^~:-^Qt*--=^='^i^l& =-^-^^^£^-^~^^+^^-*--^Qt*—-~*-^S&*+----x^Z*Jtf? I VALEDICTORY ADDRESS GRADUATING CLASS OF THE Medical Department of Pennsylvania College, MARCH 7th, 1818, BY WILLIAM R. GRANT, M. D., Professor of Anatomy and Physiology. PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE CLASS. PHILADELPHIA: united states job printing office, ledger building. 1848. t$h I vj i*i^^___frrz^^^frZ^^—a^a^r> _j=^P^^^^^^^^.'~-±Lr^f^^^^^-j ■ 7*^ ' rz^^^P^-ssa^^P^ VALEDICTORY ADDRESS, TO the GRADUATING CLASS OF THE Medical Department of Pennsylvania College, MARCH 7th, 1848, BY WILLIAM E, GRANT, M. D., Professor of Anatomy and Physiology. PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE CLASS. PHILADELPHIA: united states job printing office, ledger building. 1848. Philadelphia, March 7th, 1848. Deak Sir : At a meeting of the Graduates of th« recent session of the Medical Department of Pennsylvania College, held in the Reading Room, (Dr. A. Reeves Jackson in the chair, and Dr. Thos. Bond, Secretary,) the undersigned were appointed a Committee to solicit of you a copy of your interesting and in- structive Valedictory Address for publication. In performing this most pleasant duty, we cordially unite with our fellow Graduates in expressing our high sense of its merits, and believe that its publi- cation would not only enhance the reputation of our Institution, but tend to dignify the medical profession. Very respectfully, Yours, &c, A. REEVES JACKSON, Pennsylvania. J. HENRY FISHER, Delaware. THOS. BOND, Pennsylvania. JOHN SMITH, Virginia. WM. H. GOMINGER, Pennsylvania. DRAPER N. NEWTON, New York. THOS. S. HOLLINGSHEAD, Pennsylvania. E. W. CUNNINGHAM, Tennessee. CHARLES G. STROHECKER, Illinois. West Penn Square, March 8th, 1848. Gentlemen : Your communication, as a Committee of the Medical Graduates, requesting for publication a copy of my Valedictory Address, has just been re- ceived. As it was prepared for the benefit of the Graduates, if they conceive that the advice which it contains would be useful in a more permanent form, it is at their service—without presuming that the Address has any just claim to the merit which your partiality, no doubt, has induced you to express. Respectfully yours, W. R. GRANT. To Des. Jackson, Bond, and others. ADDRESS. Gentlemen :—The time has come when we must bid each other farewell! Before we part, however, allow me in behalf of the Faculty of the Medical Department of Pennsylvania College, to wel- come you most cordially to the ranks of an honorable and time-honored profession—most sincerely hoping that, as you have, by faithful application to your studies, thus far been successful in entering its portals and attaining its first honors, integrity of conduct and uprightness of deportment will secure to you its highest rewards. This day, gentlemen, forms an important epoch in your history. It is an ending and a beginning—a termination and a commencement day. To-day terminates your minority or non-age and ushers in your professional manhood. You have this day closed your text books and are about to open the volumes of experience; you cease to be pupils and begin to be masters ; you are no longer mere students and matricu- lates, but are now enrolled among the Alumni of our College. In a word, your curriculum of study is ended, and your professional duties, honors, and responsibilities commence. We again hail you, gentlemen, as brothers—as fellow-laborers in the same calling—destined by your future conduct to honor or tarnish the common name we bear. Let me not, however, be misunderstood when I say that your studies are ended; this is only true in a very limited 8 be selected worthy of imitation by the physician, the Christian, the patriot and philanthropist." We need not, then, refer you, gentlemen, to ages that are past, or travel to foreign countries for characters deserving your imitation, although many such are recorded among the worthies of former centuries and other climes. In our own land, and more modern times, even in this city, are registered the names of physicians of eminence and renown, equal if not superior in many respects to those of years long gone by, or of countries far remote. I need only refer you, gentlemen, as examples, to the noble bearing and self-possession of the vene- rated Physic ; to the varied learning and genuine piety of the youthful Godman; to the fearlessness and frankness of the energetic McClellan ; to the perseverance and attain- ments of the unpretending Eberle ; to the humility and benevolence of the fatherly Parrish ; to the kindness and dexterity of the lamented Dewees ; to the gentleness and urbanity of the polite James ; to the amiableness and kind- heartedness of the eminent Wistar ; to the pleasing manners and surgical skill of the gentlemanly Dorsey ; and I may now add, the uprightness and erudition of our lately departed medical patriarch, Hewson ; and the many excellent qualities of your late Clinical Teacher, Randolph. But more particu- larly, gentlemen, we would say, imitate the character and strive to acquire the reputation, literary and medical, moral and religious, of the immortal Rush. "It were no easy task to do justice to the great talents, the vast labors and the exemplary character of this great man. His merits as a practitioner are too well known to require particular enumeration. He was fully aware of the great responsibility attached to the medical character, and uniformly evinced the deepest solicitude for the recovery of his patients. His kindness and liberality in imparting aid 9 to those from whom no remuneration was ever to be expected was unbounded, and arose from the generous impulse of his nature, the cordial concern he felt in whatever affected the interests of his fellow-creatures. ' Let the poor of every de- scription,' says he, ' be the objects of your peculiar care ; there is an inseparable connection between a man's duty and his interest; whenever you are called, therefore, to visit a poor patient, imagine you hear the voice of the good Samaritan sounding in your ears • take care of him and I will repay you.' " Dr. Rush's mind was of a superior order; to a perception naturally ready and acute, he united a discriminating judgment, a retentive memory, which was greatly improved by habits of close attention—a brilliant imagination and a highly cultivated taste. He possessed a comprehensive understanding — his knowledge was varied and in many branches profound, and he eminently excelled in the several departments of his pro- fession. In his assiduity and perseverance in the acquisition of knowledge he had no superior and few equals. Accus- tomed to constant and regular exercise, his intellectual powers acquired additional vigor from employment. " Notwithstanding the great fatigue he had to undergo in the discharge of the practical duties of a laborious profession, and the constant interrruption to which he was exposed in his pursuits as an author, he never for a moment abated of his ardor in the cause of science. He was the incessant and un- wearied student—familiar with all the standard authors—and his reading kept pace with the discoveries and improvements of the age. "In addition to his literary and professional excellence, there are other qualities which entitle Dr. Rush to our respect and esteem. In private life, his disposition was in the highest degree exemplary; admired and courted for his intellectual endowments, he riveted the affections of all those who enjoyed 10 the pleasure of an intimate acquaintance. The affability of his manners, the amiableness of his temper, and the benevo- lence of his character were ever conspicuous. He was ardent in his friendships and forgiving in his resentments, and yet entertaining a due regard for himself and a nice sense of honor, he possessed a manly independence of spirit which disdained every thing mean and servile."* Follow, then, gentlemen, the example of these illustrious personages. Like themj in your intercourse with your pa- tients, exercise humanity and forbearance. Consider it no loss of time or waste of skill to administer aid, when it is in your power, especially to those from whom there is no prospect of pecuniary reward, believing with the good Sydenham and our own Rush, that " God is their paymaster." Carefully avoid every unworthy means of advancing your own interest, but rather respect the etiquette and morale of the profession, and you will, in due time, secure the confidence of the community around, and command the respect of your medical brethren. Let your veracity be unimpeachable, your morals unsullied. Be temperate in all things. As regards the use of intoxicating drinks in particular, I would advise you, in the language of holy writ: "Touch not, taste not, handle not!" Be not only temperate, but temperance men. Teach it not only by precept, but prove your sincerity by example. Your conduct in this, as well as in other respects, will, from the position in which your profession now places you, tell in an eminent degree for " the weal or wo" of the community around you. Granting that the moderate use of these beve- rages is sometimes beneficial, and that to yourselves personally there may be no danger, will you not be willing to forego the enjoyment, or any benefit that might result, when you know that your example will encourage others, who maybe less able * American Medical Biography. 11 to .resist temptation, to go on from one degree to another, from temperance to intemperance—till at last they are engulfed in the ruin which their habits, (countenanced by your example,) have brought upon them ? Will you not rather exercise the spirit and follow the example of the Apostle Paul, who declared "that if meat made his brother to offend, he would not eat flesh as long as the world stood, lest he would cause his brother to offend ?" Be not, however, too confident of your personal safety, if you follow any other course ; for no individual, class, nor profession is secure from the ensnaring* influence of this evil habit, while they continue to indulge even in the most moderate degree. Like malaria, there is danger of its pros- trating all who breathe its infected atmosphere. As the best preventive and surest remedy, I would confidently recommend total abstinence from every thing that intoxicates. I hope, ere long, gentlemen, to see the day when the medical profession will take a noble stand on the side of temperance, and occupy a more prominent position in her ranks—when, hand-in-hand with our kindred profession, the ministry of the everlasting gospel, we shall co-operate as a band of brothers, as Christian philanthropists, to banish from among us this fell destroyer of our race, this scourge of mankind ! Let alcohol, in every shape and form, be given only for medical purposes. Like ether and chloroform, let it be administered only to re- move pain or mitigate the sufferings of humanity, instead of being made the fruitful source of disease and death, of innu- merable evils, to soul and body, for time and eternity. And finally, gentlemen, in recommending Temperance and Humanity, Uprightness and Morality, which should mark the character and adorn the life of every member of our profession, it were unfaithful in me, with the feelings of the present hour and the anticipations of an eventful future, if I did not remind you that there is still a nobler and more essential attainment; 12 that the Christian is the highest style of man; and that it is the blessing of an approving God alone that maketh truly rich and bringeth no sorrow. Religion is the natural element of the human mind, and its native tendencies and results ought always to characterize the medical man ; at every step of his career, in every tissue and organ of his body, there is evidence of creative wisdom, power, and goodness all divine, which tells as with a sunbeam that there is a God; and from reason, Providence and revelation alike comes a voice which says, " acknowledge Him in all your ways and he will direct your steps." " The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." When, then, you see the infection of moral as well as phy- sical disease every where abroad, tending not only to disor- ganize and destroy the body, but striving to lay the hand of ruin upon the very being of man; and when, in infinite wis- dom and love combined the Author of our existence has pro- vided a remedy in the Gospel of his grace, which ennobles while it relieves, and is as universal and lasting in its benefits as it is in every way rich and free; accept, I pray you, the offered gift; profess the Christian's faith if ye would enjoy the Christian's hope ; and consider it your highest duty and greatest privilege to become students and practitioners under the gui- dance of the Great Physician himself. Let it be your aim, gentlemen, as it has been that of many of our profession, who now shine among the brightest stars in the medical firmament, first to participate in those benefits yourselves, and thence contribute to extend the blessings and consolations of religion to others. Labor to elevate the con- dition and destiny as well as heal the diseases and alleviate the woes of our fallen race. Like the honored Boerhaave, whose memory the profession and the world revere, and whose dying observation was, " He that loves God ought to consider nothing 13 desirable but what is pleasing to Supreme Goodness," like him, let your daily habits be those of men whose walk and con- versation become the gospel. Like the distinguished John Mason Good, too, whose life was devoted, almost with a martyr's zeal, to the advancement of the medical profession, the sciences and every noble calling, let your efforts always rise above the interests of self, and bear in purest stamp the impress of undying good to universal man. Like the justly celebrated Rush, also, whose name posterity will lono* love to mention as a philanthropist and pious physician, let pure and undefiled religion be your guide; and, like him, let a portion of each day be passed in searching and studying well the Book of Life, and holding communion with the Father of Mercies. And, infinitely higher still, like Him from whom as from some fountain-head your commission comes to heal the sick, let your lives be ever spent in honoring the living God, and doing good to men ; then will that noble consciousness of right be yours which will best secure your self-respect, best com- mand the confidence of others, and best insure your real and lasting good. Then, too, when imbued with the spirit of love divine, will you be best prepared to restore the sick to health and hope, or when human skill and efforts fail, acting under the impulses of a spirit which Christianity alone can truly give, you may strive to smooth the couch where suffering humanity lies, or soothe the pang which tortured nature feels, or tell of comfort in a dying hour, and point to light and hope beyond the grave, with immortality and blessedness in the fairer climes on high. Then will come upon you the blessing of them that were ready to perish. Gentlemen, be this your course and this your final joy. Along your pathway let virtue train her fairest flowers. In your lives let religion gather largely of her choicest fruits: 14 and on your graves may gratitude be made to drop her warmest tears, while humanity, by you healed and blessed, will hail you the friends of God and the benefactors of your race. Farewell ! PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE. MEDICAL DEPARTMENT. The number of matriculates for the session of 1847-48, was ninety-nine. At a public Commencement held at the Chinese Saloon, Museum Building, on Tuesday, March 7th, 1848, the degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred upon the following gentlemen :— STATE. SUBJECT OF THESIS. Pennsylvania. Coagulating Lymph. Pennsylvania. Iodine in Erysipelas. Pennsylvania. Typhus Fever. Pennsylvania. Intermittent Fever. Tennessee... Congestive Chill. Pennsylvania. Catarrh. Pennsylvania. Ergot. Delaware.... The Spleen. Pennsylvania. Retroversion of Uterus. Delaware ... Irritation. PJprman^ i De Acido Hydrocyanico quoad organ- uermany. .^. -j ismum vivum. Pennsylvania. Catarrh. Delaware.... Puerperal Fever. Pennsylvania Mercury. Pennsylvania. Bloodletting. Pennsylvania. Brunonian System of Medicine. Delaware___Enteritis. Virginia.....Etiology of Autumnal Fever. Pennsylvania. Retention of Excretions. Ohio........Tubercle. Pennsylvania. Remittent Fever. Nova Scotia.. Acute Rheumatism. Pennsylvania Ergot of Rye. Tennessee... Fevers of Middle Tennessee, Pennsylvania. Indigestion. New York... Prolapsus Uteri. Pennsylvania. Grippe. Pennsylvania. Hernia. Pennsylvania. Acidum Arseniosum. Pennsylvania. Ether in Surgical Operations. Virginia..... Catalepsy. Pennsylvania. Dysentery. Illinois......Hydrocephalus. New York... Inflammation. Pennsylvania. Intermittent Fever of Oregon Territory. Pennsylvania. Conception. Pennsylvania. Dysentery. Pennsylvania Typhus Fever. Virginia.....Catamenia. Irenee D. Young......Delaware---Iodine. The Degree of Doctor of Medicine was also conferred upon Dr. George L. Shearer, of York County, Pa , and Dr. Galbraith A. Irvine, of Warren County, Pennsylvania. NAME. Ira Bates...... Thomas Bond.. . L. Wells Bowen.. Enos L. Brooke... Elijah W. Cunningham Asher Davidson..... Thomas R. L. Ebur. Vincent Emerson... Robert Ferguson.... J. Henry Fisher.. . . Louis Flentje....... Wm. H. Gominger.. William Harris..... James Henderson... Thomas S. Hollinshead A. Reeves Jackson.. . . William Jones........ Charles J. Kenworthy. Nathan K. Knorr..... Charles Leighton..... William Leiser....... Archibald Macdonald.. John McBride........ Samuel E. M'Kinley.. Wesley McMurray.... Draper N. Newton.... David Rose, Jr....... Charles W. G. Schlemm Simon Schock........ Abraham Seitz........ John Smith........... John H. Spatz...... Charles G. Strohecker. Joseph Sweet......... John K Townsend.... John Wallace, Jr..... Isaac D. Winters...... Joseph A. Wolf....... John L. Woolfolk..... PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE. MEDICAL DEPARTMENT. SESSION OF 1848--49. The Faculty is constituted as follows :— WILLIAM DARRACH, M. D., Professor of the Principles and Practice of Medicine. JOHN WILTBANK, M. D., Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children. HENRY S. PATTERSON, M. D., Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics. WILLIAM R. GRANT, M. D., Professor of Anatomy and Physiology. DAVID GILBERT, M. D., Professor of Principles and Practice of Surgery. WASHINGTON L. ATLEE, M. D., Professor of Medical Chemistry. Clinical Instruction provided for all second-course Students in the Pennsyl- vania Hospital, Pine street, at the expense of the Faculty. Fees:—Matricu- lation, (to be paid once only,) $5.00; for each ticket, $15.00. Graduation, $30.00. The Registrar's Address is No. 94 Arch street, Philadelphia. HENRY S. PATTERSON, M. D., Registrar.