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THE MEDICAL PROFESSION; 
AND 
CIrt Cbitcatob anb Cultibatcb Classes. 
U 
AN ORATION, 
Delivered before the Alumni Association of the Medical Department 
of the University of the City of New York, 
FEBRUARY 23, 1869. 
BY HENRY S. HEW IT, M. D., 
(Of tin Class of 1847.) 
Ucto Work: 
PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION. 
1 8 6 8. THE 
IkMlrnw fUrijJMwal ©Mipttww 
« BETWEEN 
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION 
AND 
C|e Ctocatelr aiik (foltiktek Classes. 
AN ORATION, 
Delivered before the Alumni Association of the Medical Department 
of the University of the City of New York, 
FEBRUARY 23, 1809. 
BY HENRY S. HEWIT, M. D., 
(Of the Class of 1847.) 
Utfa fork: 
PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION. 
1869. OFFICERS 
OP THE 
Almni Association of the Medical Department of the University 
of the City of New.York. 
President* 
SAMUEL S. PURPLE, M. D., New Yoke. 
Vice-Presidents, 
JAMES B. McGRAW, M. D.‘, Virginia. 
DANIEL AYRES, M. D., New Yoke. 
SOLOMON S. SATCHWELL, M. D., North Carolina. 
HENRY S. HEWIT, M. D., New York. 
FREDERICK D. LENTS, M. I)., New York. 
JAMES R. LEAMING, M. D., New York. 
Secretary, 
H. MORTIMER BRUSH, M. D., New York. 
T reasurer. 
CHAS. J. PARDEE, M. D., New York. 
College Historian!. 
H. M. SPRAGUE, M. D., New York. 
Orator for i860. 
HENRY S. HEWIT, M. D., New York. 
Committee on Nominations and Arrangements. 
D. B. St. JOHN ROOSA, M. D., New York. 
J. J. HULL, M. D.j “ 
Z. E. LEWIS, M. D., “ 
J. H. ANDERSON, M. D., “ 
WILLIAM B. LEWDB, M. D., 
A Catalogue of all the Graduates of the College is in course of preparation. Any 
information or funds therefor may be sent to Dr. H. M. Brush, No. 7 West Forty-Sixth 
Street, New York. OEATION. 
. United in the same pursuits, animated by similar sentiments, 
actuated by a common impulse, surrounded by the same difficul- 
ties and perils, and cheered by the same rewards and anticipa- 
tions, we have called a halt in the march of our lives, and laid 
down for a moment the burdens we are accustomed to bear, in 
order to assemble beneath the roof tree of the University, around 
the council fire of our college, before that altar at whose foot 
we watched and prayed ere we donned our knightly armor. 
The motive power which brings together those of accordant 
opinions, is not always nor invariably to annunciate truth or com- 
bat error, but oftentimes to indulge the communion of affection 
and the reciprocation of feeling, to obtain by mutual encourage- 
ment a more established spirit in doubt, gloom, and despondency; 
and confidence, fortitude, and hope, in view of inevitable trials, 
toils, and dangers. 
It is in obedience to this imperative instinct which nature has 
implanted, that we, my brethren of the Medical Department of 
the University of the City of New York, have associated our- 
selves in an organization,—that we have met on this auspicious 
Anniversary, to rehearse the past and consider the future,—that 
we are impelled to grasp each other’s hands, and look into one 
another’s faces, and from our inmost souls diffuse and receive 
the consolation of generous confidence, fraternal sympathy, and 
cordial good-will,—while we offer Alma Mater felix et proles, ven- 
erable but youthful, the tribute, which is so justly her due, of 
homage, reverence, and love. 
It would be supererogation, after the elegant and comprehen- 
sive resume of the salient points in the history and personnel of 
this College, given last year by her distinguished alumnus, Prof. 
Elliot, to attempt a similar sketch in any detail. The events of 
her earlier years are fresh in the minds of most of us, and she is 
still too young, and the jarring interests of the present moment 
too obtrusive, perhaps, to render possible anything like histor- 
ical impartiality. 
We may, however, be permitted to recall for an instant the 
figures of those eminent men who laid broad and deep the foun- 
dation upon which her noble superstructure reposes. 
Itevene, graceful and classical; Pattison, enthusiastic and 
eccentric ; Swett, cut off in the bloom of an unfulfilled promise; 
and Mott, whose plastic touch raised horrid surgery to a fine art, 
and consecrated its terrible but angelic beneficence and beauty 
a household thought and word. 
We may even be pardoned if we pay the honors of a march- 
ing salute to some of the more illustrious living representatives 
of her graduates and professors, who are still faithful to their 4 
former allegiance, or illuminating other spheres with the radi- 
ance enkindled at her shrine : 
Van Buren, who has superadded philosophic breadtli and 
method, and scholar-like research and depth, to the tact and 
finish of the master’s hand. 
Draper, whose Homeric pen has emblazoned and made epic 
the page of our country’s history most fraught with wonder 
and with glory. 
Darling, to wdiose instructed eye the inmost recesses of our 
vital frame are as the face of a man to his friend. 
Elliot, the Maecenas of this new Augustan age, whose name 
and fame are dearer and more precious to the New World than 
are the name and fame of Simpson to the Old. 
Clymer, who whilom stood at the portal through which aspi- 
rants for professional power and position had to pass, and whose 
awful front, like the frown of Jove, drove back affrighted tho 
ignorant and unworthy, and whose learning, labor, and taste 
enrich and adorn contemporary medical literature. 
Dickson, whose correctness of observation is associated with 
such remarkable beauty of expression. 
Hammond, wrho gave so powerful an impetus to original inves- 
tigation, and who successfully marshaled the forces of the pro- 
fession to encounter the tremendous catastropliies of the recent 
political convulsion. We might speak of the military and medic- 
al worth, virtue, and courage of John Moore, of Gouley, whoso 
cutting is like the painting of a painter or the chiseling of a 
sculptor; of Post,* who has carried the skill and learning of tho 
West to the cradle of science and revelation in the East; but as 
wre go on, the associations of the present gather about us thick 
and fast, and recollections of the past come thronging and 
crowding upon the memory, like the pale shades which struggled 
for room on board the bark of the grim ferryman of Acheron. 
We will, then, with your permission, detach ourselves from 
these fascinating and seductive reflections and reminiscences, 
and hasten to discuss during the period of pur brief reunion, 
some of the relations and reciprocal obligations between the pro- 
fession of medicine and the intellectual and cultivated classes of 
an age or country, more esjiecially with reference to the present 
age, our own country, and republican form of government. 
That medicine occupies in all respects its proper place, exerts 
its legitimate influence, and fulfills its destiny, will hardly be 
affirmed. That the relations between the profession of medicine 
and the intellectual and cultivated classes, and between tho 
schools of medicine and the colleges devoted to preliminary edu- 
cation, are not correct, reciprocal, and satisfactory, will still less 
admit of denial. We are painfully conscious that due weight 
and authority are not accorded to medical wisdom and ex- 
perience, on the part of society at large, and as represented 
m its aspects of legislation, rgovernment, current literature, and 
* Prof. Geo. E. Post, son of the distinguished Professor of Surgery in the University. 
"Dr. Post, Jr., is Professor of Sargery in Beyrout, Syria. 5 
domestic and social discipline. Legitimate medicine does not 
receive that cordial recognition either in manners, letters, con- 
versation, and the press, which her manifold services to science, 
religion, the arts, learning, humanity, and true civilization entitle 
her to expect, and which she must receive as a voluntary tribute 
of justice to substantiated claims, before she can accomplish her 
work and do all that pertains to her sphere of duty and range of 
ability and obligation. 
The narrow view which ascribes to the profession as its only 
business, lopping offending limbs, counting accelerated pulses, 
and prescribing physic, has no place in our present considera- 
tion, although we are far from undervaluing the humblest duties 
of the physician, and consider nothing that is human foreign to 
our thoughts or beneath our notice. 
Our immediate concern is now, however, with medicine in its 
broad and comprehensive character, as one of the forms in which 
universal truth is expressed, as a channel of personal cultivation, 
elevation, and perfection, an absolutely essential element of 
civilization, an expression of philosophy, and ally and co-ordinate 
force and authority with religion. 
As the soul and body are eternal in both form and substance, 
and inseparable in respect to their final destiny, in like manner 
philosophy and medicine in the comprehensive meaning of those 
terms are absolutely indissoluble in their relations. Philosophy, 
as the intellectual instrument by which the soul apprehends 
phenomena, estimates their value, and judges of truth and what 
purports to be true, is necessarily indispensable to medical wis- 
dom as to every other form of wisdom or knowledge. It is 
necessary to assume this principle to sustain the position we 
have taken, and design as far as possible to verify, and also to 
justify the remedy we intend to propose for the evils glanced at, 
and others, their legitimate fruit and consequence, to which we 
shall advert. Indeed, it would scarcely seem necessary to enter 
into an elaborate argument to establish what is apparently 
obvious and self-evident. We desire, also, in affirming the abso- 
lute inter-dependence between philosophy and medicine, to ex- 
plain certain apparent discrepancies, and assign to their proper 
origin the errors on both sides which have crept between what 
appeared to be contradictions in their respective practical 
developments and affirmations. These errors have prevented 
the philosophic mind—which is in a greater or less degree the 
educated mind—from apprehending the rational basis on which 
medicine rests as a science, and in virtue of which it claims 
authority; and to divert the medical mind from due considera- 
tion of the essential supremacy of philosophy. 
While pointing out the errors into which philosophers have 
been betrayed by ignorance of facts and details, and narrow 
views, we wish to demonstrate to the medical mind its abso- 
lute dependence on philosophy, and the necessity for that 
species of culture which shall enable it to interpret facts, cor- 
rectly, gather the fruits of experience, and combine, compare, 
and generalize the results of diverse forms and methods of 6 
observation and experimentation, in order to arrive at the unity 
and simplicity of absolute truth. 
In asserting the necessary and supreme authority of philoso- 
phy, we do not intend to condemn or disparage empiricism, but 
to recognize it as the servant, not the master, and assign it its 
proper place among the mechanical forces of development. Wo 
desire to reunite experiment to reason, and subordinate them to 
the judgment of the intellect, precisely as, consciously or uncon- 
sciously, we sit in judgment upon every item of intelligence con- 
veyed to the mind by the exterior senses. It is unquestionably 
true that the most exclusive empiric and materialist bocomes, if 
he be a correct observer of phenomena, an exact metaphy- 
sician, and practically affirms wliat he theoretically denies,—the 
subordination of the material to the intellectual, the tangible 
and perishable to the intangible and permanent; nevertheless, 
we consider it important, in view of the estrangement between 
medicine and the intellectual methods as generally understood, 
to indicate their unity as the ground of a better understanding 
between the two classes, not only as a great and positive truth, 
but also with reference to certain results of practical beneficence 
which will necessarily flow from their recognized and co-opera- 
tive union. 
The tendency of metaphysical science is to exalt the spiritual 
at the expense of the material, that of the physical sciences, more 
particularly those especially appertaining to medicine, to de- 
grade the spiritual to the level of the material; in other words, 
to materialism and rationalism. This divergence, always more 
or less active, became apparent and influential with the era of 
experimentation and discovery, and those very agencies which 
have furnished the basis for the union of science and philoso- 
phy, which have demonstrated to science its dependence on phi- 
losophy, and given philosophy, so to speak, a foothold upon mat- 
ter, which have in fact constructed the place to stand on, which 
Arcliimides desired in vain, threatened at one time to be the 
destruction of both mind and matter. It appeared that philoso- 
phy was about to resolve matter into nothing, and natural sci- 
ence to exclude the spirit, and that in this dissolution the end of 
both soul and body would eome, and the world expire in the 
barbarism of heathenism, ignorance and sensuality, and ultimate 
and consequent stupidity. 
The rise and development of histological physiology in medi- 
cine, almost simultaneously with the annunciation of the Gio- 
bertian formula in philosophy, are the elements of the funda- 
mental principle, upon which the mind can rest while making 
these interesting inquiries. 'They subserve the purpose, to say 
the least, of giving an idea of the method by wliicli the material- 
ism of empiricism and experimentation can be harmonized with 
the spirituality of the higher philosophy and the truths of reve- 
lation, and are a harbinger of the scientific and satisfactory 
solution of multitudes of difficult problems, vexed questions, and 
apparently endless disputes. 
The formula “Ens creat existencias," as the essential forma- 7 
tive element of tlie human soul; that is, from the first moment 
of its creation, by its union with a vivified primordial cell, it has 
the real, active but inchoate knowledge of its own identity and 
of its Creator, or, in other words, knows itself to exist and God 
to be, and the cell, by its union with the soul, capable, by spon- 
taneous evolution, of development, not only into the perfect 
man, but into an eternal entity, afford an illustration of this 
union, no less mysterious and sublime than lucid, simple, and 
complete. It enables the mind to grasp the tremendous thought 
contained in the Incarnation. It demonstrates the essential 
unity between the experimental and the intellectual methods, the 
abstract and the concrete, the real and the ideal; between sci- 
ence and philosophy, and, with the element of faith suspended, 
affords a glimpse of the realization of our immortal destiny. 
It is in view of these principles that we affirm that medicine 
should be interpreted by philosophy, and that philosophy, so long 
as the intelligence is trammeled by the accidents of matter, 
must depend for the accuracy of her information upon experi- 
ment and induction. 
It is in this view also that we animadvert upon the neglect 
of purely intellectual culture on the part of the profession, and 
insist upon a higher order of education than has of later years 
been considered important. 
We do not hesitate to say that unless our culture is improved, 
our relations with the intellectual and cultivated classes re- 
established, unless medicine proclaims herself the ally and 
champion of learning and intellectual authority, we shall not 
only cease to advance in the direction of pure induction, but 
shall lose even the splendid results of a sound empiricism, which 
exalts to-day so many names in our own and other countries, 
and sheds such lustre upon the medical epoch in which we have 
the happiness to live. 
The relations of medicine to heathen civilization, philosophy, 
and superstition, its irresistible tendency to false mysticism, and 
still falser materialism, and its painful and imperfect elaboration 
of the practical truths it discovered are most interesting subjects 
of inquiry, both in their essential relations, and their bearing upon 
the investigations, deductions, and conclusions of modern times. 
The ancient mind had the germs of every modern demonstra- 
tion, and held as primitive truths derived from the tradition of 
original revelation, much that modern science has simply ex- 
plained and made practically intelligible. 
But it was the fight which came incarnate into the world, 
which vivified these germs of original truth, and enabled phi- 
losophy, science, and virtue to assume their places as the con- 
trolling agencies of all legitimate and permanent development. 
Medicine felt at once the stimulus of a new motive, that of 
supernatural charity, and began the career which has reached 
the glorious results of the present day. 
The relations between medicine and monasticism and Chris- 
tian mysticism are equally interesting, and more important, in- 
asmuch as the truths they embraced were always harmonious 8 
and tending toward unity and mutual illustration and solu- 
tion. Their apparent contradictions and animosities were be- 
tween individuals and imperfect methods, and arose from the 
want of a correct system of practical experiment, and observa- 
tion the inevitable concomitant of the ace, and circumstan- 
ces of the period. Their struggles and combats were with wind- 
mills, or between champions, who saw each only his own side of 
the shield. 
In the earlier period of the modern development of the 
sciences, all that was known of medicine was part of the educa- 
tion of every man aspiring to the title of learned. As the 
monasteries were the centres for the preservation and diffusion 
of knowledge, and as one of their prime functions was to miti- 
gate the asperities of the age of the ‘ iron-clad man,’ it naturally 
fell out that the clergy became the repositories of medical 
knowledge and the principal physicians. The tendency of their 
studies and sacerdotal character and habits was to elevate 
medicine in its philosophic aspect, but to depreciate it as an art. 
The importance which in those .days was attached to the soul of 
man asserted its influence, and prayer and the sacraments held 
a more important place in the treatment of disease than human 
skill or material remedies. The eternal life of the patient was 
considered at least as important as the preservation of his 
temporal life. It is, or rather was, the fashion to scoff at those 
holy men, and impugn an age for darkness, which manifested 
such ardent attachment for the light eternal. 
While we studiously avoid anything in the least degree 
trenching upon tho domain of theological polemics, we may 
venture to say, that the medico-religious practices of the Middle 
Ages were at least ai respectable as modern spiritism, clairvoy- 
ance, phrenology, and the doctrine of the infinitesimal. 
We may also, with much diffidence, presume to affirm that if 
the monks had known a little more about practical medicine, they 
would have been no less holy men, and at the same time far 
better physicians. 
The tendency of the manners of feudal and ante-feudal times, 
to consider all personal acts or services as menial and associated 
with slavery degraded the mechanical departments of medicine, 
and by the interposition of this obstacle between philosophy 
and practical experiment retarded the progress they invariably 
make when associated. 
This cause kept surgery for so long a period in a low and 
ignoble position. It obstinately opposed every step of its 
progress, and still exerts its malign influence, even in this most 
innovating and expanding era. 
The sigh of old Ambrose Pan* comes trembling down the 
centuries to touch a responsive chord in the breast of every 
military surgeon : sleepless, because he had no boiling oil. How 
near to and yet how distant was his correct mind from the truth 
of one of the essential dangers of gun-shot wounds, and how cor- 
rect was his deduction, accidentally enforced, of the superiority 
of reparative over perturbative treatment. 9 
The progress of surgery was either the result of accident and 
lucky adventure, or accompanied and retarded by violent and 
irrational struggles, arising from the dread which unpractical 
philosophy always has of change and innovation. Quieta non 
movere has damaged other causes than ours. But genius, dis- 
covery, accident, and more than all, necessity, combined to raise 
surgery above its degraded position, and ere long its professors 
began to dispute pre-eminence with the elegant, and accom- 
plished, and exclusive physician. Anatomy contributed certainty 
of method, with skill and precision in execution, chemistry taking 
its rise in the hermetic philosophy and the black art, assumed 
the state and character of a science. 
Anatomy having furnished surgery with the knowledge neces- 
sary for its mechanical procedures, extended its researches, and 
aided by chemistry, experiment, and new and improved instru- 
ments, began to develop physiology, and give it also the charac- 
ter of a science. Pathology and histology followed in due 
sequence. 
The new geographical discoveries furnished multitudes of 
remedies for the cure of disease. Discovery, experiment, activity, 
reacted upon practice ; and the profession of medicine emerged 
from darkness, doubt, obscurity, and much absurdity—intelligent, 
rational, accomplished, candid, and capable of infinite expansion 
and development. Diagnosis became precise, and treatment 
effective. 
The cause and prevention of diseases have risen into scientific 
accuracy and national importance, and hygiene is a recognized 
function of government. 
It was not possible that the class which had possessed the 
power could behold the rise and progress of an apparently in- 
dependent and in some respects superior authority without 
jealousy and opposition. 
The quarrel has never been between philosophy and experi- 
ment, between religion and medicine, between the authority of 
the church and the authority of the profession, but between 
individuals and partisans. It has always been the windmill and 
shield controversy. It is not surprising that the clergy and the 
schoolmen looked with distrust and alarm at some of the new 
methods. Alchemy and avarice gave a devilish character to 
chemistry. Dissection was associated with the heretical notion 
of the impurity of matter, and monstrous fables of ghouls, gins, 
vampires, man-eaters, and demons; and physiology with impiety, 
rationalism, and the baldest materialism. 
The confidence of the physician was construed as in some 
sort impugning the divine power and opposing the immutable de- 
crees of Providence. Physicians seldom or never impious, but 
often skeptical and infidel, inflated with the pride of discovery and 
intoxicated by the applause of success, retaliated with sarcasm 
and insult the cautious and sometimes spiteful and meddlesome 
interference of their former allies, associates, and masters. 
Pride of experiment, and imperfect scholastic discipline and 
training rejected the a priori dicta of philosophy. Empiricism, 10 
conducted without tlio co-ordinating direction and harmonizing 
influence of philosophy, betrayed its disciples into real and appar- 
ent contradictions and immature generalizations with the result 
of violent and persistent quarrels between individuals and sects, 
thereby exposing medicine to the shafts of wit and ridicule of 
those scoffers of every age, who, if they serve no other purpose, 
point out and correct the faults and follies of the wise and 
virtuous. 
liidicule is to assumption and crude pretension what tire is 
to gold. That which can not survive ridicule is not fit to live. 
13ut medicine has survived opposition, opprobrium, and ridi- 
cule. The surgeon has risen to the same level as that attained 
by the philosophic physician; tho bleeder and barber of the 
Middle Ages is the gentleman, the knight, and the chevalier of 
the present; and the humble leech of Pepin or Charlemange, of 
Charles the Bald and Philip tho Fair, is the baron of the first 
empire and the senator of Napoleon III. The basin has been 
exchanged for the cross and medal, and the painted stick for the 
surgeon’s sword. 
Medicine has in a great degree reconciled its apparent dis- 
crepancies. On almost every important principle the medical 
mind is a unit. There is no conflict between theology and 
medical science. The authoritative expressions of religion 
recognize and encourage every species and form of investigation 
in the interest of scientific discovery. The Author of revelation 
and the Creator of all things has nothing to fear from the intel- 
ligent and critical examination of his works. Advance, discovery, 
and correct generalization are going at a rate so rapid as to tax 
the ability of the swiftest and most acute intelligence to keep pace 
with them. The profession is certain on many points, and on 
all is prepared to speak with a degree of authority, and to sub- 
mit the evidences upon which its apodictic declarations are 
based. 
It is not our purpose to produce and marshal tho facts to 
sustain this assertion, but to notifv the intellectual and culti- 
vated classes, the heads of colleges, the leaders of public opinion, 
literati authors, professors, and able editors, that we are pre- 
pared to vindicate this standard and to assume all the obliga- 
tions and responsibilities which it implies, and to require fiom 
them a corresponding fidelity to social and medical justice and 
co-operation for the common welfare. 
It would seem proper, however, that we illustrate the diverg- 
ence between medicine and society by a few obvious and striking 
examples. 
The newspaper press, which is rather the reflection of public 
opinion than its leader or guide, is, to a great extent, conducted 
by able and clever men, many of whom are graduates of colleges, 
and not a few possessing a very high degree of mental ability 
and cultivation. As the power is in the people, and the press 
is the expression of that power, the press becomes, in our order, 
the First Estate. 
If the relations between the profession of medicine and the 11 
press were cordial; if there were a correct understanding be- 
tween the learned doctors and the able editors, and if they both 
had passed together through the same system of preliminary 
education; if the ethics of medicine were understood and their 
personal relations those of a good and established society, would 
it be possible for the press, with a few honorable exceptions, 
to seize every occasion to disparage the legitimate profession ? 
Would it be so reserved in its award of praise, so liberal 
in its application of censure? But, still worse, would these 
able, accomplished, refined, elegant, and witty gentlemen 
sell their space for public announcements, in unmistakable 
terms, of offers to perpetrate crimes which strike at the root 
of society, which undermine public health, which corrupt 
social morals, which relegate our era to the foulest periods 
of Assyrian, Babylonian, and Graeco-Homan decomposition; 
which degrade our manners and civilization below Hercu- 
•lanaeum and Pompeii, and sink them to a level with Sodom ? 
Would the religious press (save the mark!) sell column 
after column to the manufacturers and venders of patent and 
secret combinations of drugs and poisons, which are either 
frauds in their nature and intent, or the vehicles of concealed but 
powerful elements, whose applicability can only occur in fortu- 
itous and occasional coincidences between remedy and disease, 
while too frequently they subserve the purpose of vicious in- 
dulgences, in comparison with which ordinary spirit drinking is 
a prudent, praiseworthy, wholesome, and highly moral practice. 
If these powerful and influential agencies recognized in med- 
cine an authoritative organization, understood the ethics of the 
profession as based on natural justice and vindicated by com- 
mon law and religion, would it be possible for them to sanction, 
aid, abet, and perpetrate these outrages upon an equally learned 
and respectable co-ordinate body ? Would they pander to vices 
in one column which they denounce in another, and both alike 
for money ? It is as difficult for us to understand it as it was 
for the good but simple-minded Genii to comprehend how the 
traveler could blow hot and cold out of the same mouth, and 
with the same breath. 
How is it possible for them to offer such an illustration of 
the power of avarice and the stupidity and short-sightedness of 
temporary self-interest, and such brazen contempt for justice, 
principle, public decency, and personal honor? 
It is not our purpose to discuss at present the more subtle 
and elegant forms in which the divergence between the profes- 
sion and the cultivated classes is expressed, or the kind of prac- 
titioners who thrive upon the fruits of the discrepancy. There 
is one mild species of medical immorality and moral insanity 
which flourishes in an aesthetic, luxurious, and imperfectly edu- 
cated class, which has been brought into existence as a result of 
the sudden wealth produced by the application of steam to ma- 
chinery. This large class, which prefers the excitements of 
imaginary diseases to other less elegant but scarcely less repre- 
hensible forms of vice ; which is flattered by the idea that it is in 12 
some sort emancipated from physical laws, and is capable of un- 
derstanding and directing the occult agencies and powers of 
incomprehensible dynamics and imponderable dilutions, is so 
influential and wealthy that it is not surprising that an 
order of physicians was found to supply its requirements. Both 
patients and physicians of this numerous and socially respecta- 
ble community are such excellent witnesses of the authority and 
pre-eminent value of scientific medicine, that while they serve 
our purpose of illustration, they merit at our hands, perhaps, 
compassion rather than contempt. 
But the most remarkable example of the depraving influence 
which the divorce between medicine and philosophy has exerted 
in undermining the foundations upon which religion, natural 
justice, respect for human life, the sanctity of the body, social and 
legal accountability, civilization, and the perpetuation of Chris- 
tian society must repose, is in the rise and progress, almost 
unrebuked, of an uncontrollable domestic crime which has for 
its elements, impurity, suicide, murder, treason, perjury, blas- 
phemy, and sacrilege,—all the attributes of mortal sins against 
one’s self, the State, and God. 
Without carrying our illustrations further, which wre might 
easily do, into the domain of periodical literature, the world of 
fiction, and the flowery region of elegant private society and 
conversation, we think we have said enough on this point to jus- 
tify the assumption that a radical divergence does exist, and to 
vindicate the somewhat trenchant remedy we intend to propose, 
albeit, wnth no expectation that it will be a royal road, but simply 
a means to an end, and, as we believe, the only means. 
We have accused the press and society ; we are compelled to 
come before the same bar, that of medical justice, and accuse 
ourselves. 
The splendid discoveries in medicine, its attitude in presence 
of the other sciences, the magnificent record of the medical 
departments, both military and civil, both North and South, 
during the late war, the aspect of the profession as an advocate 
for humanity and active agent in mitigating the asperities of the 
conflict, ant( restoring a good and friendly understanding ; the 
unlimited and incalculable charities of its members, and the 
eminent social position which so many physicians have attained 
as the result of skill in practice and personal worth, encourage 
us to make the plea of guilty in many important particulars 
without fear of damaging our cause or receiving a severe con- 
demnation. 
But it is nevertheless true that the elevation of the profession 
is exceptional and personal, fiot general, homogeneous, and 
characteristic. Under the prevailing system, the results of the 
present age are liable to be lost in another. The preservation 
of the fruits of genius, and of learning, culture, and progress, 
depend upon organizations, not individuals. 
The answer to the question, What, then, is the remedy ? is so 
simple that it seems almost like an insult to the understanding 
to name it. 13 
It is tliat every man who is pronounced a Doctor in Medicine 
shall actually be what he purports to be. It is to affirm the 
necessity of preliminary classical education, or what shall be 
deemed an equivalent for classical training in preparing the 
mental soil, and a subsequent exact certification and verifica- 
tion of the amount of knowledge acquired and the degree of 
perfection attained by the apprehension and assimilation of the 
sciences taught. We have no right to graduate any man as 
Doctor in Medicine unless he be capable of teaching medicine up 
to the standard of the highest average intelligence. That the 
colleges have failed to exact this standard, or even one approach- 
ing to it, and our own among the number, is too notoriously true 
to need assertion. 
It is to this source we trace most of the evils of which we com- 
plain. The remedy, so far as our profession is concerned, is in 
our own hands. Let us insist that every candidate for admission 
to a medical school shall present his diploma from an incorporated 
college of rank equal to that of Harvard, Yale, Columbia Col- 
lege, or the University, or submit to an examination, and be rated 
accordingly with reference to subsequent medical degrees. Let 
medical students be divided into classes with an appropriate 
curriculum for each class, and let promotion from class to class 
be made only on examination and certificate. Let the final 
examination be conducted by paid examiners recommended by 
the State societies, and appointed by the Governor with the con- 
sent of State Senate. Let us establish three degrees, the Licen- 
tiate, the Practitioner, and the Doctor in Medicine. The first 
degree might be given, after three years, as is supposed to be 
at present the rule, and should correspond to the best members 
of our graduating classes, such for instance as are found worthy 
of appointment on the staffs of the metropolitan hospitals. The 
second degree could be given after two years more, and should 
require a standard equal to that which the common sense of the 
profession ascribes to a first-class physician in private life, and 
should require, as an absolute prerequisite, a graduation at an 
institution of learning, or an examination equivalent to that re- 
quired for a degree. The degree of Doctor could be conferred in 
two years or more thereafter, and should imply the grade of accom- 
plishment which we expect in the professors of our schools and the 
chief medical officers of our hospitals, leaving out, of course, the 
exceptional excellencies which are peculiar to individuals, a wide 
range of experience or extraordinary culture. 
Are we asking too much? Has not the public a right to 
require this at our hands, and to hold us responsible if we come 
short of it? And is it not the plan substantially which is 
demanded and advised by the profession, through its most 
authoritative and dignified representative the “ American Med- 
ical Association.” 
A beginning must be made. Why shall not our own College 
set the example ? An amende is due the institutions of learning. 
Why shajl not she, the guardian of so much fame and honor, so 
pre-eminent in her literary and scientific associations, make that 14 
amende, and take away from her name at least the sarcasm that 
the degree of M. D. is but a doubtful title of admission to an 
uncertain and but half-acknowledged position among the liberal 
and the learned. At least, let us, her alumni and devoted chil- 
dren, pledge ourselves to sustain her by every honorable means 
in our power, if she will cease to engage in the vulgar and 
ignoble struggle for large classes and long lists of graduates, and 
begin to consider the quality rather than the quantity of her 
vintage. 
This view of medical education opens up several avenues, of 
thought with reference to its effect upon the colleges and the 
better class of the educated youth of the country ; of the rela- 
tions of Government with the function of examination and in- 
dorsement, and their immediate reflex action upon manners, 
conversation, social relations, literature, legislation, and legiti- 
mate power and influence. 
The colleges love learning as the paladin loved his mistress, 
as that immortal man who is the ideal type of the American 
soldier, patriot, and citizen loves his veracity, as the soul loves 
her intelligence. 
This love of learning is no transient or sordid passion, but the 
deliberate act of the rational soul; in fact, the soul’s sensible ex- 
pression of herself in the natural order, as her love of virtue is 
her highest expression in the supernatural order. The act of 
fealty, homage, and devotion toward learning which has been 
proposed, and of which the recognition of the preliminary rights 
of the colleges is the first and necessary step, will call forth on 
their part an immediate response of respect, good-will, and en- 
couragement. The ultimate effects of such a recognition of the 
rights of learning and the obligation of culture are incalculable, 
and far reaching to the degree of penetrating to the utmost 
ramifications of thought and the springs of motive, conduct, and 
action. 
If the Doctors of Medicine and the able editors were fellow 
graduates, if they had participated in youthful friendships, be- 
longed to the same societies, and grasped the hand of faithful 
and affectionate remembrance at the breaking up of the class, 
could the latter violate all these implied and express pledges by 
deliberate, corrupt, and shameful acts, damaging to the honor of 
medicine, injurious to morality, and fatal to life ? Would the 
men of letters, the clergy, the poets, the orators, and the dilet- 
tanti be as likely, to say the least, to espouse the false in 
medicine ? Would not the improved sentiment, status, and tone 
of the profession, itself react upon all classes in a manner so 
pronounced as to produce an immediately recognizable effect 
upon virtue, morality, health, happiness, longevity, civilization, 
and general well-being? ,, 
The increased power of expression which a higher education 
affords, the superior class which it fosters, and the ideas thus 
diffused, would impress themselves upon national character and 
literature, with the effect of increasing our intellectual import- 
ance in the eyes of foreign nations, assisting in the development 15 
of our resources, and become a bond of union between widely 
separated divisions, and an element of greatness in the future 
position our country is destined to occupy in the new distribu- 
tion of power, wealth, and dominion. The relations of the pro- 
fession to the Government under our system become in this con- 
nection both interesting and important. We have suffered and 
are suffering the evils of too much individualism ; we are in 
danger of falling into the opposite extreme of a too absorbing 
centralization. We desire to preserve for ourselves the liberty 
of the republic of science, and at the same time enjoy the advant- 
ages and protection of wise legislation. 
We think it competent for the State societies and the Medic- 
al Association to recommend such laws as shall be in harmony 
with the spirit of our institutions, and shall have the rational 
consent of those they are intended to bind. We would have the 
reforms we have indicated, when made, rendered permanent 
and effective by legislation. We would infuse such a spirit into 
our Government, that it would never again make articles of 
prime necessity to suffering humanity contraband of war; wTe 
would inaugurate and perfect the principle of reciprocity be- 
tween the medical departments of belligerents, and we would 
furnish to the State a body of professional men in civil life 
capable of being called into active service by the Executive in 
any crisis of public calamity, as war or pestilence. 
We would separate all questions of quarantine and public 
hygiene from the influence of party politics, and place them 
under the control of the profession and of legislation, informed 
and directed by medical intelligence. 
If illustration were wanting of the influence of classical edu- 
cation in forming the medical mind, without mentioning the 
scholars and men of letters of our owrn country, we can point to 
the direct influence which University education exercises upon the 
thought and style of the higher class of our English cotempora- 
ries, and in the wonderful capacity for labor, intelligent thought, 
and mental acquisition characteristic of the German mind, and 
of which we have so many brilliant examples amongst us. 
American acuteness of observation, quickness of apprehension, 
and capacity for rapid generalization have given us a develop- 
ment and brilliancy, which, unless fed by labor, study, and 
original investigation, must soon expire, \ 
The American mind has for its basis the intense thought, the 
logical character, the stern, resolved, though often misguided 
and misdirected principles of the Puritan epoch. The quartz 
of that rigid, religious, and metaphysical period has been 
crushed, its gold extracted, and too often foolishly and lavishly 
squandered. The intellectual life of the future must be sus- 
tained by crops raised by careful cultivation, subsoil plowing, 
and rigid economy in the expenditure of our mental resources. 
Let it not be said that in mind, manners, and literature wre are 
becoming effete, degenerate, and debauched. Let us check, by 
determined effort, the spread'of those doctrines, false in religion, 
medicine, and political economy, tending to the destruction of 16 
our native population, and antagonize, by all the moans in our 
power, the tremendous tide of effeminacy, sensuality, ignorance, 
folly, and splendid barbarism, which threatens to sweep away 
our liberties, literature, republican government, and national 
character. 
To do what lies in our sphere, w'e must restore our profession 
to the style and rank of learned; we must perpetuate a cordial 
union with the institutions of learning; w*e must elevate our 
standard to the ideal of justice and excellence ; we must induce 
a fair proportion of the elite of the youth of the country to enter 
our ranks, and by literature, conversation, and social influence, 
cultivate those relations with society which shall enable us to give 
permanence to ideas of truth, virtue, and justice. We must re- 
turn, humble and chastened, to the feet of divine philosophy, 
and acknowledge supernatural charity as the life-giving principle 
of our art. 
Before we speak the word which snaps the spell by which we 
are bound together; ere we say farewell, and consign the pre- 
sent hour to the foaming w ake of the all-absorbing, irreclaim- 
able, ever-swiftly receding past; while w e tighten the buckles of 
our harness and prepare for our departure, let us revert once 
more to our College, and consider her present interests and 
future prospects. 
Based on an honorable fame; custodian of one of the most 
celebrated names; graced by youthful, accomplished, and en- 
thusiastic teachers; affiliated with an institution of learning, 
and associated with science and literature, she is prepared to 
accomplish a glorious destiny. She will shortly remove to a 
new habitation, with enlarged and improved facdities; and let 
us hope that she may ere long become identified w ith a hospital, 
and let us not cease in our efforts to obtain this indispensably 
necessary alliance. Let her imitate in her policy the broad and 
liberal policy of our civil institutions, and invite to her aid and a 
share in her honors, learning, ability, and capacity to teach from 
whatever quarter—native or foreign—they may present them- 
selves. May her future be as distinguished as her antecedents 
have been bold and successful, and become an indestructible por- 
tion of the history of an epoch, which, we trust, is about to dawn, 
of the union of medicine and learning, of philosophy and science, 
of the a “priori and the inductive, of the abstract and the con- 
crete, of spirit and matter, and a consequent legitimate material 
and intellectual progress and development. 
But the sun has crossed the meridian and tends toward the 
wrestem horizon; the tops of the distant mountains are bathed 
in purple light, and the black shadows at their base begin to 
creep in a stealthy and hound-like manner over the plain ; a 
rising murmur in the branches of the forest warns us to lift up 
again our burdens and take our respective roads. UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK. 
MEDICAL DEPART M F, N T. 
FACULTY OF MEDICINE. 
Rev. ISAAC FERRIS, D. D., LL. D... .Chancellor of the University. 
MARTYN PAINE, M. D., LL. D 
Emeritus Professor of Materia Medica 
and Therapeutics. 
JOHN W. DRAPER, M. D., LL. D.. 
Emeritus Professor of Chemistry and 
Physiology. 
ALFRED C. POST, M. D. 
Professor of the Principles and Opera- 
tions of Surgery, with Military Sur- 
gery and Hygiene. 
Professor of Obstetrics, with Diseases of 
Women and Children, and Clinical 
Midwifery. 
CHARLES A. BUDD, M. D 
JOHN C. DRAPER, M. D } Professor of Chemistry. 
Professor of Institutes and Practice of 
Medicine. 
ALFRED L. LOOMIS, M. D 
WM. DARLING, A. M., M. D.. F. R.C.S. 
Professor of General, Descriptive, and 
Surgical Anatomy. 
HENRY DRAPER, M. D Professor of Physiology. 
WILLIAM H. THOMSON, M. D 
Professor of Materia Medica and Ther- 
apeutics. 
J. W. S. GOULEY, M. D Professor of Clinical Surgery. 
ABRAHAM JACOBI, M. D Clinical Prof, of Diseases of Children. 
D. B. St. JOHN ROOSA, M. D. 
Clinical Professor of Diseases of the Eye 
and Ear. 
F. D. WEISSE, M. D Clinical Professor of Dermatology. 
JOHN H. HINTON, M. D Prosector to-the Professor of Surgery. 
Z. E. LEWIS, M. D Assistant Demonstrator of Anatomy. 
JAMES F. FEELEY, M. D Prosector to the Professor of Anatomy. 
M. S. BUTTLES, M. D Assistant to the Professor of Midwifery. 
W. R. GILLETTE, M. D. 
Assistant to the Professor of Practice of 
Medicine. 
H. LeB. HARTT, M. D. 
Assistant to the Clinical Professor of 
Diseases of Children. 
CHARLES J. PARDEE. M. D 
Assistant to the Clinical Professor of 
Diseases of the Eye and Ear. 
JOHN W. DRAPER, M. D., LL. D., President of the Faculty. 
HENRY DRAPER, M. D., Registrar of the Faculty. OFFICERS 
Oi TIIK 
Alumni Association of the Medical Department of the University 
of the City of New York. 
President. 
SAMUEL S. PURPLE, M. [>., Nkw Vokk. 
Vice-Pi esidents. 
JAMES It. MeGRAW, M. I)., Viiuiinia. 
DANIEL AYRES, M. D., New York. 
SOLOMON S. 8ATC1IYVI LL. M. D., North Cahoi.ina. 
HENRY K. HEWIT, M. 1)., Nkw York. 
FREDERICK R. LENTE, M. R., New York. 
JAMES R. LEAMING, M. D., Nkw York. 
Secretary, 
H. MORTIMER BRUSH, M. !>.. Nkw York. 
T reaaurer, 
CHAS. J. PARDEE, M. D„ Nkw York. 
College Historian, 
H. M. SPRAGUE, M. D., New York. 
Orator fop <868, 
HENRY 8. HEWIT. M. D., Nkw York. 
Committee on Nominations and Arrangements, 
D. B. Sr. JOHN ROOSA, M. D., New York. 
• J. J. HULL, M. D., 
Z. E. LEWIS, M. R., “ , 
J. H. ANDERSON, M. D., “ 
WILLIAM It. LEWIS, M. I)., 
A Catalogue of all the Graduates of the College is in course of preparation. Any 
information or funds therefor may be sent to Dr. H. M. Brush, No. 7 West Forty-Sixth 
Street, New York.