SBSgBHE SCHOLAR IN MEDICINE: AN AD- 
DRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
Yaffil HARVARD MEDICAL ALUMNI ASSO- 
CIATION, JUNE TWENTY-NINE, 1897, BY 
J. M. DA COSTA, M.D., LL.D., PRESIDENT OF 
THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF PHILA- 
DELPHIA, THE 
Scholar in Medicine 
Hn H&dress 
DELIVERED BEFORE THE HARVARD MEDICAL ALUMNI 
ASSOCIATION JUNE 29, 1897 
BY 
J. M. Da COSTA, M.D., LL.D. 
President of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia 
BOSTON 
Geo. H. Ellis, Printer, 141 Franklin St. 
1897 THE SCHOLAR IN MEDICINE. 
Mr. President of the University, Mr. President of 
the Harvard Medical Alumni Association, Alumni 
of Harvard,- When you, Mr. President of the 
Association, asked me to address this distinguished 
gathering, I begged that it be not on the subject 
of medical education, which, with all its great in- 
terests, had been for the present exhausted by the 
many who have treated of it before you so well 
and so often. I then thought that, in place of 
considering those whose minds are still to be 
moulded, it might be not inappropriate to give 
our attention to those who are fully formed; and so, 
with your permission, I will say a few words in re- 
gard to one of the best types of these we meet,- 
the scholar in medicine. It is particularly fitting 
that I should do so here, while speaking in a city 
that is justly proud of its general culture, and 
under the shadow of the great university to which 
you all belong, to a profession that has been 
always distinguished for its love and appreciation 
of scholarship. It is fitting, surely, to speak of 
scholars to the pre-eminently scholarly profession 
of Boston. 4 
In mentioning the scholars in medicine, I shall 
refer more particularly to those who have been 
men of cultivation and mental training other than 
merely in their own line; who, while actively pur- 
suing their profession and learned in it, were not 
learned in it alone. I mean the men who, whether 
distinguished in the older restricted sense of 
scholarship chiefly in the classics, or in the much 
more comprehensive modern sense of general 
knowledge and culture in many and diversified 
branches, carry with them into professional life 
zest for these studies and the attitude of mind 
they give: I mean in its fullest sense the general 
scholar in medicine. Nor is it the scholar who 
has been a physician, but has largely or entirely 
abandoned his profession to devote himself to 
scholarship and has been chiefly known through 
this and his general knowledge, that I am speak- 
ing of, though here there would be a noted list to 
enumerate. 
Here is, in comparatively recent years, Adams, 
whose translations of Hippocrates and of Paulus 
Aegineta are admirable; here is Greenhill, of Ox- 
ford, deeply versed in Arabic lore; here are Busse- 
maker and Daremberg, the profound scholars, whose 
Oribasius and other editions of Greek and Latin 
classics critics everywhere laud. Here is Littre, the 
celebrated Greek student, who has also produced the 
best dictionary in any living tongue, and, unaided, 5 
has done for the French language in one lifetime 
what the French Academy has not accomplished 
since its creation. 
And in older generations we find Linacre, court 
physician to Henry VIII., envoy, founder of the 
College of Physicians, the matchless teacher of 
Greek, having Erasmus among his pupils, the trans- 
lator of Galen and of Aristotle into Latin so pure 
and graceful that it was the admiration of his age; 
Cains, the benefactor of Caius College, Cambridge, 
the nine-times elected President of the College of 
Physicians, the physician to Queen Elizabeth, spoken 
of by Gesner in an epistle to her as the most 
learned physician of his age, and regarded as being 
the superior of any man of his time in Europe in 
profound knowledge of Greek, which he, while pur- 
suing his anatomical studies at Padua, taught as 
public professor, and always insisted should be pro- 
nounced after the manner of modern Greeks. Here 
is the great thinker, Locke, who to the last liked to 
dabble in medicine and practise on his friends, not 
always to their pleasure or advantage; also Sir 
Thomas Browne, though court physician, yet chiefly 
known by his extraordinary erudition that shows so 
conspicuously in the " Religio Medici" and "Urn- 
burial," and in the quaint conceits of his other writ- 
ings, who could not, however, have been a very good 
companion, for it is recorded of him in Dr. Johnson's 
" Life " that, though always cheerful, he was rarely 6 
merry, " seldom heard to break a jest, and, when he 
did, he would be apt to blush at the levity of it," 
unmindful that Bacon himself dictated from memory 
in a single day a jest book which Macaulay has pro- 
nounced the best in the world. Further, here is 
Rabelais, the inimitable humorist of France, who, 
after taking his doctor's degree at Montpellier, lect- 
ured publicly on Galen and Hippocrates. But I shall 
not dwell on him, since it is in literature rather than 
in learning that lies his fame. To dwell on him, too, 
would bring up forcibly the image of one who resem- 
bled him, and revive keenly the sense of the loss of 
the scholar, critic, man of letters, whose good-natured 
laughter resounded through the world,- our own 
Oliver Wendell Holmes. 
Nor shall I say anything of the host of physicians 
that have been distinguished in pursuits different 
from those we ordinarily class with scholarship, 
such as wide knowledge and research in the 
natural sciences; though I cannot forbear to men- 
tion Galvani, the doctor of Bologna; and Linnaeus, 
the physician at Stockholm, the professor at Up- 
sala, whose classes his fame trebled; and another 
renowned Swede, the illustrious chemist, Berzelius; 
and Young, the Professor of Natural Philosophy 
at the Royal Institute, who, besides his extensive 
knowledge in mathematics, natural philosophy, and 
botany, was master of many modern languages, and 
of Latin, Greek, Chaldee, Arabic, Syriac, Hebrew, 7 
Persian, and Samaritan; and Black, the popular 
physician at Glasgow, the discoverer of latent heat; 
and your celebrated botanist, Gray; and the philo- 
sophical comparative anatomist, Owen; and the great 
naturalist of varied acquirements, the father of 
popular scientific education in America, one of the 
glories of Harvard,- Agassiz; and another of our 
great countrymen, Leidy, that man of deep knowl- 
edge of everything appertaining to the natural 
sciences; and the thinker, Huxley; and the most 
renowned physicist of our own time, Helmholtz. 
But to turn to the men who have been famed 
in their profession as well as admirable scholars, 
and whose traits of mind were essentially those of 
the scholar. It is interesting how some of the 
illustrious names in medicine appear here in evi- 
dence. Harvey is conspicuous,- Harvey, whose 
style is so limpid and clear that whatever he states 
becomes at once a demonstration, and grace and 
propriety mark every utterance. He is the Cam- 
bridge scholar all his life, as well as the great 
physiologist and physician. Boerhaave, the high- 
minded professor and physician, the man of many 
accomplishments, of extraordinary simplicity and 
kindness, thinking nothing of lecturing five hours 
daily, making the University of Leyden more fa- 
mous than it had ever been, attracting patients 
from all parts of the world,- among them, though 
as pupil rather than as patient, Peter the Great,- 8 
he, too, was all his life the diligent, accomplished 
scholar. So was Mead, the renowned and most 
popular physician of the time of George II., a 
Maecenas in literature and art, a beneficent and 
kindly social power, finished writer, ardent mathe- 
matician. The celebrated professor of Padua, Mor- 
gagni, was also widely known as a practising 
physician, of whose art he must have possessed 
some of the best qualifications. " Adeo erat in obser- 
vando attentus, in praedicendo cautus, in curando 
felix," is recorded of him; and you may well smile at 
the praedicendo cautus, the caution in prognosis,- 
a trait it is thought his successors have not lost. 
He was very popular with his colleagues, and 
taught until he was ninety-one years of age, 
whether to the edification of those who looked 
to succeeding him in his chair is not recorded. 
Throughout his long life he was a great scholar 
as well as original thinker, was noted for the 
elegance of his Latin style, which shows to the 
last in his splendid work " De Sedibus et Causis 
Morborum," published in his eightieth year. A 
further marked illustration of the scholar among 
famed physicians is furnished by Laennec, the 
founder of modern diagnosis. He was an excellent 
writer and a most accomplished Greek scholar. Of 
this, indeed, and of his horsemanship, he was more 
proud than of his amazing additions to science. 
The noted American physician, Rush, too, was 9 
much more than a medical author and practitioner. 
Deeply interested in public affairs, he was also 
known as hospital physician and professor, as 
philanthropist, essayist, and philosopher, and was 
of activities so widely recognized that the Na- 
tional Institute of France enrolled him among its 
members. 
In the illustrations given of renowned physicians 
who were noted also for their scholarship, I have 
selected, among many, those of pre-eminence belong- 
ing to times remote from the present. But, without 
mentioning the living,- and Virchow, famed for 
most varied learning, and Paget, that master of clear 
thought and pure language, are still among us,- it 
would not be difficult to point to examples nearer 
our own age that uphold the best medical traditions 
as regards scholarly attainments. It is only neces- 
sary to speak of Simpson, archaeologist and discov- 
erer; of Brodie, philosopher and psychologist; of 
Latham, incisive writer of limpid English; of Wat- 
son, whose style makes him rank among the classics 
of the Victorian era; of Graves, finished author 
as well as consummate clinician; of Trousseau, the 
eloquent master of French prose; of Malgaigne, 
the erudite surgeon; of See, the medical orator; 
of Dunglison, the great lexicographer; of Billroth, 
the many-sided teacher; of Hyrtl, one of the most 
accomplished of modern scholars, and wonderful 
linguist as well as illustrious professor,- to make IO 
clear how scholarship and broad attainments have 
steadily remained in the medical profession. 
The scholarship I have been commenting on is 
the common scholarship of cultivated men,-general 
culture and knowledge, and not professional schol- 
arship or learning. But, where in a professional 
man the former exists, we may look confidently for 
the latter. Scholarship in broad lines brings with 
it learning in special lines. The habits and tastes 
of the scholar, and his mental attitude, remain the 
same, whether in or out of his vocation. And, 
when we speak of the scholar in medicine, it is to 
be inferred almost with certainty that he is learned 
in his calling as well as out of it. 
The love of intellectual cultivation is wide-spread 
in the profession. Let us not suppose that it is 
only encountered in medical centres or among those 
whom the profession recognizes as its leaders. 
You may come across the scholar where you do 
not look for him. Twice this has happened to me 
recently. On one of these occasions I found him, 
in a village, in a country practitioner, as an admira- 
ble Greek scholar, besides his being of marked 
learning in his profession; another time, in a small 
country town, I met him in one who displayed a 
knowledge of old English and the changes that 
time had produced in our language that was amaz- 
ing, and gave an hour of delightful talk after our 
medical conference was over. 11 
In this utilitarian age the question may arise, 
What is the use of the scholar in medicine? We 
have obvious need for the investigator; but what 
is there for the scholar to do? Now there is no 
doubt that the investigator and originator in a 
science like medicine, with its tremendous prob- 
lems and tremendous issues, is always of the first 
importance. And, if there is to be a choice be- 
tween the scholar and the investigator, if a man 
can be only one, let the choice be always for the 
latter,-for the Pares, the John Hunters, the Jen- 
ners, the Marion Simses. But there need be no 
choice: the qualities may coexist, as proved by 
Harvey, Sydenham, Morgagni, Laennec, and Lister, 
and lend accuracy and strength to the results ob- 
tained by the searcher in Nature's realm. The 
scholar has, indeed, great uses in medicine. Be- 
sides the power of expression that comes, as a 
rule, with scholarship, he carries into every research, 
and into the estimate of every research, the facili- 
ties and critical judgment of a trained mind. He 
was never more needed than now, when every atom 
of discovery is heralded as of prodigious impor- 
tance, and as sure to influence immediately the laws 
of the universe. It is the scholar who keeps the 
sense of proportion and fitness of everything, and 
who is not carried away into the maelstrom of 
pretence and assumption. It is the scholar who 
links the most valuable of the past to the most 12 
valuable of the present, understands, and guards 
best against, the errors of centuries, reads best the 
encouraging signs of the times and the bright 
hopes of the future. It is the scholar whose knowl- 
edge teaches him to appreciate correctly the differ- 
ent fads and isms which are constantly cropping 
up, and which he recognizes as old errors with new 
faces, susceptible, perhaps, of rational explanation; 
who traces in faith cures and kindred matters the 
history of expectant attention; who is able even to 
appreciate the value of cures by the seventh son of 
the seventh son. 
It is the love of true knowledge and progress 
on the part of the scholar, and his reverence for 
the lessons of the past, that counteracts all that is 
baneful in the tendencies to hasty generalization 
and unproved statement. He is not carried away 
by mere assertion: he looks to experience and to 
the logic of facts. He appreciates at their true 
value the claims made for the host of new remedies 
daily introduced, the majority of which, if we wish to 
cure with, must be employed while they are new. 
The scholarship that makes broadness also counter- 
acts the worst feature in specialism,- to divide the 
profession into sections, marring its unity and 
strength. It is the scholar who maintains the ideal 
of his calling, who is the agreeable companion by 
whom men in other professions estimate and ap- 
preciate the worth of ours. It is the scholar who 13 
founds libraries, does everything to promote col- 
lections and workshops of thought, and keeps his 
life free from the taint of barrenness. It is the 
scholar who cements the profession into the best 
of brotherhoods. It is the scholar who in a com- 
munity creates an atmosphere of learning and ap- 
preciation of learning, that is apt to remain as 
an heirloom in families, forming scholarly clans, to 
the great advantage of the Commonwealth; and 
where could I find a better illustration of this 
than here in the home of the Warrens, the Jack- 
sons, the Bowditches, the Bigelows, the Putnams, 
and the Shattucks ? 
Moreover, it is the scholar through whom we are 
linked with sympathetic interest to other pursuits. 
To recall the noble words of Cicero, " Omnes artes, 
quae ad humanitatem pertinent, habent quoddam 
commune vinculum, et quasi cognatione quadam 
inter se continentur." It is the scholar with his 
wide-spread sympathies who is the near of kin in this 
blood-relationship of all the arts, and who represents 
us in the universal domain of knowledge. 
The scholar in medicine is, indeed, an attractive 
figure. We see him pursuing what noble ends; am- 
bitious for what lofty recompenses; passing from life's 
beginning to its end through what scenes of sus- 
tained pleasure,- not grasping and scrambling for 
petty prizes or fleeting reputation and wealth, but 
aiming only at lofty objects. Such is the history, 14 
such the life of the scholar in medicine, as in every 
other branch of knowledge. If, unmindful of the 
friendly and social character of this meeting, I have 
treated of a grave and serious subject, and thus tem- 
porarily interrupted your pleasure, you must excuse 
me. But the memory of the famed men of your 
great University, its traditions, its spirit, its atmos- 
phere of learning and of scholarship, proved irresis- 
tible, and caused me to speak, and to speak longer 
than may have been fitting, on a subject that the cir- 
cumstances suggested, and with which I know you 
are in thorough accord.