An Introductory Address to the Students of the 
Medico-Chirurgica! College. 
BY 
L. WEBSTER FOX, M.D., 
Professor ®£ laa. tire 3!«£ed.3.co-C2a.5.r-u.rg,3.ca.X Colleg'e. 
Delivered October 3, 1894. 
Reprinted from The Medical Bulletin, October, 1894. An Introductory Address to the Students of the 
Medico-Chirurgical College.* 
By L. W EBSTER BOX, 
Professor of Ophthalmology in the Medico-Chirurgical College. 
A SENATOR, quite famed for his elo- 
quence, asked a brother-senator, who 
sat beside him during an introductory de- 
bate in Congress, to stop and hear him speak. 
The friend replied, “ If you are going to 
make a speech I would be very glad to listen 
to it, but if you are going to read one of your 
infernal compositions I do not propose to stay.” 
By a dispensation of your Faculty, I have 
been obliged to trespass upon your indulgence 
this evening, and ask you not to leave the 
room before my composition is read. 
This day marks an epoch in your lives. You 
have launched your canoe on a stream full 
of hidden rocks; many snags, much disap- 
pointment, and no few hardships will overtake 
you before you arrive at the great ocean of 
your professional life, which as yet hides from 
you those worlds you intend to conquer. You 
do not here leave behind you your student life, 
—you have only shunted to another track; you 
now only concentrate your studies to a more 
definite purpose. You have elected to master 
the subtleties of a noble profession, and an 
inestimable service lures you toward its mas- 
tery. You have no doubt decided upon this 
avocation only after the most careful consider- 
ation and thought. Your friends trust you, 
and we trust you; see therefore to it that you 
neither disappoint yourselves nor us. 
No profession demands more from her stu- 
dents than medicine. She is a jealous mistress. 
The midnight oil must be consumed; untiring 
and unceasing your efforts must be made before 
you can become proficient in your art. The 
late Sir Andrew Clark, in an address to a class 
of medical students, said, “Labor is the life 
of life. Nature will let no man overwork him- 
self unless he play her false.” 
The majority of you come from the rural 
districts, all endowed with strong constitu- 
tions, clear heads, and good nerve-force. See 
to it that you do not play your natures false. 
You will be surrounded by the glitter and 
glamour of city’s temptations,—fascinating and 
pleasant as the Luralei’s glance. Some of you 
may become easy victims to the sorceress. 
Leave her and turn aside, and stick to your 
calling. Remember, as Dickens has said, “ It 
is well for a man to respect his own vocation, 
whatever it is.” You have more to do than 
simply to respect your calling. Remember 
that, in joining the ranks of the students of the 
Medico-Chirurgical College, you must respect 
them. You have also a Faculty to consider, 
who is closer to you than a parent. But I 
feel confident, when I look upon the bright, 
intellectual countenances about me, that the 
above advice is perforce unnecessary. What a 
grand thing it is to meet students with a pur- 
pose ! I see it stamped on all your counte- 
nances. I see more; and I hear you utter, 
“ Oh, gentle Faculty, by and through your aid 
we will win.” It is written in letters of burning 
flame upon all your pennants. You ask, Is it 
fair that all should be demanded from the stu- 
dent and nothing from your instructors ? No; 
* Delivered October 3, 1894. AN INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
your Faculty have grave responsibilities in 
directing you in the way you are to acquire 
the science of the healing art. They have 
been awake to this fact for a long time. The 
changes in the policy of the school, the selec- 
tion of the best teachers in the various de- 
partments, the addition of new chairs, the 
selection of laymen of recognized and superior 
ability in their respective walks of life, all tend 
to make this college one of the most scientific 
and practical in the country. Your college 
has adopted a course which is out of the beaten 
track, ambitions outside of the old-fashion 
type of college teaching. Your Faculty do not 
wish to be known as men who simply know 
their books; they will show you that here you 
will obtain not only a safe and sound scientific 
education in medicine, but also eminently a 
practical one as well. 
“The foundation of our art is knowledge 
of the material to be worked upon,—the human 
body. Anatomy to its uttermost details, anat 
omy naked eyed and minute, normal and ab- 
normal, healthy and diseased, is the foundation 
of all good surgery.” So said J Greig Smith, 
and so says our Nestor of anatomy, Professor 
Pan coast. 
Your teachers of anatomy will lead you on 
gradually and pleasantly through the structure 
of the human body, which you must know all 
about. How can you expect to become pro- 
ficient except you know thoroughly the genesis 
of your profession? The great Titian was a 
master at mixing paints before he could produce 
the matchless gems which are still the admira- 
tion of the artistic world. Michael Angelo had 
to know how to temper his chisel before he 
aspired to produce that wonderful statue of 
Moses; Morse, the conductility of metals before 
he could send messages with lightning speed to 
the uttermost parts of the earth. Houston, in 
connection with his former colleague Thomson, 
had to produce a dynamo before they could let 
loose the Promethean spark that now illuminates 
this and hundreds of other cities the world over. 
In all the mechanical arts men must under- 
stand the foundation of their calling if they 
wish to succeed. Is it less to ask you to labor 
unceasingly to understand the frame-work, the 
chemical laboratory, the animated organism, 
the wonderful handiwork of God,—man? 
In the acquirement of your profession you 
will not so much, as time rolls on, be carried 
to greater heights, but to broader fields of 
knowledge; and, at last, when you have filled 
the cells of your brain with theory, then the 
practical side of your teaching will he given 
you,—a knowledge so essential to your success 
in life. Many of you will elect to become 
general practitioners. Of what value to you 
is the knowledge imparted by your Professor 
of Anatomy, unless you can appreciate and 
follow the teaching of an Anders, or the ap- 
plication and technique of surgery as taught 
by Laplace and Ashton ? “ What hearing is 
to the physician, so is touch to the surgeon. 
It is the intellect which teaches both. So, 
when the opportunity arises, educate both ear 
and hand.” 
In this class we confidently hope to find 
many young men born to be masters of their art. 
To such I would say: Though work comes 
easy, work all the harder; make the talent given 
you increase and multiply. Though you may 
have genius, yet patience and hard work are 
necessary to make even genius fruitful. To 
those who have not been so well endowed, much 
may, nevertheless, be accomplished by persever- 
ance. Your Faculty will lend all of you an 
ever-helping hand. The fable of the victory 
of the tortoise over the hare should be fresh in 
your memories. As the masses, your future 
patients, become more highly educated it Ire- 
hooves you to aspire to a higher grade of in- 
tellectuality. We must to day have physicians 
who are not only skilled in their profession, 
but who have a mind sufficiently broad to cope 
with the living questions of the day. In no 
time of the world’s history are the intelligence 
and judgment of physicians so largely sought 
after and so highly esteemed in the important 
questions as how best to co|>e with epidemic 
diseases in densely populated communities. 
If I may make a criticism, I must say that the 
preliminary education of the young men who 
are choosing the medical profession for their 
life-work has not been as thorough as it should 
be. In this State it is now necessary to pass 
two boards of examiners before you can prac- 
tice medicine. Is this fair under existing laws? 
I say, emphatically, no ! The State puts on the 
restrictions, but does she in like manner give us 
a preventive? While our Commonwealth is 
doing much to foster education, she is far behind 
in giving aid to young men who eventually must 
look after the health of her people. The actual 
prevention of outbreaks of virulent diseases or 
of blindness is far cheaper than trying toeradi- AN INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
3 
cate such evils after they have become epidemic. 
But in the mean time where must this aid come 
from ? Clearly, we must look to the men who, 
in the abundance of their wealth, can afford 
to build laboratories and found institutions 
where young men can get this preliminary 
schooling. 
The older countries of Europe are far 
ahead of us in these matters; their medical 
chairs are richly endowed by the State, and 
their occupants do nothing but investigate, 
analyze, and transmit. If the public wish 
protection, they must perforce lend us a help- 
ing purse. I must quote what one of our 
leading teachers in medicine savs on this sub 
ject*: “In this country, for the most part, 
we cannot look to the State for endowment for 
medical education, but we must appeal to private 
beneficence. A few public-spirited and gener- 
ous men and women have already given prac- 
tical proof of their appreciation of these facts. 
With more general and fuller realization of 
these needs and present condition of medi- 
cal education, and the results that can be 
secured by its liberal endowment, there is 
every reason to believe that these benefactions 
will be largely and rapidly increased, and that 
thereby the condition of medical education in 
this country shall cease to be a reproach to 
us.” 
How can we escape from this reproach ? 
You young men who have not had a college 
education can now take advantage of your 
environments. You have arrived at an age 
when your mind becomes retentive and ca- 
pable of becoming burnished by attrition. 
In this large city instructive lectures are given 
on a variety of intellectual subjects. The 
Franklin Institute throws her doors open to 
you all. The Academy of Natural Science in 
like manner extends a helping hand. The 
Young Men’s Christian Association and our 
churches, whose pulpits, filled by the ablest 
clergy in the land, will also welcome you. 
Select such plays at our theatres as will 
rest your mind by way of diversion. Study 
not only the words, but the grace and move- 
ments of the actors. Remember, it is not fair 
to yourselves to try to brighten your minds 
and let your bodies remain awkward and un- 
gainly. Plato said, “ That one must form not 
only a mind, and not only a body, but both a 
mind and a body, to become a man.” 
In practical medicine, as in many of the 
mechanical arts, we need not fear reproach. 
We have shown the world what we can do; but 
how much better it would be if our scientific 
knowledge were equal to our mechanical skdl! 
Then we should have students flocking to 
America for their medical education, just as 
we are having students from all over the world 
flocking to our twin sister, the Philadelphia 
Dental College, which leads the world to-day 
in practical dentistry. Handicapped, as we 
are, we are nevertheless progressing. Your 
college is heading toward that plane of ef- 
ficiency which places her in the front rank of 
medical institutions. Many additions have 
been made to the corps of instructors Two 
new chairs have been added : a chair of Phys- 
ics, and it is with great pride that I revert to 
the fact that the gentleman who fills that chair 
is eminent in his department, and honored 
not only in this country, but throughout the 
whole scientific world. Gentlemen, it is a 
rare privilege that you will have the oppor- 
tunity of listening to such a teacher as Prof. 
Edwin J. Houston. Another chair which has 
been added, and which will be of superlative 
value to you, is that of Electro-Therapeutics. 
In Professor Kennedy you have an instructor 
who is one of the leading masters in this new 
department of science. 
And so I could continue to speak of the 
other teachers recently added to the college. 
With such additional advantages, you will con- 
tinue to keep the olive and the gold * ever bright, 
ever shining. There are other opportunities 
given you for advancing yourselves. You have 
a variety of fraternal associations; you will be 
asked to join quiz classes and societies. Join 
them, and become active workers. Let the 
“ pride of ambition and the inspiration of 
generous emulation” help you to individual 
achievement. Let each week have its review. 
Not only drive the nail, but clinch it. By this 
means you will become adepts by asking and 
answering questions. If you fall below your 
classmates, their success will be a means of 
stimulating you to better work. Some of the 
most pleasing recollections in after-life will be 
your class-day associations. As you go on from 
one semester to another your line of instruction 
will be in keeping with your progress. Your 
last two years will find you in the field of prac- 
tical medicine. I mean by this that you will 
* Prof. William H. Welch, M.D., Baltimore, Md. 
* College colors. 4 
AN INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
be given the opportunity of becoming thor- 
oughly acquainted with disease at the bedside. 
You will learn the technique of surgery, gyn- 
aecology, and obstetrics, and in the special 
departments, such as ophthalmology, otology, 
and dermatology, you will have opportunities 
unsurpassed. Our large clinics in the various 
departments warrant me in making this state- 
ment. 
You are on the edge of a future which will, 
at the touch of your hand, show mighty devel- 
opments. Let another Pancoast, Gross, Pas- 
teur, or a Koch be found among your class. 
“Do what you can in your life; make what 
you can of your life; but, above all, love the 
highest and deepest and best that you can.” 
As you stand on the shore of the great ocean 
before you, do not think that you have no 
other motive than to acquire sufficient knowl- 
edge to enable you to pass your examination 
and thus get a diploma. Medicine is not 
a complete science; many changes have taken 
place in the medical world during the last 
decade; many more will be unfolded in the 
next ten years. Look what changes have been 
produced by the discoveries of Pasteur and 
Koch! In many diseases the whole line of 
theory and treatment has been changed. Con- 
trast the surgery of to-day with that of a few 
days ago! How little is known about con- 
tagion ! The vast field of preventive medi- 
cine is almost entirely unexplored. I feel sure 
that the day is not far distant when such a 
chair will become the most important in medi- 
cal colleges. You who are inspired, remember 
that many crowns of laurels await you. You 
may not acquire wealth in gaining these honors, 
but you may do more,—you may confer bless- 
ings upon your fellow-man. “Who can esti- 
mate the money value of the discoveries of 
Louis Pasteur to humanity?” asks one of our 
ablest writers. In the opinion of Professor 
Huxley, these discoveries “have made good 
the war-indemnity of five thousand million 
francs paid by France to Germany.” 
Personal habits have much to do in making 
or unmaking a professional career. Abstain 
from all unpleasant habits. See that your 
bodily health is as well looked after as your 
mental. Young men when they join college 
classes are sometimes led away by the idea 
that to chew tobacco, use profane language, 
and approach the slovenly are passports to 
manliness. Do not make this mistake. If 
education refine the mind, let your habits 
refine your body. Remember that, of all men, 
the medical practitioner should be, above all 
things, a perfect gentleman.