AN 
INTRODUCTORY LECTURE, 
ON THE 
CAUSES OBSTRUCTING 
THE 
PROGRESS OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. 
BY JOSEPH IV. MCDOWELL, M. D. 
LECTURER ON ANATOMY. 
Published at the request of his Class. 
CINCINNATI: 
Williamson Wood, Printers. 
1830. Cincinnati, Nov. 15, 1830. 
Doct. Jos. N. McDowell, 
At a meeting of your class this evening, we, as a com- 
mittee in behalf of said class, were requested to solicit you 
to favor us with a copy of your Introductory Lecture, for 
publication. We are, respectfully, &c. 
Chauncey Goodrich, 
Joseph L. Hornsby, 
Newton Lane. 
Committee. 
Cincinnati, Nov. 16, 1830. 
Gentlemen,—Allow me to tender to you, and to my class, 
through their committee, my thanks for the regard} they 
have exhibited for my very humble production,in soliciting 
a copy of it for publication. 
It was not written with the expectation of its being thus 
honored, but relying on your judgment, and the sincerity of 
your request, it is at your disposal. 
Messrs. C. Goodrich, 
J. L. Hornsby, N. Lane. 
With esteem, 
Jos. N. McDowell. INTRODUCTORY LECTURE, &C. 
To the philanthropist and to the lover of medical science, 
nothing is more pleasing than the contemplation of whatever 
is calculated to extend, elevate and render more useful that 
branch of liberal learning; and whatever will enable the 
members of the profession to overcome the causes which 
have hitherto been the most powerful barriers to its present 
elevation, cannot be without its interest. 
In tracing the history of medical science from its infancy 
to its present elevation, briefly pointing out the causes that 
have obstructed its progress, and endeavoring to straighten 
the crooked path to professional elevation, my effort, how- 
ever feebly executed, will command, I doubt not, your ap- 
probation. 
History informs us that medical science had its origin in 
India and China, where it is said to have been systemati- 
cally practised, long before it was known among the Egyp- 
tians, to whom our medicine is usually referred. 
But we cannot wholly rely on history for its origin, since 
from the very nature and constitution of man, he has ever 
been the inheritor of pain, sickness and death, and although 
at times exempt from the diseases consequent on civilization, 
he has ever been subject to injuries from outward accidents, 
if not from internal causes; and doubtless from the time of 
his creation the instinctive principle implanted in his bosom 
for the promotion of his happiness and the preservation of 
his life, has led him to search for remedies to give him re- 
lief in sickness, and to prolong his existence: coeval then 
with the ills of humanity, must be dated the commence- 
ment of this invaluable science. Many nations however, 
may have existed among whom there were no physicians; 
but we cannot conceive of a time when remedies for acci- 
dent and disease were not employed. 
In tracing the causes obstructing the progress of medical 
science, and recounting the many obstacles adverse to its 
elevation and improvement, it will not only be necessary to 
take a view of the characters who have figured conspicuous- 
ly in it; but also to examine the condition of every age and 4 
nation in which it has been cultivated,—just as the geo- 
grapher who would describe the course of a stream whose 
sources were numerous, and whose direction to the ocean 
was circuitous, would necessarily associate in his descrip- 
tion the hills and the valleys of the country through which 
it meandered, exhibiting at the same time, its eddies, its 
rapids, its whirlpools, and its cataracts. To do this in de- 
tail, (which is not our intention on the present occasion,) 
would require a minute history of the science, which though 
it could not but be interesting, would exhaust your patience, 
and occupy too much of our time. 
Commencing with Egyptian Medicine, the most remote 
fountain of our now majestic stream of science, we must re- 
gret the uncertainty of its history, which only affords a fruit- 
ful field for the learned conjecture of the medical antiquary, 
who is willing to substitute for reality, the fanciful visions of 
his imagination. Originating among an enthusiastic and 
zealous people, it was enveloped in its infancy by the gross- 
est ignorance, and the mother from which it drew its suste- 
nance was the wildest superstition. Their limited knowl- 
edge rendered medicine rather a monopoly than a liberal 
science. Freedom of enquiry was neither sought nor desir- 
ed, and those individuals w'ho were its cultivators, being 
ranked among their deities and oracles,obtained implicit con- 
fidence, while those who were known to deviate from a pre- 
scribed course in the profession, were answrerable to the law 
for their offence, and suffered the punishment consequent 
on their transgression. Thus to Hermes has been attribu- 
ted a course of practice from which no physician was permit- 
ted to depart without incurring, if he failed of success, the 
guilt and punishment of a murderer. The inevitable conse- 
quences of such laws, could not but prove disastrous to the 
improvement of medicine, and reflect but little credit on a 
people, among whom it is said the cradle of sciences was 
first rocked by the hand of liberality. In passing from the 
dark obscurity of Egyptian annals to the plain and certain 
records of Grecian science, the contrast strikes the mind, 
as does the brilliancy of the noon day sun the eye, w'hen 
first its rays burst from behind a clouded sky. 
From the extraordinary and singular energy of character so 
peculiar to this nation, it could not be supposed that the 
land which has ever been the theme of the orator and the 5 
poet—the delight of the patriot and the scholar—the land 
where life and animation seem to be the result of the sculptor 
and the painter’s skill, and which has done so much for the 
advancement of every art and every science—would have ne- 
glected that of medicine, which by all is acknowledged to 
be to man the most valuable. While other departments 
were justly proud of a Homer, a Demosthenes, a Solon and 
a Plato,—medicine boasted of her Esculapi,us, her Hippo- 
crates, and her Aristotle,—together with many others whose 
genius and research did more for the advancement of medi- 
cal science than all the world beside, down to the period in 
which they lived. Yet although we acknowledge Greece 
as the country which made the greatest improevment in 
early medicine, and stamped upon it many of the features 
that have characterized it in all succeeding ages, we cannot 
but lament that the most able cultivators ot the science, de- 
voted so little of their time to the investigation of the anato- 
my of the human body,—the rock on which all rational med- 
icine is founded, and without a knowledge of which, all 
theories are but idle speculations, calculated rather to amuse 
the fancy of the student of medicine, than increase his fund 
of useful and practical knowledge. Hippocrates, the repu- 
ted father and founder of medicine, to whose industry we 
are indebted for an accurate account of all the diseases 
which come under his insp ection , the greater part of which 
are still known by the same names invented and adopted by 
him,—was, no doubt, grossly ignorant of the structure and 
functions of most of the organs of the human system. The 
heart, the great organ of circulation, was considered both by 
him and by Aristotle, the general sensorium, and its vessels 
the media for the communication of its influence to every 
part of the body ; and the brain the great receptacle of re- 
dundant moisture, and a condenser of vapours, which it dis- 
chargid by deductions and catarrhs; never suspecting in the 
least that it was at all connected with sensation. Notwith- 
standing the absurdity of these opinions, which seemed rath- 
er to be conjecture than the result of examination, yet being 
supported by names of high standing and authority,they were, 
doubtless,the prevalent doctrines for severalsuccessive ages. 
It was not indeed, until the reign of the Ptolemies, who 
succeeded to the African division of the Alexandrian con- 
quests, under whose guardianship the first anatomical in- 6 
vestigations of the human body were made, that Erasx- 
stratas and Herophilus by their examinations, gave to the 
world the first ideas of a system of sensibility, depending 
on the brain and nerves, the true use of which seemed nev- 
er to have been suspected by any of their predecessors. 
Among the ancient Greeks the investigation of the structure 
of the human body did not, however, depend alone on the 
aversion of the cultivators of the science to the dissection of 
dead bodies, but upon the religious prejudice of the people, 
who viewed the individual engaged in such pursuits, not on- 
ly as a violator of the sanctity of their religion and the 
grave,—but as a wretch devoid of moral sensibility, deser- 
ving the scorn of man and the utmost severity of the law.— 
Being thus debarred from the use of human bodies, those of 
animals were resorted to by the most zealous in medical im- 
provement, which gave birth to comparative anatomy; but 
having few opportunities to compare the structure of the in- 
ferior order of animals with that of man, all their conclusions 
were little else than the pictures of fancy, because drawn 
from uncertain data. These, however, were not the only 
causes opposing its progress. Following the example of 
Egypt, the profession for a long period of years was mono- 
polized by certain families, and its benefits transmitted from 
generation to generation, without exertion, or without merit: 
Thus Hippocrates was reputed to have been the eighteenth 
lineal descendant from Esculapius. 
In leaving Grecian medicine to trace the course of the sci- 
ence in ancient Rome,in the early part of the history of that 
nation, the contrast is equally great, as in the transition from 
Egypt to the former country. In the ancient republics of 
Greece dignity and elevation were the results of superior ac- 
quirements in those arts which alleviate the common suffer- 
ings, and soothe the ordinary asperities of human life; but a- 
mong the Romans,on whose native and unsubdued rugged- 
ness was founded their extraordinary power pre-eminence 
over other nations, these arts were less esteemed and encour- 
ged. Thus we can readily account for its late establishment 
and the slowness of its improvement in that country. From 
the early ages of that nation down to Galen’s return from the 
school of Alexandria, there w?as not an instance of the exam- 
ination of the human body for anatomical purposes. And 
although this sage in the profession, early exhibited in Rome 7 
his superior qualifications from his knowledge of anatomy 
and the importance of such attainments, every danger and 
difficulty must have been the attendants of such examination 
among a people whose superstition caused them to inter 
their dead at night, lest by the sight of the body, their 
priests should become polluted, and their religion profaned. 
But it cannot be supposed that they were wholly inattentive 
to the subject, or negligent of the common and obvious me- 
thods of relieving pain, or promoting the healing process of 
broken limbs or injured parts. The vanity which so long 
held in the utmost contempt the manners and customs of 
foreign nations, and the courage which made them brave ev- 
ery danger, and their firm and ardent patriotism, must have 
occasionally yielded to the more powerful and instinctive 
principle, which bids us hope in disease and affliction for 
health and happiness. But excepting the priests, w ho offi- 
ciated in the temple of Esculapius, situated on a small island 
in the Tiber, there is no mention in their history of practi- 
tioners of medicine, or even of apothecaries, before the sixth 
century from the building of the city: and such wTas the 
prejudice of the people against the admission of foreign me- 
dicine among them, that Cato himself, the intrepid defender 
of the rights and liberties of his country, with the utmost 
indignation opposed the adoption ofGrecian medicine,or me- 
dicine atall,as a cultivated science,w'hile w ith childish incon- 
sistency he used its most ridiculous and ineffectual remedies. 
It is remarkable that among the many edicts relative 
to public affairs, none wras ever issued in reference to the 
health of a city whose population was so numerous, and 
whose climate has ever been a fruitful source of human 
maladies. It is no less astonishing that among the Grecian 
trophies won by the valor of their arms, that whilst they set 
a great value on the statues, and paintings, and books of va- 
rious kinds, that the writings of the immortal father of Gre- 
cian medicine, should have remained so much unnoticed 
and unknown. By degrees however the prejudices of the 
people diminished, and the various arts and sciences, inclu- 
ding medicine, began to improve; but from that period to 
the days of Celsus and Galen, the profession was little else 
than a farrago of ignorance and witchcraft, the practice of 
which was chiefly confided to barbers, to slaves, and the 
most inferior and degraded portion of society. Here and 8 
there were found an extravagant Thessalus, and an Asele- 
piades, but their exertions tended rather to the disgrace 
than the elevation of medicine. From the reign of the em- 
peror Augustus to the third century of the Christian Era, 
there was little improvement other than that made by the 
learned and classic Ceisus, whose writings did much both 
for materia medica and surgery, and by the most distin- 
guished of Roman physicians, Galen, who being thrown 
in the world at a time when the two conflicting religions 
were wasting the strength of the mighty empire, assumed 
the reign of medicine and rendered his name and writings 
almost oracular wherever it was known or cultivated, for 
more than thirteen hundred years. But notwithstanding 
much is to be ascribed to Galen in the improvement of the 
science, yet so long and uninterrupted a sway in medicine 
must be in part, if not wholly attributed to the general 
causes which at this particular crisis almost extinguished 
the lights of learning, shrouded the earth in darkness, res- 
tored the ancient dominions of chaos and of night, and sank 
all Europe, for a long period of time,in the most degrading 
barbarism. The termination of the life of Galen was the 
commencement of this long and disastrous period, and to 
whatever causes may be attributed the decline and fall of 
Roman greatness,it is to the convulsions of a tottering empire 
that the decline of liberal science is mainly to be referred. 
Of the immediate successors of Galen few arrived at much 
distinction or contributed any thing of worth to the science. 
Oribassius, the physician and friend of Julian, although 
greatly admired for his fidelity to his Emperor, deserves but 
little credit for his voluminous writings, which were but 
the apings of his predecessors. But at no distant period, 
after the destruction of the Pagan religion and Pagan 
privileges, the unreasonable pre-eminence of the priesthood, 
with less honorable and disinterested motives than their ad- 
vocates have generally assigned them,usurped the profession, 
and identifying it with their ecclesiastical privileges, has- 
tened its rapid strides to darkness and degradation. The 
absurdity of ecclesiastical interferance with the medical 
profession cannot be too severely censured; for in attempt- 
ing to perform both the duties of a minister and a physician, 
they could not have been actuated by a zeal for the im- 
provement of the science, but by a desire to accomplish the 9 
basest and most avaricious designs; prohibited, as they 
were by their clerical garb, from anatomical researches, the 
most legitimate source of its useful improvement. In pur- 
suing the coarse of the science in its low and mean condi- 
tion in Europe, during that intellectnal darkness which cov- 
ered all Christendom for more than a thousand years,—al- 
though we venerate the name and religion of our redeemer, 
we cannot but think it just that the degradation of medicine 
should be attributed to the undue usurpation of the clergy. 
Forbidding the study of useful books in the sciences, they 
substituted pretended visions and miracles, for nature and 
common sense; and according to Walker, an intelligent 
English historian, masses, penances, and pilgrimages, were 
the chief articles of the materia medica, while a donation to 
a church or a monastery, were the most infallible cures for 
the maladies of the human body. But not content with 
sinking medicine to the lowrest degree of ignorance and in- 
famy, and prostituting their own profession by casting a 
foul stain on the sanctity of their religion, inquisitions wrere 
established to examine into the conduct of enquiring physi- 
cians,which under the vile pretence of prosecuting fraudulent 
and magical practices, confined them in the gloom of an in- 
quisitorial dungeon, or led them with the cross in one hand 
and the torch in the other, to the faggot and the stake. 
After a long interval of time,during which the black cloud 
of ignorance and superstition seemed rather to increase than 
diminish, efforts wrere made by Charlemagne and Frederick 
the Great, to renovate and establish institutions of learning 
and the arts; but such was the lethargy of the times and the 
influence of the priests, that the light which it was fondly 
hoped would be the evidence of its resuscitation, resembled 
but the flash of lightning in the midnight storm, which, 
when the glare has passed, leaves the scene in augmented 
darkness. 1 he mind of Europe fettered in this turbulent 
age by feudal bondage, and plunged into the deepest abyss 
of moral ignoranee, wras not destined to recover itself, or 
emerge from its lethargy, without an entire revolution in the 
character and condition of the people, the accomplishment 
of which could not hastily be effected by any cause howev- 
er cogent in its operation. Of the causes most productive of 
the change which was gradually preparing benighted Eu- 
rope for the dawn of science and liberty, the wild en- 10 
thusiasm of the crusades seems to have been the most 
effective. Fired with the zeal of making a conquest of the ho- 
ly land, every grade of society was roused from its lethargy, 
and a reformation was commenced in science and in literature; 
the masterly strides of which have increased with an equal ra- 
tio with the advance of improvement, and ere long will pro- j 
claim the emancipation of still degraded Europe, and the wide 
diffusion of human knowledge and human good. Pledged for 
the redemption of that which they considered of all things most 
sacred, armies were seen marching, whose myriad numbers ; 
reached from Palestine to the gates of Constantinople. Com- : 
pelled, as they were, to traverse countries far superior to their 
own in refinement and information, they returned fascinated with 
the charms of Grecian and Arabian Literature, bringing with 
them manuscripts ot various kinds, most of which were de- 
posited at Salernum, a city in Italy, whose inhabitants were 
desirous of making it the emporium of science, and which was 
peculiarly distinguished as the city of the Coan sage of Greece; 
though this venerable author was known only in the base 
concealment of a much corrupted Arabian garb. 
In turning aside to take a view of Arabian medicine, the pol- 
luted fountain from which Europe received its medical infor- 
mation at this period; we much lament that although medicine 
was in high repute in the Mahometan Empire, and the pecun- 
iary reward of medical practitioners was exceedingly great, as 
was evinced by the princely fortunes and honors bestowed on 
some of the most eminent,there was little improvement of the 
art among this people; and notwithstanding they at an early 
period received the writings of Hippocrates, Aristotle and Galen, 
—all of which were valuable materials on which to base and 
rear a splendid superstructure in medicine. But we are told 
by Abi Asbaia that from a remote period among his countrymen 
the profession descended in a hereditary line; a custom of all 
others most highly calculated to prevent improvement; and this 
was, doubtless, one of the causes of the imperfection of their 
medicine. The ignorance of the translators of the Grecian and 
Roman writers was, probably, its greatest barrier. Authors of 
much distinction were but few in number and possessed but 
little knowledge other than that which they copied from wri- 
ters of other countries, among whom may be enumerated Rha- 
ses and Avicenna. In the voluminous writings and translations 
of the former we have the first description of the Small Pox; 11 
the origin of which has baffled the skill of every succeeding 
writer on the subject. Avicenna commencing his medical ca- 
reer as a teacher of medicine at the age of sixteen, reared 
among his countrymen a fame which was for the Arabian na- 
tion a pattern they were proud to imitate, but whose renown 
they had no ambition to surpass. But although little can be 
said in praise of Arabia in reference to medical improvement; 
yet it is proper that credit should be given her for the addition 
to the materia medica, of several of its most valuable articles. 
As letters revived,the sole depository of the learning and the 
arts was among the ecclesiastics. These men,whose education 
far surpassed that of the ignorant multitude, were the only indi- 
viduals in this benighted age on whom the scattered rays of sci- 
ence shone. Though they did nothing for the advancement of 
science, and though they actually perverted the pure streams of 
medical knowledge by the phantasies of superstition, candor and 
justice demand that the honorable and meritorious services they 
conferred on the various branches of literature and science 
should be fairly stated. Immured in the monkish cell, they 
with the most indefatigable zeal, spent their lives in comparing 
the relics of the classics with the Arabian translations. They 
copied out in a careful manner, the most accurate transcripts 
of Greek and Roman learning, noting interpolations and sup 
plying deficiencies. And while the philologist awards them 
the merited honor of preserving pure the majestic notes of Ho- 
mer and the dulcet strains of Virgil, far be it from us to forget 
that through their instrumentality the writings of the Coan sage 
and of the Roman Celsus have descended to us in unadulterated 
purity. It is much to be regretted that after this mention of 
their merits our commendation must cease; for we shall pres- 
ently show in what manner the interference of the priesthoood 
and of the monastic order, contributed to retard the growing 
progress of medical science, and to deter its advocates from its 
successful cultivation. 
Having thus traced medical science from its earliest origin 
down to the period when it began to break the fetters 
of feudal bondage and to shake from its neck the yoke of Po- 
pish usurpation, we turn our eyes to view those ages in which 
ignorance and fanaticism marked our profession as the peculiar 
object of their unholy persecution, and the field in which the 
immortal martyrs of medicine sacrificed their lives at the stake 
and the gibbet, with no less honor to human nature than to the 12 
glory of the profession. Such was the extraordinary power of 
the Roman Pontiff, the infatuated zeal of the priesthood, and 
the blood thirsty disposition of the most vigilant inquisitions, 
that from the eleventh even to the sixteenth century,the track of 
science was only marked in blood; and few and solitary indeed 
were the instances of genius and independance struggling in 
obscurity and fear. Among those heroic worthies who justly 
deserve immortality, stands conspicuous Petrus Aponeous, a 
native of Italy, who prompted by a desire to benefit mankind 
and to elevate his profession, published his medical sentiments 
without permission from the almost omnipotent Pope, which 
placed him in the merciless hands of the inquisition who sen- 
tenced him to the torture of the stake, but fortunately dying 
in prison before the sentence could be executed, his effigy 
was burnt in the market place at Padua, to satisfy the rage of 
his heartless persecutors. 
Another meritorious scholar and anatomist, Andrew Ves- 
salius, who at the age of twenty received an appointment in a 
school of medicine, and with untiring zeal in the prosecution of 
his studies reared for himself a monument offame, based on the 
gratitude of every enlightened mind, and whose name will be 
cherished by the wise and good to the latest period of the world. 
The dangers he encountered, the difficulties he overcame, 
the perplexities he suffered in opposing and counteracting 
the prejudices of the people, equalled in medicine, the 
mighty operations of a Cassar, or a Bonaparte in war. Yet 
notwithstanding his energy of character, and all his vigilance 
and caution, he became the unhappy victim of the neyer sleep- 
ing animosity of the inquisition. Being condemned to die at 
the stake, it was only through his high claims at court that his 
sentence was commuted by king Philip to a pilgrimage to the 
Holy Land ; in returning from which he perished with famine 
after a shipwreck on a small island in the Archipelago. 
Michael Servetus,an indefatigable student of nature,who dem- 
onstrated the wonderful circulation of the blood through the 
heart and lungs,proving, as did also his contemporary Colum- 
bus,that from the construction of the valves of the heart it could 
not assume a retrograde motion, but must constantly be propell- 
ed forward, and had not his infatuation with religious reforma- 
tion made him the peculiar object of persecution and a martyr 
to his opinions,—he would, in all probability, have discovered 
the entire circulation of blood through the body. 13 
The quick and powerful impulse given at this period to eve- 
ry branch of liberal learning, by the flood of light which was 
poured upon the world, by the most valuable of all arts, the art 
of printing; and the zeal and energy which had been infus- 
ed by the cultivators of science into their successors, formed 
a new era in the improvement of medicine. Interrogating 
nature,the bountiful parent of all science,instead of adhering 
scrupulously to the ancient authors, who had been as oracles 
among them, new fountains were opened, from which the 
waters of life flowed freely, in more copious and less adul- 
terated streams. And notwithstanding the wild enthusiasm 
which led the chemical philosophers to search in the labora- 
tory of nature .for the philosopher’s stone, and the elixir of 
life, was obviously inconsistent with common sense, yet in 
pursuit of the phantoms of their imaginations,they were led 
to the discovery of unknown qualities and modifications in 
her elements which enhanced the stores of knowledge, and 
added to the comfort of man. 
Many improvements were made in this science in the pro- 
gress of time by the cultivators of its various departments in 
different countries. While a Sydenham, a Cullen and a Boer- 
haave were enlarging the bounds of chemistry,materia medica 
and the practice of physic,a Fallopius,a Harvey, a Haller,and 
a host of others were making discoveries in surgery and the 
structure and functions of the human body. But the cre- 
dulity of man and his w onderful propensity to fall into the 
opinions of the wise and learned who have preceded him, 
or who are his contemporaries,—which at every period of the 
wrorld has been a great obstacle to improvement and the ex- 
tension of science, seems to have been a peculiar inheritance 
of our profession. Age after age the opinions of one man 
have stood, though uninvestigated, as the beacon or land 
mark for thousands who have attempted to explore or culti- 
vate the same field in which he had been their predecessor; 
and who, had they attempted it, were, perhaps, more compe- 
tent to lay down principles and investigate nature with more 
accuracy and effect,than those in whose aphorisms they im- 
plicitly confided. To the shame and disgrace of medicine, 
nothing is more true than that exalted authorities have been 
the support of some of the most blind, baseless, and fanciful 
theories, which possibly could have been conceived by the 
human intellect. 14 
From the days of Hippocrates to those of Hanneman 
*>f Germany, and Broussais of France, theory after theory 
has been propagated, and each for a time has been alike 
the glory and contempt of the world. And in the period of 
their duration, rarely indeed have they had an opponent. 
Pressed on by the popular current, men believed be- 
cause others were of the same opinion, without thought or 
investigation. And those who dared to oppose the prevalent 
doctrines, were not only few and widely separate,but if un- 
able to demolish the fair fabric, and erect on its ruins one 
more plausible and more fascinating to the profession, shared 
with their productions degradation and oblivion. But the 
melancholy fact of their rapid succession and decline 
has recently excited the profession to the study of nature 
and common sense, rather than to depend upon doctrines 
and hypotheses, drawn too often from a partial and insuffi- 
cient experience. Often has the ambitious aspirant pursu- 
ed with eagerness the phantoms of his imagination, hoping 
without grounds to establish a name and a reputation,— 
and at no time consulting the interests of humanity, or the 
dignity or elevation of his profession. Substituting the shad- 
ow for the substance,with plausible eloquence and ingenious 
subtlety, he has captivated the mind of the student, and 
instead of enlightening his understanding and leading him 
to truth, has darkened the obscurity of the subject and aug 
mented his difficulties. But since the commencement of the 
study of the science by interrogating the silent dead, 
more has been done for the advancement of the healing art 
and the relief of the human family, than had been achieved 
by all the theories which ever delighted or misled the world. 
Since then we are to look to anatomical investigations for 
the extension and advancement of our science, to remove 
every obstacle opposing such examinations,should be the as- 
siduous study of every individual who would offer relief to 
the anguish of the sick, or who desires the expansion of 
human knowledge. 
When we look back on the past ages and view the black 
cloud of ignorance and superstition which obscured the vis- 
ion of the human intellect, and enthralled the minds of men, 
we are not astonished that the grave, in which the treasure of 
medicine was buried, should have been guarded with un- 
erasing vigilance; or that students of anatomy were viewed 15 
as sacrilegious monsters, rather|than the benefactors of the 
human race. But we are not only astonished but chagrined 
when we are compelled to acknowledge that in this enlight- 
ened day, and in this happy country, said to be the home of 
freedom and the nurse of the arts, that while we ex- 
alt to the highest station among us, individuals who have 
sacrificed thousands of their fellow beings at the shrine of 
ambition, the anatomist, who is the acknowledged bene- 
factor of man, is the scorn and scoff of society; and that 
too in a country where we are taught by the bible the cor- 
ruptibility of the body, the immortality of the soul, and the 
omnipotence of the Creator. Do not think that in our zeal for 
the cultivation of anatomy, the sancity of the private bury- 
ing grounds will be disturbed or the feelings of surviving 
friends or relatives disregarded. For it is the desire of 
every man in the profession, and of every teaeher of anat- 
omy, who is not devoid of moral sensibility, that the offen- 
der against these sacred rights of the people, should meet 
the punishment due so unhallowed a transgression. 
Without a knowledge of the structure of the human 
fabric, the practice of physic would be but a torture and dis- 
grace to man. But such knowledge can be amply obtained 
from the body of the vagrant and the malefactor, who are 
not only destitute of relations and friends while living, but 
having neither served their God, their country, nor them- 
selves, should be made, after death, subservient to the pro- 
fession. 
Although we have attributed much to the superstition 
and ignorance of mankind in opposing the progress of me- 
dicine,yet more is attributable to the jealousy and invidious 
strife that have toolong been the opprobrium of our profes- 
sion in every age and country. This morbid conception of 
the real interests of medicine and of each other, has not only 
brought down, undeservedly, the contumely of mankind od 
the science,but has ever been a prejudice to individual merit 
and distinction; and though the opinion so generally en- 
tertained that talent and worth rarely go unrewarded, be 
plausible, yet such has been the degree of this most despi- 
cable of all human passions, that unless the individual be 
possessed of abilities so obvious as at once to silence his op- 
posers, he is neither allowed to benefit himself nor mankind 
by becoming conspicuous in his profession. Even the im- 16 
mortal Harvey did not escape the ravages of this gnawing 
worm which has ever fed on the most promising buds of 
medical genius. Notwithstanding the irresistable proofs 
and the numerous experiments be exhibited on animals, 
showing iiicontestibly the truth of his positions, that the 
blood circulated through the body by mcifns of the heart 
and its appendages, yet such was the prejudice excited 
against him by the jealously of his brethren, that he lost 
among his contemporaries his reputation and his practice.— 
Even now, while I speak, the young aspirant, who honestly 
set ks the glory and honor of his calling, is wantonly made 
the subject of raillery and abuse, too low and ignoble to 
have been conceived by a generous mind, and too debasing 
to have tome from any but a corrupt and polluted fountain. 
While we would promote every laudable exeition in 
medical improvement, and encourage freedom of thought 
and freedom of enquiry, we would not be considered 
the advocate, but the ardent opposer of the wild enthusiasm 
of the ignorant and daring empyrics who pretend to cure all 
diseases with a particular nostrum,—and teach, in less time 
than the title pages of half the hooks in medicine could be 
read, a profession, every branch of which, requires a life of 
devoted study. Devoid of principle, such characters have, 
for the most part, set out rather for the accumulation of 
fortunes than the preservation ol'hves,expecting only to re- 
ceive their reward in proportion to the prejudice they ex- 
cite in the minds of the people against a science, whose 
ample fields their indolence would not allow them to explore 
or cultivate. Of thos.e characters who have been distin- 
guished for their folly, ignorance and stupidity, or for their 
fraudulence and deception, Rome has had her Thessalus, 
England her Solomon,—and it has pleased the Almighty to 
visit America with her Thompson. 
Having thus imperfectly sketched a few of the many 
causes obstructing flow of the .healing stream of science, 
the more important tasV. of directing the minds of my breth- 
ren to that which will bre&k down the existing obstructions, 
that its future flow may be more rapid, deep and broad, re- 
mains to be performed. And chough our remarks on this 
subject must necessarily be few, it would be an ample field 
for an hour’s lecture. 
Few individuals engage in a profession, who, if they 17 
do not direct their ambition to the most lofty station to be ob- 
tained, seek some situation which will not only confer 
ample emolument, but dignity and honor. Yet too often is 
the zealous aspirant after he has gone through a long life 
of labor and difficulty, the subject, in old age, of gloom 
and despondency, brought upon him by a retrospect of 
mispent time, and ill directed ambition. The most low- 
ering genius, though his efforts be made with Herculean 
strength, is often left to regret, when it is too late to make 
amends, that the object which he so ardently sought has 
been obtained by minds of an inferior rank and less able to 
make a vigorous exertion, because their search was directed 
in a different channel. He then, who cultivates his profes- 
sion with the hope of distinction, must zealously guard 
against the causes that have so often blighted the prospects 
of his predecessors, and have his eye ever fixed on the bea- 
con which would guard him against the rock that has wreck- 
ed the hopes of thousands not less sanguine of success, and 
whose prospects of distinction were equally flattering. 
To attain distinction in the science of medicine, a liberal 
and well grounded education is to the student of the utmost 
importance. Without it at every step he meets a labyrinth 
he cannot unravel,and difficulties which bis abilities,howev- 
er great, cannot surmount. Unfortunately for the improve- 
ment of medicine, this, either from poverty or other causes, 
has too often been the case,Sf deep and devastating have been 
its operations. But whatever be the attainments of the student 
in the commencement of his studies,a devoted and assiduous 
attention should be given to the elementary branches of the 
profession. The anatomy and physiology of the human 
system, together with chemistry, materia mcdiea and 
botany, are the materials most valuable to the medical arch- 
itect, because the great foundation of the profession ; and 
in proportion as attention is given to the breadth and solidi- 
ty of the basis, will be the height,permanency and beauty of 
the building.. 
Gentlemen,—these studies cannot be too strenuously ur- 
ged upon you. They are essential to your success in the 
improvement and elevation of yourselves and your profession, 
and as indispensable as is nutriment to the human frame,, 
or vitality to the performance of its wonderful operations. 
But with mortification we are compelled to acknowledge that 18 
thousands in our country are shamefully ignorant of these 
fundamental branches, and yet have the presumption to 
rank themselves among the honored members of the profes- 
sion. 
The man whose only ambition is to amass wealth by 
practising a fraud on mankind, should meet his deserved 
punishment at the hands of the people,and never be reward- 
ed with the titles or honors of medicine. To secure success 
in science we should ever cherish an enthusiastic ambition ; 
and while we would spurn in the dust the envious maledic- 
tions of the indolent and ignorant of our brethren, we should 
direct our minds to the loftiest point, that can be 
obtained by the utmost exertion of human intellect, 
The difficulties to be overcome are great,but they can be and 
have been surmounted. The prejudices so long and ve- 
hemently entertained against the dissection of human bodies, 
although not dispelled by the diffusion of light and learning, 
are by degrees yielding their grasp ; and indolence and a 
want of energy are now the great obstacles to the attainment 
of all that could be sought or desired on the subject. 
To-night, gentlemen, we have assembled to commence 
not only a course of study,which I earnestly hope will even- 
tuate in an accurate knowledge of what is already known on 
our subject, but to aid in the elevation of medicine, and 
add to the comforts of man. In the commencement 
of this arduous work let us resolve to prosecute our 
studies with untiring zeal; and as of old did Jacob wres- 
tle with his Maker for a blessing, let us never cease to 
interrogate nature and the dead, until we shall have ob- 
tained health and happiness for ourselves and our fellow 
beings. 
Do not expect to be fascinated with the language which is 
to convey to you this knowledge. If these be your antici- 
pations, they will not be realized; but while a jargon of 
terms salute your ears, if you will but look with an eye of at- 
tention on the structure of the human system as displayed 
before you, your heart will be filled, not with the eloquence 
of man, but with the admiration of the mightiest effort of 
the Maker of the universe. 
While on this pilgrimage let the works of our predeces- 
sors, who labored under more disadvantages than ourselves, 19 
b« a stimulus to exertion, and though our efforts may 
not be prolonged to even a middle age, we may yet win 
by our diligence, unfading laurels. Let us ever keep in 
view the character of a Yessalius, a Bichat and a Godman, 
each of whom, ere they had lived half the allotted time of 
man, reared a fame as bright and as unfading as the constel- 
lations of Heaven. Who would not aspire to the fame of a 
Hippocrates, a Celsus and a Galen? those venerable names 
of antiquity, whose honors have withstood the corroding ef- 
fects of time, and will be transmitted to the latest generations 
of the world,floating on the wreck of nations and of empires. 
Making the elevation of these distinguished characters 
the high and laudable object of our attainments, and ar- 
dently pressing forward with unity and zeal, in the prose- 
eution of our studies,we will rear in honor of medicine and 
ourselves, a mental pyramid whose base will be as broad as 
the earth, and whose top as lofty as the skies.