know how best to use it. In medical schools, particularly in undergraduate teaching, this lack of evaluation is even more pronounced in spite of the availability of closed-circuit television for a number of years. For demonstrations where the particular experiment or technique cannot be shown adequately to a number of students at one time, or where much repetition would be required as in dentistry, there is much to be said in favour of television. In similar vein, where it is not desirable to allow observers into a particular environment, valid reasons can be adduced for the introduction of closed-circuit television. For example, a large number of students in an operating-theatre increases the risk of infection. In the field of clinical teaching, however, the case is less convincing. What might be gained from the patient's point of view?namely, avoidance of being used for teaching a group of students round the bed?must be balanced against the loss of personal contact which students experience when watching the examination of the patient through the medium of television. Further, little is known about what the student learns and retains from such televised events. This paper outlines an experimental attempt to evaluate, in a very elementary fashion, the impact of television on clinical teaching of undergraduates. The results are compared with those obtained from the orthodox way of teaching surgery.