VALEDICTORY ADDRESS 
DELIVERED AT THE 
Annual commencement 
OF THB 
3l|;t',ium;tnn (l ollcjgc, 
OF PHILADELPHIA. 
March 9th, 1 8 7 0. 
AT THE ACADEMY OF MUSIC 
By: Prof. C. G. RMJE, M. D. 
P II1 L ADELP HI A: 
William P. Kildare, Printer, Xos. 731 and 736 Sansom Street. 
1870. VALEDICTORY ADDRESS. 
Ladies and Gentlemen ! 
Gentlemen of the Graduating Class ! 
“There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at its flood, leads on to fortune.” 
With many it seems to be considered a fortune, to 
gain money, and with some this object seems to be the 
preeminent motive of all their exertions. Gentlemen, 
I do not propose to make use of the word “fortune” in 
this vulgar sense; especially to-day, when it is my pleas- 
ant duty to say a few parting words to you. 
There is a higher aim in a Physician’s life,—than 
money-making, and there is a greater fortune to which 
man may attain, than gold; and I shall try, on this oc- 
casion, to inspire you with loftier ideas of your profes- 
sion,—and of what you have been successfully striving 
for in the past years by hard and arduous work,—than 
merely as means of accumulating wealth. Look at this edifice! It was once a mere heap of 
stones and timber; aye, the stones themselves were once 
a molten liquid, and the timber was developed out of 
fluids; and once, they all may have existed in the form 
of gas. From the firm and fixed, we are referred back 
to the fluid and mobile; and wherever a something has 
gained form and shape, it has done so by means of mo- 
bile elements. Thus the timber grew, and thus the 
blocks of stone solidified ; and then by means of human 
ingenuity, they were fitted and constructed into an edi- 
fice. And here again in this fitting process we recog- 
nize the mobile elements as the forming means. For 
the timber had to be cut, and the stones to be chiseled; 
it all took bodily labor—force, applied to shape the 
shapeless and to move the resting;—force, those mo- 
bile elements which are continually changing from heat 
into moving power. Wherever we find life, wher- 
ever we find mechanical changes in nature, wherever 
anything is produced by art or mechanism, it is accom- 
plished by means of mobile elements. They are the 
necessary condition, the means of all the changes, trans- 
mutations, and growths in the corporeal world. But 
yet they are not the cause. Above the mobile elements 
stands the moving spirit; hidden and unseen, directs 
the idea, these forces into an harmonious action. Into 
the Chaos is brought purpose; and in the darkness 
sounds the word of God; “Let there be light!” The 
heap of stones and timber is gradually modeled and 
fitted, and by degrees arises before our eyes, more or 
less perfect, what had heretofore existed only in the idea, 
unseen and incorporeal. The idea thus shapes blocks 
of stone, models timber and iron; levels mountains, spans the ocean and governs the world. I would rather, then, 
make use of the word fortune, as signifying a gain 
of ideas; for knowing is strength, knowledge is power! 
Let us dwell for a moment upon this point. There 
was a time, not long since,—for in the life of nations a 
hundred years count hut as days—that the heart of men 
quaked with fear when dark clouds were rolling on the 
sky, and spake with thunder and flashed with light- 
ning. There lived, also, at one time, in this city, a man 
who went out in the storm to fly his kites on wire 
thread, and thus discovered the identity of lightning 
with electricity, whereby he was enabled to invent the 
lightning rod, under the protecting power of which we 
now sit, quietly listening to the majestic peals from the 
clouds and watching their lightning leaps. It is but a 
short time since the sound of the fire-bell startled a 
whole community into the liveliest emotion, and now, 
since steam has become our potent servant, we scarcely 
look out of the window upon such an occasion. Gen- 
tlemen, knowledge is power! 
But let us consider those things, which most nearly 
concern us. About fifty years ago there arose in the 
East Indies a dreadful malady which mowed down a 
human crop with merciless rapidity. This was the 
Asiatic Cholera. It appeared some twelve years later 
in Europe. The science of Therapeutics of that day 
was entirely destitute of means to stay this fearful 
plague. Then Homoeopathy was yet in its infancy; 
and although its founder had already proclaimed the 
three main remedies to be used against it,—Camphora, 
Veratrum and Cuprum—yet but few took heed of this 
new discovery. Now look at the results which are pro- claimed by the statistics of later epidemics, when the 
law of similia similibus had gained a stronger foothold, 
and you will observe a most striking change. Or read 
the accounts of the ravages which yellow fever has 
made in the south, and how helpless, nay even injurious, 
has the old school treatment proved itself to be, from 
the first to the last of these epidemics; and then com- 
pare the results of Homoeopathy in the same epidemics, 
and you will surely say with me, that knowledge is power! 
Do you know what still fills the mother’s heart with 
fear and trembling when one of her darlings is taken 
with sore throat, fever, headache and vomiting l It is 
the dread of scarlet fever. Aye, and a fearful visitor it 
has been in many a family, and a destroyer of health for 
life, or of life itself! I hope, gentlemen, you will help 
to lessen this fear from year to year, by the successful 
application of the knowledge you have acquired, by de- 
monstrating in your practice that only exceptional cases 
prove fatal;—cases which seem doomed from the first 
start. But let me break off here, lest it might seem, as 
though I were boasting of Homoeopathy; it needs no 
boasting. My object is merely to show, that we have 
gained a poAver over disease heretofore unknown; and 
that this poAver is knowledge. But Ave are not at the top 
of the ladder yet; Ave have just fairly commenced climb- 
ing. And how many more steps have Ave to climb 1 
Gentlemen, that ladder, upon the first rounds of which 
you have just put your feet, and for Avhich meritorious 
act you Avill to-day receive your credentials, that ladder, 
as far as I can see, reaches with its top far into the com- 
ing centuries! Do not be afraid; do not get dizzy! 
Climb on! for it stands firmly, and is Avell founded upon an immovable rock: it is based upon the law of similia 
similibus! 
In Hotels of the latest style we find a very laudable 
arrangement, especially for invalids with weak lungs and 
legs; and which is also exceedingly satisfactory to lazy 
people. I mean the hoisting apparatus; or, more ele- 
gantly speaking, the Elevator. You sit there apparent- 
ly in a snug little room, have leisurely crossed your 
legs one upon the other and before you think of a great 
many things,—ting! there you are, landed upon the 
second floor ! Is that climbing'? no, that is being hoisted ! 
or elegantly expressed,—it is being elevated into a 
higher story without straining a muscle. 
We have also a kind of elevators in our sciences; ex- 
cellent contrivances of modern times ;—our periodicals 
and journals, by which a man likewise can keep himself 
posted in the new events of scientific researches; can 
rise into the higher stories of better information without 
much trouble, if he be not too lazy to sit down in his 
leisure hours to read these journals. Is this climbing ? 
no, that is being hoisted; or, more elegantly expressed, 
it is being elevated to a higher stand-point, by the labor 
of others. And indeed, if one’s mental elasticity and 
aspiration should lack in energy to stride on by himself, 
we hope and wish and expect that every man in this 
nineteenth century, who has anything to do with sciences, 
should at least sit down and allow himself to be 
hoisted. But, Gentlemen, 1 wish, you would climb! 
That is altogether a different process. For we cannot 
really call that our own, which we have not acquired by 
our own strenuous efforts. What we gain so easily, by 
mere reading, remains as alluvial land, destitute of rocky formations, an inorganic accumulation; but possesses no 
organic growth. It may swell, but does not yield blood, 
sinews and bones. You must digest; you must, by your 
own experiments test what others have done ; and finally 
bring forth the fruit of your own labor which others 
may enjoy. 
I think, Gentlemen, your teachers have done what 
they could, to prepare and incline your minds for such 
self-growing action. They do not expect that you have 
learned by heart everything which medical science has 
already brought to light; they have not intended to stuff 
you with facts and theories, either their own or others; 
but they have tried to make you understand facts and 
theories; to set you thinking of the why and wherefore 
of things; to inspire you with a love of our glorious sci- 
ence ; in short, they have tried to put you on the right 
track, upon which, they hope, you will move by your own 
steam; and become men of independent thought and 
judgment, self-thinking, self-producing ! climb on then ! 
It will give you more delight, more satisfaction, and more 
internal hold, then all the other things you can obtain. 
And this is the kind of fortune, on to which, I hope, the 
tide of your lives may carry you. May you take it at 
the flood! And what was it that stimulated the founder 
of Homoeopathy, to the toilsome work of his long life % 
This love for science! What is it that still inspires 
the best men of our cause with self-sacrificing activity 1 
This love for science! Now, Gentlemen, although we 
cannot all be kings of science,—that title is already los- 
ing ground even in politics,—we can at least, each of us, 
be active citizens of the greatest and truest republic that 
ever existed, or ever will exist: the Republic of Science. Climb on then, and bring your provings of new and old 
remedies; haul in your observations, either confirming 
old experiences, or elucidating new principles; bring 
forth your experimental researches and discoveries; re- 
member always, that to-day you havQ been made mem- 
bers of a Society in which neither money nor family is 
a sign of excellence, in which you can attain distinction 
only by your own exertions and meritorious efforts ! 
In Cologne there is a dome, the construction of which 
was conceived about the year 1248, and in the comple- 
tion of which are still engaged thousands of busy hands. 
A still higher and nobler thought was conceived some 
seventy years ago, in Leipzig, by Hahnemann, and you, 
Gentlemen, have enlisted to be the propounders of this 
thought, to spread it wherever you go, and to bring its 
blessings home to the very threshold of each family. 
This leads me to another point which I yet have to impress 
upon your minds. You know there are diseases which 
are called contagious. And indeed, when I was ponder- 
ing about what I should speak to you in my farewell ad- 
dress, I felt a strong inclination to give you a lecture on 
contagion; meaning by that, all that is catching. For not 
only are the pestilential and miasmatic corporeal elements 
by which disease is propogated, and those bad moral in- 
fluences, by which many a promising young man has been 
infected and brought to ruin, catching; but also the sooth- 
ing elements of corporeal agencies and the still deeper 
acting mental influences by which at last and through 
which alone the world progresses. Let us try to get an in- 
sight into this mysterious influence of mental infection. 
The fact is known well enough. Children imitate what 
grown persons do in their presence; big children imitate 10 
what they see others do, as is conspicuously shown by the 
route which fashion makes every year through whole na- 
tions like an epidemic; a leading mind may carry a 
whole people even into revolution, if the necessary dis- 
position exists in such people to such excitation, and the 
commander of an army can inspire his troops to bold 
deeds by his mere presence or a few words. It is all en- 
tirely analogous to the infecting influence of contagious 
disease. Seemingly little, infinitesimal, it may be, at the 
start, yet an element of its own kind, well developed and 
well defined, it sets other and similar elements into motion, 
to partake of a similar character and tendency. There 
are thus two things required for a successful operation of 
what we call contagion, one which gives the start, and 
transfers its own peculiarities to another, and this other 
assimilates the first on account of the similarity which 
exists between them; precisely as there are two persons 
required for a good joke: namely, one who makes 
it, and another who understands it. I might go still 
further into particulars. It is a fundamental process in 
the human mind, that mobile elements are constantly 
flowing from mental modifications to mental modifications 
according to certain laws, and thus cause the continual 
flow of our thoughts, their rising into consciousness and 
their falling into delitescence. As an illustration of this 
fact, 1 may call your attention to an observation which 
you all have made. On receiving a letter and reading 
it, you will find that not only those ideas which the let- 
ter contains, spring up into consciousness, but also others, 
which had previously been in more or less intimate con- 
nection with them. That letter may cause a train of 
thoughts, which might occupy the mind for a long time. Or, what is perhaps a still better illustration, suppose 
you read in the paper: “John Smith died on the 2d of 
March.” If this John Smith was a relative or an old 
friend of yours, how quickly will these few words stir 
up a number of other mental modifications, which a 
moment before had all lain in deep unconsciousness You 
will at once he transported back into the days of your 
childhood when, as boys, you were playing together; 
before your mind’s eye will rise at once the many 
happy hours you enjoyed together, and may be, also the 
many sad experiences which you have had together! 
whilst, if you do not know this John Smith, the excita- 
tion into consciousness will hardly surpass the bounder- 
ies of the simple fact, that a certain John Smith died on 
the second of March, and will leave you as cool as though 
you had not read it. Why is this so? Because, in the 
first case, the name John Smith is so closely interwoven 
with so many mental modifications of your own, that 
the mere mentioning of it causes at once a resuscitation 
of these various modifications, and the fact that this 
John Smith, whom you knew and loved so well, died, 
makes the excitation still deeper and wider. Now, 
Gentlemen, this simple illustration explains fully the 
process of mental infection. We see, how mobile ele- 
ments from without, spread rapidly from point to point, 
and excite into consciousness all the similar elements 
within, until the whole soul is in a state of excitement, 
which leaves no room for us, to think of or care for 
anything else. We are, then, if this excitation is deep 
enough, that is, if the external elements find a large num- 
ber of similar modifications within, or in the words of 
common language, if our interest is deeply excited,—un- der the entire influence of such excitation, and we have 
to follow its impulses until other excitations calm it down 
again. This is the nature of mental infection. It does, 
therefore, not take place, where external influences find 
no corresponding elements within, to excite them into 
consciousness. And the same illustration may reveal to 
you, also, the whole secret, why new truths and new 
discoveries so slowly gain the acknowledgment of a 
majority of the people. It is not enough that peo- 
ple are fold of such a truth—What do they care 
about John Smith whom they do not know'?—They have 
to be made personal friends of such a truth; they are 
to he made to feel its beneficial influence upon their own 
welfare; they must learn to admire its beauty and grand- 
eur, and must thus gradually grow identified with the 
same. And indeed, this can not be accomplished in a day. 
It requires steady workers, indefatigable laborers to dis- 
seminate such truths; not mere talking, hut doing. As 
only by unceasing efforts can any work of magnitude be 
accomplished,—so each new truth requires patient and 
persistent efforts to bring it near to the minds of the peo- 
ple; the more so, as its dimensions are grander and as its 
influence in the future is to be deeper and more pervading. 
This is applicable to all great discoveries. Why should 
Homoeopathy form an exception?—It was in the year 
1833, as I may well say, that Homoeopathy was born in 
in this country, in this very city. We may just as well be 
proud of this fact, as we are of the fact, that the Decla- 
ration of Independence was made in our City Hall. 
Both events, although little at their beginning were, 
nevertheless, living babies, and they live to this day, 
both pretty smart young people; the one a little older' than the other, for you must allow, as I have said before, 
that in the life of nations, a hundred years count but as 
days. But at first they were babies indeed. The 
one was a mighty strong hoy; even tremendous blood- 
letting could not get him under the ground. The other 
I rather like to assign to the fair sex. She was a fair 
girl-baby, abhorring all harsh, inhuman treatment. By 
her gentle influence she has saved as much blood, as the 
older companion had to lose. 1 may well call her a 
giii-babv, because she belongs to science; and science 
is derived from scientia,—denoting a womanly being. 
They both cut their teeth. The boy after seven years 
hard struggle, had his full set. With the girl the teeth- 
ing process took place in the following manner. She 
cut her incisors in the year 1834, when at Allentown, 
the first attempt in the world was made to found a 
Homoeopathic School; showing that by and by she 
would chew her food for herself. The molars came 
through in the year 1844, when the American Institute 
of Homoeopathy was founded, of which I)r. C. Hering 
was by acclamation elected the first president; although 
he yielded this honor to I)r. Flagg, of Boston. Her 
eye and stomach-teeth appeared in the year 1848, when 
the inauguration of the first regular Homoeopathic 
College took place in this City. You know full well, 
what troubles these teeth are apt to cause. For a long 
time the poor child had to suffer a good deal from con- 
vulsions ; but she survived after all, and now enjoys, 
like the hoy, a full set, with the exception of the wisdom- 
teeth, which even in the boy have yet to appear, for you 
must not forget, that in the life of nations a hundred 
years count hut as days. Well, Gentlemen, it is you, who may have to watch the cutting of the wisdom-teeth ! 
Climb on. The top of the ladder, as far as I can see, 
reaches into the coming centuries! 
But, speaking without figure, we may indeed be proud 
of the progress which Homoeopathy has made. From a 
few pioneers and a few adherents in this country; it has 
increased to four or five thousand physicians who at least 
sail under its flag, and to millions of adherents. By 
what means l By hard work ! by having disseminated 
its truths; by having made people the personal friends 
of these truths; by having made them feel its beneficial 
influence upon their own welfare; by having thus made 
people become identified with our cause. John Smith, 
formerly unknown, has now become a dear old friend; 
well known and well beloved. And thus we have gained 
one factor, which is necessary to infection—the suscepti- 
bility of the soil. And I shall show you by an illustra- 
tion which you have witnessed with your own eyes, how 
deeply it takes, if elements of their own kind, well de- 
veloped and well defined hit upon elements of a similar 
character and tendency. I mean the Fair of our fair 
ladies in the interest of a Homoeopathic Hospital. A 
year ago, from this stand, an appeal was made, and 
afterwards a call went out, and its idea spread little by 
little from threshold to threshold, irresistably, until 
finally, it had set into motion thousands of warm 
hearts and thousands of skillful hands to work deeds 
of kindness. And not only in this City and State was 
the call responded to, but also by New Jersey, Dela- 
ware, Maryland, New York, Massachusetts and Ohio. 
The Homoeopathic Hospital has thus gained the start and 
before many years pass by, it will he an accomplished fact; a grand monument to the ladies’ exertions, an 
honor to Homoeopathy and a blessing to thousands of 
our community. 
Gentlemen, you are going from us, and soon you will 
be scattered near and far. Do not expect to gather 
fruit, where you have not sown seed; you will succeed 
only in the degree in which you work for the cause. 
Take this illustration along with you ; and wherever you 
go, prepare the soil, and it cannot fail, that by your ear- 
nest and zealous endeavors Homoeopathy will come out 
triumphantly over all the country. 
“ There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at its flood, leads on to fortune.”