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Igraduating  class*
14-9

MEDICAL DEPARTMENT


                    "SSV
GEORGETOWN COL
   BY NOBLE YOUNG, M. D.,
PROFESSOR OF THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF MEDICINE.
Ipclitrerea at % &mitljS0tttan Institution $Slarcb 8, 18GU.
    WASHINGTON:

HENRY POLKINHORN, PRINTER.
       1860.

 
 
VALEDICTORY  ADDRESS
TO THE
GRADUATING   CLASS
OF THE
MEDICAL  DEPARTMENT
GEORGETOWN COLLEGE,
  .  BY  NOBLE YOUNG, M. D.,
PROFESSOR OF THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF MEDICINE.
gjdtfrmb at % Smithsonian Institution glare^ 8, I860.
      WASHINGTON:
HENRY POLKINHORN, PRINTER.
          1860. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE.
                                   Washington, March 9, 1860.
Prof. Noble Young:
  Dear Sir: On behalf of the Graduating Class, we, the undersigned,
respectfully request a copy of your Valedictory Address for publication.
                   Very respectfully,
                                  A. G. BROWNING,
                                  JOHN  W. DAVIS,
                                  JAS. H.  PEABODY,
                                                     Committee.
                                   Washington, March 9, 1860.
  Gentlemen: Your  note  of  the  9th, requesting,  on behalf of the
Graduating Class, a copy of the Valedictory Address, has been duly
received.  I comply most cheerfully  with the request, at the same time
thank you most sincerely for the compliment.
               With respect, your  obedient servant,
                                            N. YOUNG, M. D.
  Doctors A. G. Browning, John W. Davis, and
                              Jas. H. Peabody, Committee. 
 
VALEDICTORY  ADDRESS.
You have arrived, gentlemen, at the most interesting period
of your lives.   Your elementary education is completed, and
you are about to enter  upon the labors and contend for the
honors of a professional  career.  We are here to-night to
inaugurate this transit from professional youth to professional
manhood;  to clothe you with the toga virilis, and wish you
God-speed in your course.  We are to be honored or discre-
dited by your future course, and though  the past evidences
of your pupilage justify our highest hopes and most confi-
dent calculations, still, our interest in you may excuse  some
anxiety, and warrant us in giving some parting admonition.
   At this point, it is meet that you pause to consider  earn-
estly, to reflect seriously, upon the duties of your future lives,
the various relations in which you will  be placed,  and adopt
principles which shall govern you.  To discharge your duties
properly, you  must continue to  be students, must become
men of science; you must be Christians, gentlemen, and good
citizens.   You  are about to enter upon the practice of the
most useful, the noblest, highest calling  which God has
permitted  man  to pursue^—one  which,  perhaps, involves,
more than any other, the active exercise of  those gifts which
the Creator has bestowed upon his creatures—one in which
more of head and  heart are concerned, than any  other, and
for the proper discharge of  whose duties here on earth you
will be held to the strictest accountability hereafter. 
6     MEDICAL DEPARTMENT GEORGETOWN COLLEGE.
   Every year is adding to the opportunities for the cultivation
 of the various sciences which contribute to the development
 of the resources of Medicine, by unfolding  a knowledge of
 new laws of nature, applicable to the investigation and treat-
 ment of Disease; much more, therefore, will be required of
 you than  of your predecessors.  Medicine is ceasing to be an
 art, dependent  upon observation and  experience alone; it is
 assuming the precision of a Science.  Examination through
 the  sense of hearing, has been  added in our  day; regions
 hidden from the sight may now be explored by the Stethe-
 scope—the practised ear detecting with perfect  accuracy the
 very commencement of disease, which, in former  days, was
 only seen in results, and when too late  for the efficacy of
 remedies.   This instrument is to the ear what the microscope
 is to the eye, and its introduction forms an epoch in Medicine.
   By the aid of Chemical Science, the modern Physician is
 enabled to examine minutely the various fluids and solids of
 the body, thereby  detecting disease in its  inception, viewing
 it in its progress, and estimating so exactly its character, as
 to render  simple the means of prevention and of cure.   By
 the same assistance, the nature of remedial agents is disclosed
 —the active separated from the inert principles, and  made
 more efficient in their application to the removal of disease.
   The Microscope, the  Ophthalmoscope, and the Speculum,
 are aiding in bringing to view that which is hidden from the
 unaided eye.   The condition of the various  cavities is sub-
 mitted to our inspection, and the most accurate knowledge of
them afforded, both in health and disease.  Mechanical inge-
nuity has  armed the Surgeon with increased facilities for the
relief of the many injuries submitted to  his care, whilst the
discovery of Anesthetics has furnished  him with the means
of assuaging the anguish inseparable from his various opera-
tions.  Pathological  Anatomy is  giving daily the results of
diseased  action, to exhibit error, or establish  the truth of
diagnosis.  Statistical returns  are  furnishing  us with  the 
VALEDICTORY ADDRESS.                7
means of ascertaining with accuracy the influence of various
agents in the production of disease, the preservation of health,
and  the comparative  value of different modes of treatment.
Many  of the  doctrines  which have  heretofore  governed
Pathologists, are undergoing  re-investigation—errors  are
brought to  light, and sounder  views adopted.  The Physi-
cian of this day has learned to reason more logically.  He is
no  longer  swayed  by the edicts of schools or sects,  based
upon purely speculative hypotheses, but  examines for him-
self  every theory, weighs each fact as presented, and submits
it to the tests afforded by his superior knowledge of the laws
of nature.
  In this modern march of improvement, we have good rea-
son to  be proud of the achievements of our own countrymen.
Contrast the condition of Medicine in the United States with
what it was only a century ago.  In 1750 the first dissection
was  made in this country, to impart a knowledge of anatomy
to students.  The city of New York is entitled to this honor,
by the hands of Doctors John  Bard and Peter Middleton.
In 1756, a  course of  lectures  on anatomy and  surgery was
delivered in Newport, Rhode Island, by Dr. William Hun-
ter,  with dissections,  but no  regularly organized  school of
medicine was established until  1765, when the one in Phila-
delphia, now known as the University of Pennsylvania, was
founded by Doctors  Shippen and Morgan.  This was followed
in 1767 by the New York School, now known as the College
of Physicians and  Surgeons;  then the Medical School  of
Harvard College in  1782 ; that of Dartmouth College, 1797,
founded by Dr. Nathan Smith, father of the present pro-
fessor of surgery  in the University of Maryland,  and who,
for nearly twelve years,  alone sustained all the duties of  the
medical department.  The College of Medicine of  Maryland
in 1807, made in 1810 into the University of Maryland, and
founded by Dr. John B. Davidge, of Baltimore, who com-
menced lecturing to  six  students in 1804;  the College of 
8     MEDICAL DEPARTMENT GEORGETOWN COLLEGE.
Physicians and  Surgeons of the Western District of New
York, in 1812; the Medical School of Yale College in 1813;
Medical College  of Ohio, 1818; Vermont Academy of Medi-
cine, and  Medical  School of Transylvania University, Lex-
ington, Kentucky,  in the same year;  the Medical School of
Maine, attached to Bowdoin College in 1820; Medical Depart-
ment of Brown University, Rhode  Island, in 1821;  the
Medical Department of the University of Vermont, 1822; in
the same  year the Berkshire Medical  School, attached to
William's College,  in Massachusetts;  the Medical College of
South Carolina,  and the Jefferson Medical School in Phila-
delphia, 1824; following these, we have had added, the Med-
ical  Department of  the University of Virginia;  medical
schools in Richmond, Virginia; in Nashville, Tennessee; St.
Louis,  Missouri; New  Orleans; Louisville, Kentucky; Chi-
cago, Illinois—and most of the States south and west, as well
as in our own city.
   Besides this provision for medical education by  medical
institutions,  all  but four of which  have been established
during the first half of this century, we have now in every
State, and almost  in  every county in  the  different  States,
organized Medical Societies, for the promotion of the interests
of the profession, the cultivation of medical science,  and the
preservation of the public from the evils of Quackery.
   During this period of unexampled progress, many of our
profession have  distinguished  themselves, and  acquired  a
world-wide reputation in the various departments of medicine
and surgery.  The achievements of our surgeons, accoucheurs,
and practitioners of medicine, and the various works written
by them,  will compare favorably with those of any other
country.   Translated into the different languages, and dissem-
inated  throughout the countries of the world, they  have
assisted in raising  us to the rank of equals with the  most
favored, and contributed to that respect which the American
citizen now enjoys throughout the civilized world. 
VALEDICTORY ADDRESS.
9
  The student of medicine is no longer obliged to go abroad
for his medical education, as formerly: he has the most ample
means at his door.   In every State he has abundant facilities
for private and public instruction in the elements of his pro-
fession, and in many places the most extensive means for
bractical education  in its duties.   The city of New  York,
vith its million of inhabitants, is now behind  no city in the
Vorld in the material elements for  practical  clinical instruG-
|.on;  and the ability of the professors  in our medical schools,
(rid the conductors of the many infirmaries, dispensaries, and
lospitals in the various cities of our country, is amply com-
petent  to the most complete  medical education.  Year by
^ear these  resources are increasing, and the time may not be
fir distant  when  there  will be seen students  from  every
qiarter of  the globe, hastening to our great medical centres,
t<| enjoy the benefits of education.
   What emotions arise naturally in the breast of every lover
of his country, and  particularly of the medical man, by this
relection!   A land  which, two hundred and fifty years ago,
w£ an unbroken wilderness; whose rivers  rushed to mingle
thtir  waters with the ocean, and her hills towered toJbeaven
in Unobserved majesty; whose teeming soil yielded nutriment
ony for the brute or the  Indian; where the repose of nature
wa^ never disturbed, its perpetual  quiet never  broken, save
by he  roar of wild beasts, or  the  conflicts of  savage  men!
Its
           "Mighty scenes, in Nature's morning made,
             While still, in rich magnificence of prime,
             She poured her wonders lavishly sublime."
      i
   A  country, in this short  space of time, seen forejnost in
the rice of excellence, in commerce,  manufactures, and the
arts aid sciences, offering, with unfolded arms  and the most
bounteous  hospitality, an asylum  to the oppressed  of all
nations, and before all, the  most abundant means, the most
extended facilities for the acquisition of a knowledge of that 
10    MEDICAL DEPARTMENT GEORGETOWN  COLLEGE.
art which is required for the preservation of our species-
instruction in that calling which God himself has commander!
to be honored.
  Your most active interest will be excited, gentlemen, h
the suppression of  Quackery—in preventing charlatans fron
imposing  upon the credulity of the public, to their seriovs-
injury, to the injury of the interests, and insult to the dignily
of our profession.   This, as you have been told in the eloqueit
address of a worthy colleague, must be effected, not by rici-
cule, but by  placing  yourselves upon ground higher thm
they, making yourselves more efficient, by education, for  tie
relief of the  sufferer, and  demonstrating most clearly  tie
superiority of your attainments.  Now, wide-spread are  tie
evils affecting humanity, which demand our attention in tlis
day.  There is probably more open, bare-faced quackery in
this country than in any other on the globe.  We have b<en
called  a fast people: we are fast, even in regard to disease.
The American must be cured of his maladies at once—he
has not time to be sick any more than he has for relaxation
from business.  The nostrum is tempting to such a man: he
sees a speedy cure in its vaunted promises.   The slower, but
more philosophical means of treatment, based  upon prnci-
ples, he does not understand, and is too slow.
   Science itself has been  made tributary to the lust foi for-
tune.   The  advanced  condition  of  chemical  science has
furnished the means to the unprincipled of imposing upon
the community spurious articles, from which they deriveprofit
whilst health is destroyed.   Our wines and liquors, wlich, I
am sorry to say, are used more lavishly than a purer beverage,
are so adulterated as to be a source of the most desfructive
forms of disease.   To  this may be added over-taxaion  of
brain and nerves in  the pursuit of gain, or the amrition of
early  distinction,  which  may be  called,  par excelence,  an
American vice.  You have in these, sources of diseaie, which
as medical philosophers you must examine, as men )i science 
VALEDICTORY ADDRESS.               11
have the ability to understand, as moralists  and Christians,
the counsels to correct, and  as  practitioners, the  ability to
relieve from their  effects.
  In  this work, there must be unity of action, honesty of
purpose.  We are materially assisted in this by the establish-
ment of the National  Medical Association,  a congress of
physicians, representing every section of our country, bring-
ing annually  the  results of investigations in science;  the
practical observations of our ablest  men, exciting  the most
laudable rivalry in the  ranks of our  profession;  add to this,
men thrown together from the east, the west, the north,  and
the south, form attachments from  their communion, have
prejudices removed,  and return to their homes more tolerant
of difference of opinion arising from sectional interests, and
more zealous devotees not only to their profession but to the
preservation of our happy Union.
  This organization gives us the ability to bring to bear the
whole weight  of medical public opinion upon subjects inter-
esting to us, and of vital importance to the public.
  This Association assisted, efficiently,  in procuring the  pas-
sage of the law, originated by Dr. Edwards, a member of
Congress from Ohio,  and  a  member of the  Association,
requiring the inspection of imported drugs  at the different
sea-ports, thus excluding spurious articles, not  only inert as
remedial agents, but positively hurtful.
  It affords us also the means of acquiring the most accurate
information in regard to the history of endemic and epidemic
diseases, their nature and their treatment; medical topogra-
phy ;  climatic influences; and a yearly estimate of the  pro-
gress of our science in its various departments.
  In every  community the society of the  physician is culti-
vated.  He  is  welcome to all; his  counsels are respectfully
received; his  intimate relations to all, high and low, enable
him to exercise an influence upon public opinion in regard
to many subjects, to point out the infallible results of popular 
12    MEDICAL DEPARTMENT GEORGETOWN COLLEGE.
 vices.  You should never tire of this  work;  there is more
 to be done than ever before by the physician, in correcting
 modern errors—evils which are sapping the  very vitals of
 society, by corrupting physically, as well as morally—whilst
 disease is more amenable to treatment, by being better under-
 stood,  and the  means  of cure more extended, the increase
 of sudden death is alarming, produced by agents invisible
 to the  victim.  Scarcely a day elapses  without a record of
 some startling sudden death, the result of disease  engendered
 long before  by vicious practices.  When these are seen in
 their inception, your duty will be to point out their inevitable
 termination.   Avail yourselves of every opportunity to warn
 the subject, as he proceeds step by step in his career, and
 avert his ruin.
   You, gentlemen, belong to the rising generation of medical
 men.  You are to become the active men of the  profession:
 to take the place of  those who are passing away.  To you
 are entrusted the interests and duties of  the profession.   You
 are to  form  part of that body upon whom the public rely
 for advice and protection from disease and injury.  Look well
 to your trust; arm yourselves with the means to discharge it
 faithfully.
   Amongst the many troubles you will have to encounter,
 not the least will be  the  prejudices of the public upon the
 subject of new remedies, or new  modes of treatment of dis-
 ease. They regard them  as innovations, and you as experi-
 menters, and he must be a bold man who will oppose those
 sentiments.   Yet there must be that boldness, for all  know-
 ledge of the philosophy of treatment, and of the  nature of
 disease, is possessed alone by the physician; there is no sub-
ject of which the public is so entirely ignorant.
   I remember well, that a little more than thirty years ago,
 the use  of cold water as a drink after calomel, was considered
 the  most certain means of producing  salivation, and  even
 death; and never shall forget the fear  and trembling  with 
VALEDICTORY ADDRESS.                13
 which I first administered it, and the triumph of my success
 in calming irritability, assuaging the pangs  of febrile thirst,
 and assisting materially in shortening the paroxysm of fever.
 Now, you know, the whole  medical world has adopted  the
 practice, and the public are  becoming  accustomed to its use,
 and willing to receive its benefits.  A more striking instance
 of this prejudice, carrying not only the public but  most of
 our profession, to  most extreme and  violent opposition,
 occurred upon the introduction  of inoculation for  small-pox
 in this country.  This was practised first  by Dr.  Zabdiel
 Boylston, of Massachusetts,  in June, 1771, upon his only son,
 and his two servants, successfully.  For this he incurred the
 most violent opposition and denunciation of his professional
 brethren, as well as the officers of the town in which he lived.
 He had his windows broken by the mob, and himself pelted
 with stones as he walked the streets.  He was not deterred,
 however, for in that and  the next year, he  inoculated two
 hundred and forty-seven persons, out of which number only
 six died, while of five thousand seven hundred and fifty-nine
 who took the disease in the  natural way, eight hundred and
 forty-four died.  Thus the moral courage of this distinguished
 physician was the means of  establishing a comparatively safe
 mode of prevention of this  fatal scourge.  The same fate, to
 a certain extent, befel the great Junner, who first introduced
 vaccination, and gave us what  is now relied upon by the
 whole world as  a safe means of staying the desolation of the
 pestilence of small-pox.   These instances, of many, are cited
 that their results may incite you to emulate the boldness and
 decision of these great men, whenever  assured of  the  truth
 of your opinions, and prompted by your duty to your patients
 and the public.
  In your course through life, cultivate purity of thought, sim-
 plicity of life, charity and benevolence to your fellowman; be
patient under exactions, firm in your purpose, but kind in its
maintenance.  You must abandon yourselves entirely to the 
14    MEDICAL DEPARTMENT GEORGETOWN COLLEGE.
practice  of your calling;  nothing must interfere with  it:
encourage a love for it;  be prompt and ready to administer
to suffering when called upon, and be equal to all which is
demanded of  you, in the present advanced  state of medical
knowledge.  If  you will add to this the higher motives of
the true Christian, exercising your skill not only for the love
of your fellow man, but as a duty to your Creator, you will
have secured  as much happiness in this world as may fall to
the lot of man, and be prepared, so far as  your own efforts
can effect it,  for the enjoyment of an  eternal reward here-
after.  The mere professional man, prompted only by ambi-
tion, can never be truly happy or  satisfied; and he  who is
governed only by a desire for gain, degrades his calling, and
reduces it to the lowest rank of occupations.
   Another duty remains to be spoken  of.   You are citizens
of this  great Republic;  in other forms of government the
sovereignty is in the  monarch who may be elected or  hold
his authority  by Divine  right; in this, every man constitutes
a portion of that sovereignty; to be able to discharge prop-
erly his duty in this relation, he must be well  informed, he
must understand the nature of the institutions of his country,
he must be acquainted with the history of past events, and
informed upon those which are passing around him; he must
be competent to separate  truth from error;  to distinguish
between the patriotic  propositions of the statesman and the
specious sophistry of  the designing demagogue; to estimate
the difference between sectionalism and patriotism; to recog-
nize the rights of the interests of the various sections of our
country; in fact, to be a well-informed and patriotic citizen.
I do not advise you to become involved in the  turmoil of
partisanship—to become active politicians—but to be capable,
and always ready, to  exercise the influence which your posi-
tion gives you, and  which your  duty requires of you; by
your counsels to check the growth of error, and assist in the
establishment of a healthy public opinion;  the neglect of this 
                 VALEDICTORY ADDRESS.               15
______________»____________________________

duty, demanded of good citizens, has been the cause of much
serious  evil  in  our  country;  the  public sentiment  of the
various sections has  become  vitiated;  false doctrines, ad-
vanced  by designing politicians for selfish purposes, have
been received by the masses; bitter and angry feelings have
been engendered; that respect  for rights, and that  fraternal
feeling which formerly existed amongst the members of our
wide-spread  community, has been destroyed, and disunion,
which, in times  past past, was  never dreamed of, much less
advocated, is now openly proposed as a remedy  for existing
differences.
   Upon you as citizens, so far as your  influence  extends,
and it  will  not be  small, devolves the  duty of correcting
this. By precept and example, by your advice and exhorta-
tions, you must assist in re-establishing a healthy, conserva-
tive spirit, such as shall conduct our glorious country to that
destiny intended by the Almighty; to  be foremost in all
which is most useful to man;  to  demonstrate to the world
that man  is capable of self-control, of self-government, of
those virtues which exalt him to a resemblance of his Creator,
in whose image he was made.
   In your professional career,  you will have duties to your-
selves, your  patients, and to your professional brethren; the
feelings of gentlemen, (according to others, what  you demand
for  yourselves,) must be your guide; this feeling, softened
and refined by benevolence, must govern you in your rela-
tion to your patients; this can never fail you; the  gentle-
manly and benevolent physician can never err in duty.

           " To  thine own self be true,
             And it must follow, as the night, the day,
             Thou canst not then  be false to any man."

   Cultivate an u esprit de corps." Your interests  are common
to your profession;  what benefits or injures  one, has the
same effect upon all.  Let no prospect of immediate  advan- 
16    MEDICAL DEPARTMENT GEORGETOWN  COLLEGE.
tage,  or promotion in popular opinion, no unworthy  am-
bition  for  success, tempt you from the path of honorable
rivalry; but let your hope be, that by your course through
life, at its  close, you may have earned, and receive the com-
mendations of the public, and the approbation of your brother
practitioners. The good opinion of your professional brethren
is worth all else to you in this world.   Farewell! 
^