IN T R 0 D U C T 01! Y L E C T U R E 
TO THE SPRING 
SESSION OF LECTURES 
IN 
CASTLETON MEDICAL COLLECE. 
By SAMUEL PAH KM AN, M. D. 
Prof, of Anatomy. Member Boston Soc. for Med. Improvement. <$-r. 
ri/BLISHED BY THE CLA-S-SL. 
WHITEHALL. N. Y. X 
PRINTED RY SOCTHMAYD A- WATKINS. 
IS 15. INTRODUCTORY LECTURE 
TO THE SPRING 
SESSION OF LECTURES 
IN 
CASTLETON MEDICAL COLLEGE. 
By SAMUEL PAMMAN, M. D. 
Prof °f Anatomy. Member Boston Soc.for Med. Improvement. Spc. 
PUBLISHED BY THE CLASS 
WHITEHALL, N. Y. 
PRINTS.D BY 80UTHMAYD & WATKINS. 
1845. Castleton, March Sth, 1845. 
Prof. S. Parkman, 
Dear Sir,—At a meeting of the Students of Castleton Medical 
College, March 7th, 1845, Charles Brackett being Chairman, and A. B. 
Carpenter, Secretary, the undersigned were appointed a Committee to 
request a copy of your late Introductory Lecture for publication. 
Therefore, in accordance with our instructions, we submit the above 
request. 
Very respectfully, Yours. &c. 
L. DICKERMAN, Vermont. 
GEORGE H. LEACH, N. Y. 
• M. L. HARTER, Ohio. 
JOHN HUNT, Mich. 
A. T. BRUNDAGE, Pa. 
THOMAS LONG, N. C. 
CHARLES ANGELL, Ind. 
L. D. COWDIN, Miss. 
A. H. ATWOOD, N. H. 
CHARLES CUMMINGS, Mass. 
T. L. ANDREWS, Conn. 
ALVAN S. PAYNE, Va. 
Castleton, March 8lh, 1845. 
Gentlemen: 
I take pleasure in complying with the complimentary request of 
the Class for a copy of my Introductory Lecture for publication. 
Please transmit to the Class, and accept for yourselves the assurance 
of my consideration and esteem. 
I am, very truly, Yours, &c. 
SAMUEL PARKMAN. 
To Messrs. Dickerman, Leach, 
AIIarter, and others, 
fgLj Committee. LECTURE. 
Gentlemen of the Medical Class: 
But a few short months have elapsed and the Faculty of this Col- 
iege again find themselves at their posts prepared to meet those who 
■have come up to them for instruction. It is my duty’-, and in its perform- 
ance I assure you I find a pleasure, to meet you this day, for the first 
time, to extend to you, in behalf of my colleagues, the hand of fellow- 
ship and guidance, and to conduct you within the gates, where I trust 
those bonds which should always unite the Instructor and the Instructed, 
may be woven and strengthened. To many of you, undoubtedly, this is 
the commencement of the so called Course of Medical Instruction.—. 
With beating hearts and anxious aspirations you have entered for the 
race, and far be it from me to dampen the ardor which is at once the 
characteristic and the beauty of the youthful character. It is to be re- 
membered, however, that the race is long, and the ground rough, and 
that only the untiring and persevering can hope for the plate. 
In addressing you at this time, I propose, in the first place, to make to 
you a few remarks upon the views to influence you in your choice of 
the profession, as also, upon the preparatory education which, in my 
opinion is necessary to the commencing student. I am led naturally to 
these remarks at tins time, since, from a somewhat prolonged acquain- 
tance with medical pupils, I have observed that but few have a suffi- 
ciently clear and correct idea of what they are undertaking. They are 
launching their barks upon unknown seas, and rare, very rare is it, that 
the discovery of a new world, a Golconda or an Ind, is the reward of 
their rash undertaking. The usefulness of many a young man to society 
is destroyed by the hasty and rash choice of a profession like that of med- 
icine. He discovers too late his mistake, and too many circumstances 
conspire to prevent the rectification of his error. It is one of the beset- 
ting faults of our young men, especially in the Northern States, that 
they are inclined to leave the common and, as it were, the every day oc- 
cupations of life, to range themselves in the ranks of professions already 
over-crowded, where rewards, and those often scanty, are given only to 
the most distinguished, whilst those of moderate attainments are soon 4 
over-swept in the rushing tide of the stream of society. This mistake, 
although fatal, arises from noble and commendatory motives; their 
minds aspire to something higher than the common routine of vulgar, 
uneducated life ; their intellectual faculties demand a higher culture, that 
the whole food should not be so selfishly appropriated by their corporeal 
brethren. This acquirement is commendatory, I repeat; it shows the 
mind awakened to a just sense of what is the higher portion of our na- 
ture—that higher portion of our nature, which, when freed from the 
dross of corporeal infirmities, will liken us and place us on a par with 
those Beings of another world, whose bodies are shades, but whose minds 
comprehend the Universe. This desire for instruction and elevation of 
character is laudable, but the mistake arises from the supposition that it 
is only in the ranks of the professions that students are found. A man 
may earn his livelihood in any manner whatever, and at the same time 
take his enjoyment in the study of a Science. A professional life is by 
no means always attended with the unmixed pleasures arising from the 
acquisition of knowledge. In all of the professions, that part of them 
by which the bread is earned, is, alas ! but little above the drudgery of 
the house carpenter, or even of the day-laborer. 
With a little of that self-laudation which is said to be the characteris- 
tic of the American character, we are accustomed to talk somewhat 
boastfully of our widely diffused education. Perhaps an invidious critio 
might, in acknowledging its diffusion, doubt whether, in its extension, it 
had not become in a degree attenuated, so that very little could be found 
concentrated in such sufficient quantity, in any one individual, as to ren- 
der him capable of elevating himself above the common herd. The 
wise man has said “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” and 1 very 
much fear that the imperfect education received by a vast number of our 
young men, only serves to goad them to attempt the leap without giving 
them sufficient strength to carry them over the ditch that lies on the other 
side of the hedge. Abilities which would have made them highly valued 
and useful members of society in some of its humbler, but not less re- 
spectable walks, are sacrificed to a mistaken notion. They observe the 
distinction paid to the dignitaries of the professions, and they imagine, in 
their zeal, that this is the prize attained by all who enter the lists, or at 
least, that they are to be the successful competitors. 
Such are some of the causes impelling the young man to the study of 
the professions. Very few, I am aware, enter them regarding them as a 
means, whence they are to draw their daily bread in future; they are, it 
is true, inspired with the more holy desire of acquiring knowledge, of 5 
cultivating their minds, and in the ardor of youth they forget they have 
stomachs and a nutritive apparatus to supply. I would not dampen a 
single one of these aspirations, I would not deprive the wing of genius 
of a single plume by questions of expediency and of sordid calculation. 
Let them advance in the paths of knowledge—let them each day walk in 
the fields of science and of literature, but I do feel that lam but speaking 
the truth, when I say that when a profession does not give bread to its fol- 
lowers, the science which belongs to it will fail to be prosecuted with ar- 
dor, and the man who has adopted it will be lost to society. The army 
of mankind has lost a soldier, crippled in his prime. 
Our profession is perhaps, more than others subject to this over-crowd- 
ing. Divinity offers too few rewards to tempt the hypocrite, and the 
really pure-minded are too few not always to find a field, where their 
labors may be useful. The Law brings its followers more immediately 
in contact with other men—opens to them other avenues to distinction 
than the mere routine of business, and the highest gift of the people are 
often the rewards of the successful. The qualifications of the Lawyer, 
being more easily appreciated by his client, an ordinary individual seldom 
gains an advantage over his superior, and the profession offering few 
inducements in itself, is seldom commenced except by those who feel 
within themselves the strength for the undertaking. Medicine on the 
other hand is a science offering in itself many charms to the student. It 
attracts all the class of whom I have spoken, who enter upon a profession 
inspired with the love of its science, without regarding it as a means of a 
livelihood ; a class of young men not found in the legal profession, and 
who while they, perhaps, gain not the distinction, which is their desert, 
form the brightest ornament of ours; young men, full of zeal and talent 
—inspired with the holy love of knowledge for her own sake, and who 
give to the practitioner of medicine the higher character of a physician 
and a scientific man ; men not seen in the busy throngs of society, and 
who receive few of its rewards, passed by the hurrying throng, who 
sneeringly ask the amount of their moneyed receipts and judge them ac- 
cordingly, their minds are occupied only in the study and accumulation 
of new facts, encouraged only with the hope that perhaps in another 
■vvorli}, in the language of one of the brightest luminaries which the An- 
glo-Saxon race has given to our profession, they may be permitted to rest 
quiet, and contemplate and understand the causes of the phenomena 
they have witnessed here. It attracts also, 1 am afraid not a few of in- 
ferior qualifications who feel their deficiencies for professions which bring 
them more closely in contact with society, and in which their mistakes might be more easily detected. This class I trust is small, but sure 1 am 
that a large number of young men enter our professions without under* 
standing its nature, from the fact that it is not easily discovered by the or- 
dinary observation of the student. He observes the distinction paid to 
the favorite practitioner of the neighborhood ; he becomes enamored 
with the idea of entering the penetralia of knowledge, where only tho 
initiated tread, and does not weigh sufficiently the hardships, the priva- 
tions and the sufferings which have been the lot of many who have suc- 
ceeded, and of all who have failed. Such are some of the causes which 
tend to over-crowd our ranks, while at the same time, from the small pri- 
zes that are offered, perhaps not the most brilliant are attracted to con- 
tend for them. 
I pass now to make a few remarks upon the preparatory education 
which I deem necessary to the young man who is about to enter upon a 
study so vast and comprehensive as that of medicine. Necessary to his 
success, I say, and when I say success, I mean not merely the immediate 
establishment of a large and profitable practice. The nature of our profes- 
sion is such, that a scientific education is, unfortunately, not always the 
certain road to the immediate advancement of its possessor to the family 
confidence of the society into which he is thrown ; the well educated aro 
often compelled to sec preferred to themselves those of their competitors 
whom they know to be their inferiors. They are often, it is true, com- 
pelled to this mortification, but they may safely be assured it is only for 
a time. In the long and arduous stmgglc for distinction, the man well- 
grounded and firm in his knowledge must always triumph over the one, 
who owtcs his temporary success to fortuitous circumstances, a fortunate 
manner, or the case with which he adapts himself to the whims and 
prejudices of his employer. The advantages of manner are no doubt of 
great account; the mind of the patient is impaired always in a greater 
or less degree, by the disease, under which his body labors, and he re- 
quires the soothing attention of a friend as well as the advice of the sci- 
entific practitioner, and the latter will seldom have its full weight unless 
supported by the former. But the patient, or at least his friends are sel- 
dom slow to discover that kind attentions and winning ways are alone 
little able to contend with the enemy Disease, and they are soon led to 
prefer the utile to the dulce. 
For the young man commencing a study so vast in its range as that 
of Medicine, I regard the possession of a good collegiate education as of 
considerable importance, though by no means indispensible. The influ- 
ence of the Classics—of the Humanities, as they are termed in the quaint language of the Scottish Universities, ean be more easily felt than da* 
scribed. They surround the individual with asoftening influence which 
is felt spread over his whole intellectual character; habits of study and 
application are acquired, and they form, as it were, the foundation of the 
building, in which it is difficult to say to what particular stone its safety is 
entrusted, but from which none could be subtracted without danger. As 
local prejudices are removed by foreign travel, as the man who has seen 
many lands, with the eye of proper instruction, is not narrowed in his 
views, nor tied to regard the peculiarities of any section as necessary to 
the existence of society, and the observance of its laws; so the study of 
the classics viewing mankind in other times—the travel and observation 
of the intellect—contributes to the strength and enlargement of its Facul- 
ties, enables it to weigh false pretensions, to discover the weakness of sup- 
posed infallibility, not to yield itself to the dictation of others, but ob- 
serving from his history how prone is the mind of man, deceiving itself, to 
attempt the deception of others; to weigh every new statement advanced 
as fact in the balance of experience, and to seek it if it be founded in the 
immutable nature of things. In the hurry of our active lives, few have 
leisure to cultivate the ground thus planted in our youth, the fruit often 
dies half ripened on the land, but its growth and its decay have not been 
without influence upon the soil, and the vegetation which, in after years, 
is brought to maturity, owes much of its vigor and force to this primary 
growth which, although it has disappeared, has given its elements to 
fertilize and strengthen the soil. The utilitarian may appear to triumph 
in the cui bono argument, and may pretend to believe that the time is 
wasted which is not employed in aerjuisitions directly bearing upon 
the practical employments of life, but no one who has once acquired the 
knowledge looks upon it in this light; and although in after years all 
memory may have passed from him, still its influence is felt. 
“You may break, you may ruin the vase if you will, 
But the scent of the roses will cling round it still.” 
The beneficial influence of the study of the classics, I have regarded 
merely as giving strength and tone to the intellectual character, and fit- 
ting it to grapple with those difficult problems which constitute Medical 
Science—the knowledge of them I have said is by no means indispen- 
sable. 
The Science of Medicine, however, connecting itself so intimately with 
all the other Sciences, and the time allowed for mere medical education 
being so short, I consider it absolutely necessary that the student, before 
•ommeneing, should have obtained some knowledge of these different 8 
branches, if he proposes to elevate himself above the mere prescriber of 
powders and pills, and to raise himself to the dignity of a philosophic 
practitioner of our art. More than any other man it behooves the philo- 
sophic physician to cultivate his intelligence, to extend his judgment by 
comparisons and to strengthen himself with an abundant array of facts 
in order to penetrate into the causes of disease. Mathematics and Ge- 
ometry fortify his reasoning powers, and a knowledge of the laws of 
Physics serve to explain to him the various problems of hydraulics, me- 
chanics, &c. presented by our organization. In fact the whole circle of 
the Sciences, it is not too much to say, may be laid under contribution by 
the physician who proposes to fulfil the station which the importance of 
his science to mankind allots to him. And it is by the knowledge of 
these sciences which appear as collateral to medicine, that he is often en- 
abled to gain that position in society which insures his future success. 
The physician is constantly appealed to upon all the questions which in- 
terest mankind in their collection into society, the influence of external 
agents, and of all causes which act upon men gathered in masses. 
The solving of problems of this nature requires an amount of general in- 
formation much beyond what can be given in the short course of a strict- 
ly speaking medical education. 
The mere medical skill and attainments of a practitioner cannot pos- 
sibly be estimated by those around him, whose patronage he is desirous 
to receive; they must necessarily judge him, in a great measure, by his 
apparent acquaintance with those branches of science with which they 
themselves arc in a degree familiar; and when they find him ignorant 
upon these common subjects, and showing a want of knowledge upon 
these, as it were, practical sciences, they naturally draw inferences as re- 
gards the amount of his medical education. By the amount of his gen- 
eral information, the physician gains that position and influence in so- 
ciety, that his directions are received with confidence, his commands 
obeyed with exactness, and he exerts an influence over the minds of his 
patients which materially assists the action of his remedies. 
Apart then from the aid furnished in the study of medicine by a previous 
good universal information upon science in general, we observe its influ- 
ence upon the whole intellectual character; as the training exercise of 
the athlete renders his step more firm and his bearing more easy and con- 
fident even in the motions where his strength is not suspected, so this 
exercise of the mind, this invigoration of its powers, this training of its 
faculties, is seen even in its simplest operations, not only enabling it to 
grapple with more power and chance of victory with the abstruscr pro- blems, but to discover hidden meanings and new revelations in the sim- 
plest phenomena daily presented to the observation. 
The most successful and most fortunate, dependent only on their own 
strength, and unaided by hereditary patronage, are compelled to wait a 
long time before their hands may find wherewithal to employ themselves. 
During these hours of patient waiting, with no resources of its own, no 
field in which it may exercise its powers, no subject at which, like tho 
ancient knight in time of peace, it may throw its blunted javelins, or tilt 
its lance of argument in anticipation of the more serious conflict which 
is to follow, the mind rusts and becomes emasculated, no longer rouses 
itself at the prospect of new knowledge, hears with inattentive and list- 
less car the trumpet that challenges it to the ennobling contest, and when 
the opportunity is offered for success and distinction, it is lost, for the de- 
sire has failed. The hours of calm, when' we lie motionless, waiting 
for the breeze to fill the sail of our lazy barque, are not to be spent in in- 
action, or, when the wind does arise, the masts and the cordage may bo 
found to be rotten and fail us at our need, and we be left a helpless hulk 
on the waste of waters. It is then only by having his mind open to the 
reception of knowledge from all quarters, by maintaining an interest in 
science of every kind, whether it immediately relate to his profession or 
not, that the young medical man may pass the hours of anxious expec- 
tation, without losing the strength that he has already acquired ; and to 
enable him to take pleasure in these pursuits, he must have received a 
previous education in their elementary branches, he must already have 
attained to sufficient advancement to love knowledge and acquirement 
for their own sake, or any exercise of his mind will be but drudgery and 
toil, the travel over a road merely to pass the ground and not to enjoy tho 
scenery which it presents, or to cull the flowers which grow by its side. 
The Medical man must possess knowledge, and even some considera- 
ble degree in other matters than mere medicine, not only for the advance- 
ment of himself into business, by being enabled to present himself, as it 
were, in a tangible shape to his fellows, but also to preserve the original 
powers of his own mind. In European countries, where society is fully 
formed, and its distinctions well marked, and each scientific laborer has 
his allotted portion of the field to cultivate, and the appropriate reward 
offered, minute subdivisions may very well exist. A man may confine 
himself very well to medicine alone, or even the most insignificant of it» 
branches, and he shall find that he will arrive at the degree of distinc- 
tion which this merits. But with us this is quite different, and for a long 
time must be so ; and neither is it desirable that the change should be 10 
made. It is true, by this minute subdivision of labor, this confinement 
of the intellectual powers of the individual to a particular subject, that 
that particular subject arrives at its greatest degree of perfection, but the 
individual is lost.- The pin has required the united exertions of five arti- 
zans for its completion, and truly it is perfect; but the intellects of these 
five have been stultified to obtain the end. Varied accomplishments 
and extensive erudition are the ornaments of the medical man. enable him 
to shine in conversation and mix in society on a level with its most dis- 
tinguished members, and cause him to be sought not merely to minis- 
ter to disease, as a companion for the real invalid or even the hypochon- 
driac, but to play his part with those willing to give no way to false pre- 
sumption or self-sufficient arrogance. A good previous education, then, 
is the ground work of the medical character as it ought to be, and by it 
its possessor is enabled to bring into view his medical knowledge which 
might otherwise be unsuspected. 
It will be seen then, that I consider the physician to have other duties 
to perform than the mere prescription of medicine for disease, another 
place to fill in society than the necessary accompaniment of the sick 
chamber, connected only in the minds of his patients with nurses, pills 
and powders, a darkened room and an aching head—-an individual whose 
presence must be endured, but from whose society all shrink until actu- 
ally compelled to cry to him for aid, doubting always, perhaps, whether 
he has it to bestow. No educated man would be content for a moment to 
occupy a position so degrading. And yet this mustbethe position of the 
medical man, unless by his general education, his acquirement in the dif- 
ferent branches of science, he is enabled to show that his mind has been 
enlarged and strengthened by an acquaintance with what should form part 
of the education of every gentleman. He must shew that he is not the 
man of a single idea, the horse who has travelled his never-ending round 
blindfold in the treadmill of the ferry boat. When he mixes in society 
he must be able to give other information than whether Typhus is this 
year slaying its usual number of victims, and be proud of conversing 
with anxious mothers upon other topics than whether scarlet feyer, meas- 
les and whooping cough are rife among little children just beginning to 
go alone. He should feel it an insult to be thus attacked wherever he 
makes his appearance, to have his trade thus every day thrown in his 
teeth; and yet to how many is this constantly done? And why is it but 
because medical men do not fit themselves to mingle in society upon a 
par with those whose attainments entitle them to bo its leaders. The 
cobbler is nothing beyond his last, the Doctor is apt to be nothing beyond 
his medicine chest, 11 
I would wish to occupy the moments still remaining to me, in making 
a few remarks upon your own position as medical students, as young 
men commencing a study which has always received the reverence of 
mankind, and whose early professors were ranked by their grateful 
fellow mortals among the gods. The past thirty years have in- 
troduced into medical science and medical instruction improvements 
greater perhaps than any brought forward by any century of years what- 
soever. I am not disposed, by any manner of means, to underrate the 
services of those mighty minds who have gone before us, of those minds 
which, appearing from time to time, at long intervals, as if Nature were 
compelled to pause after their birth to gather strength for a fresh effort, 
have seemed endowed as if by inspiration to grasp at views, and to dis- 
cover and solve problems which humbler men pretend not to compre- 
hend. The Science of Medicine has been adorned by many such men 
in all ages, and we are now reaping the fruits of their labors, often, it is 
true, without giving them the credit for not only planting but rearing to 
maturity the seed. But within the past thirty years, of which I speak, 
our science has become more systematized, it has advanced more to the 
dignity of a real science, it has become more a science of observation 
and less of hypothesis. Single individuals do not appear to tower by 
their brilliancy above all their contemporaries, the patient, accurate ob- 
server is no.v the true laborer and the only one to receive the reward; he 
has perhaps less opportunity to shine, but more of being useful. As 
shown in a recent American work* on the Philosophy of Medical Sci- 
ence, and which, let me say, would do honor to the medical literature of 
any country as developing the true principles which are to guide us in 
our studies, the influence of the philosophy of Bacon is beginning to be 
felt even among medical observers. It is no longer pcrmissable to concoct 
theories in the quiet of the study and then to go abroad into the world to 
attempt to fit the facts that we find to the Procrustean bed we have made. 
We are beginning to be distrustful of this and that Professor’s theory of 
disease, we are beginning to demand facts, and again facts, and always 
facts, as the only things desirable or useful in the seaich after truth, 
And the means of accurate observation have been multiplied equally 
during this period, with the ad vance of which I speak. During this time 
Auscultation and Percussion have raised themselves into sciences, they 
have changed the ear and the finger into organs of vision, and have placed 
diseases of the chest in the same category as those of Surgery; so that 
*“ The Philosophy of Medical Science,â€~ by Elisha Bartlett, M, D 
Professor of Theory and Practice, University of Maryland. 12 
the progress of an external inflamation through its various stages of in- 
duration, suppuration, &c. cannot be more certainly watched by the eye, 
than the same process can be measured in the cavity of the chest by the 
ear and the finger of ihe Auscultator and the Percussor. This, too, is no 
occult science, to be learnt only by by a tew, endowed with rare oppor- 
tunities ; founded upon a few physical laws the most simple and most eas- 
ily understood, so simple that its discoverer almost exhausted the science, 
and others have had nothing but to confirm and wonder at the accuracy 
of his observation, it is at the command of every individual, and no one 
is excusable who neglects it. 
In other branches, also, the science has made rapid advances during 
this time; the cultivation of Pathological Anatomy, which has for its ob- 
ject, if possible, to understand exactly the processes and changes taking 
place in the organs of the economy under disease, is more extensively 
recognized as one of the fundamental and necessary principles. The 
application of the microscope to elucidate processes too minute for unaid- 
ed vision, and which applied to inflammation has already rendered al- 
most certain what the inspired genius of Hunter foresaw, but which had 
been forgotten, because not confirmed by sure and accurate observation. 
Chemistry, too, has lent her assistence, and we employ it now in the ac- 
curate measurement of vital processes; we have arrived at a position, 
though far short of what we hope to attain when we can describe some 
of the most hidden of vital changes, and imitate even Nature herself in 
her labratory. But here let me pause to notice briefly the objections that 
have been made to the recent brilliant developments in Organic Chemis- 
try. Are there no vital laws exclaim its opponents 1 Can you imitate 
Nature so closely that she shall not know her own work? This is not 
pretended; we only have endeavored to look a little deeper into her op- 
erations, to show what she requires for their perfection and what are 
their results. We cannot make a single particle of bone in our cruci- 
bles, but we can show how it is done in those of Nature; we can show 
whence the material is derived; we can discover the source of the earthy 
salts; vve can show that Nature herself cannot work impossibilities, 
that she cannot create matter, that she can only remodel; and these, her 
processes, we desire to learn ; not to imitate her do we aspire, but only to 
bow in admiration before her handiwork. 
Medical Science, then, is becoming daily more a science of observation, 
fixing itself upon ascertained facts, the foundation is being laid, and the 
beginner is not compelled to remove the rubbish before commencing his 
own work. Not only has the Science of Medicine made these rapid strides through- 
out the whole world, but in our country the improvement has been im- 
mense and incalculable, during the period I have mentioned, in the 
means and facilities of imparting this knowledge. During the past twen- 
ty or even ten years, the whole system of private instruction has arisen in 
our cities. Previous to this time, the medical pupil was left pretty much 
to himself; he entered his name and was turned loose into the doctor’s of- 
fice in the company of a Cullen’s Practice and a broken down skeleton, to 
pick what he could from the fields, which were not always strewed with 
flowers. He struggled for himself, for his miscalled preceptor was most 
generally unable to lend him a helping hand. By this treatment, hardy 
spirits were often reared; occasionally men of talent immerged as they 
always will immerge from a sea of difficulties however deep, but the 
general standard was miserably low. Now, on the contrary, these mat- 
ters are very much changed; the education of medical pupils is more 
systematized, it is more in the hands of younger men, themselves better 
educated, whose business it is to educate, and who, familiar with the whole 
circle of medical science do not limit their instruction to the mere dicta- 
and experience of a single practitioner, give not for truth the crude 
opinions derived from the so-called experience of a narrow-minded, prej- 
udiced individual, who sees nothing beyond his own little sphere, but are 
able to offer for intellectual food the concentrated and concocted experi- 
ence of men in all parts of the world. Systematic books are now writ- 
ten expressly for the student upon all branches of the art. Books, which, 
far be it from me to lead you to suppose, are intended to prevent the heal- 
thy and invigorating exercise of the mind in the search after truth by its 
own exertions. They are intended not to supersede labor but to incite to 
it, not to supply the only food but to point out the best and shortest way 
in which it may be obtained. 
The standard of public medical education, I mean that given in Col- 
leges and Universities where degrees are conferred, has very much ad- 
vanced. The conferring of a degree is considered a more important oc- 
casion than formerly; the standard of qualification is higher, the demands 
are greater ; they arc even now sufficiently low, but there exists a grow- 
ing feeling that they must be advanced. And perhaps it may not be uto- 
pian to look forward and desire the time when the whole matter of de- 
grees shall be in more responsible hands—a central board uninfluenced by 
interest or local connections. The real and accomplished student would 
find it for his advantage, for, in proportion as the difficulties are increased 
competition would be diminished, and the successful would feel them- 14 
selves authorized to demand and would obtain a remuneration for the cap- 
ital both of time and money invested during the period of their pupilage. 
You have entered, then, gentlemen, upon this profession ; you have 
proposed to make of yourselves medical men, medical men not in the 
vulgar, narrow-minded, worldly sense of the term, but accomplished 
physicians, skilled not only in the mere routine practice of your art, but 
educated to a degree that shall place you in the ranks of scientific men, 
and elevate your calling into that which may aspire to the dignity of a 
science. It becomes you then to be fully impressed with the responsibil- 
ity of your position. You are no longer scholars—you have become 
students—you are now men beginning to grapple with the stern realities 
of life, and must stand or fall by the foothold that you now create for 
yourselves. Three years are allowed you, little time enough ; the more 
need that you improve every moment. A word upon the manner of 
availing yourselves of the advantages offered you here. You have come 
here to attend a course of medical lectures. These lectures are not in- 
tended to supply to you an entire course of medical instruction ; this 
would not be possible in the short space of four months; they arc 
intended to pass over the whole field of the science, to familiarize you 
with its paths, and to point to you the spots where you may advanta- 
geously expend your own labor. The attention to Lectures, then, is not 
merely a passive act on your parts; you are not here to have a certain 
amount of knowledge forced into you, even against your own wills ; 
you must lend your aid to the Lecturer, by not only giving him your 
closest attention, but by careful study during the hours of intermission 
on the subject of the Lecture. You will and must necessarily hear 
many things you will not immediately understand, it would be impossi- 
ble for any man to make himself perfectly clear to an audience of an 
hundred. The substance must be remembered by them and studied out 
afterwards. Of many of the lectures you will find it for your advantage 
to take notes, writing them out afterwards, these notes once written will 
be of little use ; the advantage has been received in recalling the Lecture 
to your mind, as also from the fact that your attention has been more 
closely applied during the hour of lecture, as without some such aid you 
will find it a little difficult to confine your minds several hours in succes- 
sion ; of others of the Lectures, purely demonstrative, notes are not so 
important, but you will experience great assistance by running over in 
your text-books the subject of the Lecture immediately after its comple- 
tion, thus fixing it in your minds. I need not say that you will always 
find the gentlemen occupying the chairs of the college not only ready iq 15 
offer you any necessary assistance, but pleased with the zeal on your 
part which prompts you to ask it. 
Gentlemen, I conclude as I began; I trust the months we are to 
spend together, collected as we are from all parts of this widely exten- 
ded territory, may be to us months of pleasure,—of pleasure from re- 
ceiving, and from imparting instruction well received and appreciated. 
At the conclusion of the term we shall part, many of us forever, but may 
we never have any but pleasant remembrances connected with the time 
we have spent in our respective relations the one with the other. Erratum.—On page 4, 7th line of 2d paragraph, for “ The wise man 
has said,” &c. read 11A wise man,” &c.