INTRODUCTORY'' LECTURE,
delivered at the
WINTER SESSION
PHILADELPHIA COLLEGE OF MEDICINE.
NOVEMBER, 1847.

   JESSE R. BURDEN, M. D.,
Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics.
PUBLISHEDVBY THE CLASS
L>
     PHILADELPHIA:
  JOHN H. GIHON, PRINTER,
FORTH EAST CORNER OF SIXTH AND CHE9NUT STREBTS.
1847. 
Philadelphia, November 16, 1847.
  Prof. JESSE R. BURDEN, M. D.
        Sir,
             At a meeting of the Students of the  Philadelphia College of Medicine,
held November 15th, the undersigned were. appointed a Committee to request for pub-
lication, the very able  and interesting Introductory Lecture delivered by you  at the
opening of your course for the present session.  We therefore respectfully request a
copy for said purpose, by complying with which you will confer a great favor on the class.
                   Very Respectfully,
                                 Your Obedient Servants,
                                               N. Richards Moselet, of Penn.,
                                               C. Dwight Preston, of Conn.,
                                               Thomas Kennedt, of Va.,
                                               L. G. Vinal, of Me.,
                                               W.  Z.  W. Chapman, of Mass.,
                                               E. J. Records, M. D., of Del.,
                                               E. Bextly Hall, of N. J.,
                                               E. de St. Romes, of La.,
                                               G. W.  Lomax, of S. C,
                                               J. C. Hatheway, of*N. B.,
                                               A. P. Grosvenor, of N. Y.
Philadelphia, Not. 17th, 1§4,7.
Gentlemen:
         In compliance with your request  I send a copy of the Introductory L^fcture^«
of the present Course.                                                    -..4^
  Say to the  gentlemen of the  Class that this mark of respect with which thay have
honored me, is duly and warmly appreciated.
               I have the honor to be your obedient servant,
                                                               J. R. Burden.
To Messrs. N. Richards Moselet, <§rc. 
INTRODUCTORY   LECTURE.
  After having been engaged the prescribed time with your preceptors, you
come here, to attend another department of instruction.  You assemble from
all parts of the country; you sit, side by side, strangers to each other. You
have left your homes and all their  endearments, to prepare yourselves for
the great struggle of life, for the business of men.
  More than thirty years ago, I entered the hall of science, to hear for the
first time,  an Introductory Medical Lecture, and I can realize your feelings by
my own.  Your presence recalls that hour with the freshness of yesterday—
its mingled hopes and fears—its deep sense  of crowded solitude.  The mind
has no chronology.   The mantle of years  falls from the shoulders—the
dream-scroll of life folds up, and that day is present with  all the vividness
of reality.   I can sympathize with the student because I was a student, be-
cause I am a student.
   Could we of 1819 have known each other on the introductory day; could
we have foreseen how many  of that class were  destined to rise to the high-
est honors of the profession;  could we have known that in the  crowd, un-
conscious  of their own powers, sat a  George  McClellan,  a Randolph, a
Mitchell,  a Wood, and men like them, what would have been our feelings?
And when I look on you, I feel the wish to withdraw the veil of futurity, to
see who,  and how many of the men assembled here, will wear the  noblest
badges of  our Order.  I hope that on the first day of November, 1877, you
may look  back and feel the same pride in the class of this year of the Phila-
delphia College of Medicine,  that I feel this  day  in the old class of the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania.  Yet, gentlemen, proud as I am of that class, and
much  as I cherish its honors, truth and candor constrain me to acknowledge
that the general  intellectual standard of the present is higher, much higher,
than it was  then.   It is only necessary to  look on the faces here, to read
the altitude  of mental and moral manifestation,  to see the  rapid advance of
mind and deportment of medical students, to make me feel and know that I am
addressing a body of gentlemen with whom it will be a pleasure to be con-
nected—all of whom will do credit to the craft,  and many I hope will cover
themselves  with glory in  the highest walks of the  profession.  Convened
from different sections, or from foreign lands, to engage in the same pursuit,
to form associations which will never be forgotten, you will learn, if you have
 not  already learned, that intercourse is only necessary to break down the artifi-
 cial  distinctions between man and man ; that in science, as it ought to be in all
the  walks of life, we use the designation of nations as the christian names of
one great  family; that in this land we have worn out prejudices, knowing Truth
by no national appellation, glorying in and cherishing it, whether grown on the
 basin of the Danube or the Rhine ; whether its blossoms are gathered in beau-
 tiful France, or bestowed by the mother of nations, civilization and arts," once
 our guardian, still our guide," taste-consecrated,  time-honored Italy.  In the
 temple of science we ask no  man's nativity, knowing that its columns, pro- 
4
portions and embellishments are the works of men of all creeds and climes
of the civilized world, whose joint labors have given wisdom, strength and
beauty to the noble fabric of mental architecture.
   But, gentlemen, you are told on the very threshold, that the standard of
medical education in  the United States is low ;  that the foul stain of igno-
rance is on its banner.  This  charge, thanks to the  liberality of science
abroad, comes not from other lands ; it is  indigenous;  it  springs from our
own American soil.   How shall we sift its truth ?  Shall  we rest upon the
evidence of those who depict in glowing colors and with oracular authority,
the trials they surmounted; the rigid examinations they  submitted to in pass-
ing through the green-box, that ancient locality of graduation—that medica 1
valley of the  shadow of death, when we know that the  venerable gentlemen
have slept over their fatigues ever since, unknowing and unmindful  of the
rapid progress of the profession ?  Shall we go to those who travel at a snail's
pace from Dan to Bersheba, and cry " all is barren ?"   Shall we appeal to
those who have made  up their minds that nothing present, or  to come can
equal the past; that the " have-beens'''' are the light of the world !  Shall we
call upon those whose hopes have conjured up a  beau  ideal  of perfection,
never to be realized until " the angel shall swear by Him who liveth forever
that time shall be no longer ?"
   To ascertain the truth it would be necessary to trace the history of medi-
cine.   This is interwoven with the world's history.   No  department can
stand alone ;  there is a mutual dependance in all.  Medicine is enlightened
or darkened,  stationary or progressive, as the general mind  is  cultivated  or
rude.  You cannot understand the history of any science  without an  ac-
quaintance with  the history of man, his position, literature,  arts, commerce,
arms, with all that constitutes the physiology of civilization.   To know the
state of science in a particular  country we  must inform  ourselves of  its ex-
isting institutions, with all the facts connected with it, with the state of each
branch of science and  arts.  What of this country—the growth of yesterday?
   In naval architecture we were compelled to construct  the model before we
could build the ship.   Commerce and victory have fixed our standard.
  In civil architecture, rude as were the first attempts, we have gone on un-
til Mount  Girard rivals the magnificence of the Acropolis, leaving the eye
in doubt, whether the  peripteral edifice has  emerged from the limpid surface
of a fairy lake, or been quarried from the mellow tints of an Athenian sunset.
  In statuary, the Greek Slave has shown " in form and face what mind can
make, when nature's  self would  fail."
  In agriculture, we have our daily bread—and enough to spare.
   In theology, until education had advanced, we had to  do without an edu-
cated clergy, and for years to come, the pulpit must be  filled by men pious
and useful, who know little of Hebrew, with or  without points; who  are
not critical in Greek  particles, and who, if they do not murder  the  king's
English, will  be forgiven for their ignorance  of the dead languages.  Although
without legal establishment, depending solely on voluntary contributions for
support, we are proud of the mental and religious standard of the American
clergy, and would not exchange it for that of the most favored nation.
  In the legal profession, our laws are based  on the English and Roman
codes.  We follow the direction, " omnia probate, bonum tenete," with the
legislation of  civilized Europe.   Our  criminal codes  are models for securi-
ty and philanthropy in the estimation of the most polished nations who copy
them.   With all this—with our Rawles, and Livingstons, and Kents, it must
be admitted that many, very many, enter that profession whose knowledge
of the dead languages is restricted to the names of the writs. Yet in no coun- 
4
try are the rights of persons and of things better protected.   The  standard
of all the professions is that most suitable and only suitable for the state of so-
ciety.   The law which controls it is, that  the  quantity and quality of  the
supply, is regulated by the demand.   There is no other law, no other check
—there can be no other.   To command the greatest  talent, there  must be
the demand.   There must be a population dense and prosperous, able to pay
for skill.   Wherever that ability exists the standard will be high.
   Who would expect  to  find in a sparcely populated frontier country the
classical and eloquent clergymen, the learned and profound counsellor, the
Physicks, Hosacks, Dewees' of our profession ?  We  might as well expect
to find in its solitary country store, bales of silk velvet, boxes of maraschino
di zara, or diamond necklaces.
   It would transcend our  limits to repeat the names of Americans of the me-
dical profession who are known  wherever the English language  is under-
stood, or to describe the improvements made by them. It is sufficient to »ay
that there is no surgical operation with which our surgeons are not scienti-
fically and practically  familiar, and that every disease  is as manageable in
their hands, as in those of physicians any where.  From the war of  1813,
when  our surgeons operated on the same  deck with those of Great Britain,
they have been received as equals, and in every latitude the American Naval
 Surgeon has honorably and ably represented the profession.
    In  the  front  rank  of battle  where the death-shot flies  thickest, you
 may find the Army Surgeon, cool and collected, doing his duty. W hat  is
 his  standard ?   Read it in every  despatch from the seat of war.  Read it  in
 the admiration of the Generals, in the respect and gratitude of the rank and
 file.   Read it in your own hearts.
   Now inquire where  and how were these civil and military members  ol
 the profession educated I  Is the tree corrupt which has produced suchfruit/
 In every state we have physicians of  different grades of learning, and the
 circumstances of society  admit of such  difference in every occupation.   1  he
 residents of agricultural districts want neither learning nor eloquence to enforce
 the truths and precepts of the Gospel.  Peaceful and simple in their pursuits,
 they seldom resort to law, and require ho black letter learning to settle their
 questions of right and wrong, wi«<m el tuum. Frugal and moral, their diseases
 are few and  simple, easily treated by the general practitioner, and when
 great skill is required they send for it to the towns  and cities, and to the
 honor of the profession it is never withheld.   Men of the highest eminence
 suit the charge to the circumstances, often without fee, and sometimes with-
 out thanks.                                   ,                .     .,
    This law of standard  holds in all countries.  In the oldest nations, the
 palace and the hovel stand side  by side ; the  purple and  fine linen brush
 the tatters of the pauper. There are the counsellor and the pettifogger—the
 bishop and the market preacher—the physician and the quack. Such is  so-
 ciety, differing in degree, the same in kind everywhere.  Made up of ine-
 quality in mind, inequality of means.  Such is civilization in the 19th cen-
 tury,  and by it, all standards are regulated. As common sense men we  must
 take'it as it is, and do all in our power to better it.
    It is alleged that the extent of empiricism proves  the inferiority  of our
 standard    Who receives the most encouragement, the statesman who  con-
 fers solid and enduring benefits  on his country, or the  demagogue who  ca-
 ters to whims, prejudices and excitement ?  In law, does the learning which
 convinces the bench always get more applause than the whip-sylabub which
 tickles  the fancies of  the crowd ?  In the military profession, how often is
 the educated and able soldier, out-ranked by those who never set a squad- 
                                   6

 ron in the field, who exhibit all the pomp and circumstance of glorious war,
 without encountering its dangers?  If the great religion of civilization had,
 from  its dawn, imposters to contend with—" men  who steal  the  livery ol
 the court  of Heaven to serve the devil in," how can our professibn escape ?
   Empiricism exists in  all countries.  Its extent depends on the degree of in-
 telligence in the community.  The vulgar, whether rich or poor, are its food.
 In this country there is  less than in England, because our proportion of edu-
 cated people is greater.   With all our inventive tact we have* yet to generate
 a system  of empiricism.  We have to import them, and  they come out made
 up of shreds and patches from the obsolete and cast off drapery of the regu-
 lar profession.  Empiricism will decrease as education advances, and in our
 country the good and the great are straining every nerve to make education
 more general than suffrage.  Let  that cause continue to prosper, and  the
 standard of intelligence  will rise  in a few years to that degree, that objec-
 tidhs  to the want of preparatory education for the learned professions will be
 removed.
   The cheapness of medical courses has been assigned as a cause of depre-
 ciation.   Have the difficulties and inconveniences of travelling increased by
 the use of steam or by the reduction of fare ? Is knowledge less intrinsic, less
 valuable,  when disseminated in Harpers' cheap  editions, than  when  spread
 on hot press, bound in calf  and gilt?  Strip such objections of their covering
 and they  mean exclusiveness, an airy nothing, with which we have no sym-
 pathies.   Mind was given  by God for cultivation.   When cultivated it will
 a?t as a universal solvent on all  the useless and  pernicious distinctions and
 vestigos of distinctions, which originated in mailed, feudal, barbarous ages.
   I have  touched  on the standard of medical  education, because to your
 hands in a short time it will be committed.   I wish you  to deliberate, and
 have, in a very general way, offered a few materials for  thinking.   To  do
 justice to  the subject would require the perusal of many volumes.  The his-
 tory of medicine cannot be learned distinct and abstract from all other fea-
 tures  of civilization, any more than the physiology of man can be learned by
 confining  your study to the osteology of a single bone.   I have called your
 attention  to it, because  I wish you to respect and honor the profession into
 which you are about to enter.   Without such feelings you  will  have many
 drawbacks on your success.  I  have made it the feature of the first lecture,
 because I wish every medical student to form a solemn and enduring resolu-
 tion to sustain and to advance the " character of general and extensive know-
 ledge" which the great Sir William Blackstone says, " the medical pro-
fession beyond all others has remarkably deserved."
   Gentlemen, those of you who have received a classical education will have
 few difficulties to encounter in the study of  medicine.   You have acquired
 the habit  and method of study, gymnastics which give firmness and strength
 to the mind, ease  and  direction  to its movements.  You  who  commence
 without this preparation, do not  despair.  Be  determined  to succeed, and
 you will  find  in the pursuit the basis  and materials of a good education.  At
 every step you will encounter the difficulties of technical phraseology ; you
 will have to watch experiments; to master  one principle  at a time.  The
 truth from instruction will  not come to  your minds in full development, but
 like the sown seed to pass  through its stages of growth. By these processes
 your minds will become disciplined;  you will learn how to investigate, how
 to think; you will acquire industry, which  is the talent.   Like the gastric
 juice it dissolves matter and makes it the means of growth.
   Our study is of God's creation.  It is the hand book of nature, without
 which all is hidden or confused.   Who can read the  animal kingdom with- 
7
out a knowledge of anatomy ?  From the worm to the mastodon, from the
smallest microscopic point of vitality to the greatest mass  of organization,
whether in earth, or air, or ocean, all are known by comparison  with man.
Even vegetable life is a sealed book without this standard.

                  " The chain of being is complete in him;
                  In him is matters last gradation lost,
                   And the next step is  spirit Deity !"

   Human anatomy is the portal to all our knowledge of animated existence.
To arrange and classify the various links in the chain of being, osteology is
the agent.   To determine the capacities of living things for their appropriate
element, the structure of their blood and breathing apparatus must at least be
understood.   To determine their kind of food, their digestive organs must be
investigated.  To ascertain their degree of mental or instinctive manifesta-
tion, the comparative  development of the brain must be minutely studied.
Without this Natural Theology is bald, Natural History a mere guess, Phre-
nology a fable, Geology  a romance, and man unworthy, totally unworthy
" the dominion"  with which God invested him.
   Call you him learned who can dote on the beauties of Georgics and Bucolics,
and at the same time is ignorant of the laws of life; who cannot tell the number
of his own ribs,  who stares when told that a whale  is not a  fish,  but who
readily believes that the surgeon can take out the human eye, clean and  re-
place it, who cannot place his  hand upon his  heart without  thumbing  his
navel. How strange that  the science of medicine has not been made a requi-
site branch of classical education !!!
   Gentlemen, the principles of our profession  are the laws of nature.  With
all facts, whether sanctioned by oath or  by authority, hallowed by the mist
of ages, or springing newborn into life, we have nothing to do, but to test
their truth.  Faith has no  shrine in our temple, our  oracle is reason, our
knowledge the result of careful, repeated, enlightened experiment.  Is our
science perfect?   No !   But it is on the march, onward !
   For more than five thousand years  the navigator dare not venture beyond
the sight of shore.  The  discovery of the magnet,  and concurring causes,
enabled  him to cross the ocean in  1492 ; since when, every sea  has been
whitened  by  the sails of commercef the  heralds of comfort and happiness
to the human race—yet, often  as it is  crossed,  it has not been fathomed, the
secrets of  the mighty deep are yet unrevealed.   So with medicine.  After
many centuries we have traced the  outline—have discovered principles,
which enable us  in most  cases to conduct the barque of life in safety.  We
too, have  a thermometer which  foretells the  storm when least evident  to
the natural eye, yet the ocean  of life is unfathomed.

                " In its sublime research—Philosophy
                May measure out the ocean deep, may count
                The sands, or the sun's rays, but God for Thee
                There is no weight nor measure,
                None can mount
                Up to thy mysteries.  Reason's brightest spark
                Tho' kindled by thy light, in vain would trace
                Thy councils, infinite and dark,
                And thought is lost, e'en thought can soar so high
                Even like past moments  in Eternity." 
8
 Bounded as is our knowledge, yet may we hope from the rapid movements
 in mind which  distinguish  this present  age, that the  men of  1900, A. D.,
 will be as far beyond us, as we are beyond the age of Hippocrates.
    To study medicine, the usual preparatory education, common sense and
 application, are all that is requisite.   You need not be the seventh son, nor
 have come into the world with a caul on your head to be a doctor.   All you
 require is to use your senses.   If you have no taste for the  study  you will
 acquire it.   Poeta nascitur may be  true or not, but no man is born a phy-
 sician.  His genius is the offspring of application; his talents consist in the
 knowledge of facts and  principles, and in the power to  combine  and dis-
 criminate.   The excuse  of having no  taste or turn  for a study, means
 indolence or ignorance; it belongs to the nursery, not to manhood.
    We hear of people who have  no ear for music,  compel  them  to appl}-,
 and the auditory nerve will do its duty,—at least it has done so  in Italy,
 and Mr.  Dorigo has  proved that it does so in this country.   Others  have
 no turn to learn a foreign language, as though there was any anatomical or
 physiological difference  between  a  Frenchman's tongue  and  a Yankee's.
 Place  such in a foreign land, and  their ears will  appreciate the sound, and
 the organs of speech conform to it.  Scott, the great theologian, had so little
 taste for the clerical profession, that he preached for years, an unbeliever in the
 essential points of religion. His work on the " Force of Truth" shows how he
 overcame the repugnance.  Frederick of Prussia, had  so little  taste for the
 military profession, so much constitutional  dislike, that he fled like a coward
 from the first battle; yet be became the brave and scientific founder of modern
 tactics, and his system, practised  by able  hands,  has  won the  applause of
 the world.  I could name men  in the  medical profession, who for years had
 no taste  for its  studies and pursuits, but who have  risen  to the highest
 eminence, by their zeal and  abilities.  The mind can acquire tastes as  well
 as  the palate, and materials,  at first, as repugnant as olives  or  tobacco,
 will acquire all  the force of second  nature, become " bone of our bone and
 flesh of our flesh."  Gray  hairs  and experience to the contrary  notwith-
 standing,  I  know only of one way of learning to swim, and that  is, to go
 into the water.
   Gentlemen, in learning  the profession, make Anatomy your closest study.
 Use your ears much; your  eyes more: your hands most.   Learn to  read
 the human body, as the blind read by raised letters.   Dissect and reflect.
 Next, Chemistry.   It addresses only the intellect—it has no fancy sketch,
 no  poetry to adorn it, but  it is one of  the foundations of knowledge and
 beauty.  It is throwing its  bright light on the hidden recesses of vitality,
 unrolling  the scroll of nature.   We  dare not utter our anticipations of its
 destinies.   Its revelations may burst upon us like a thief in the night—let
 us be ready.
  Confine your reading to the text books.  They are the ledgers, in which
 all that is valuable is posted up,  exhibiting a balance sheet of the state of the
 profession.  When you  have done  with medical lectures,  you will  read
 other professional  books with  the advantage of knowing  how  to read.
 Xerxes shed a tear reflecting on the mortality of his myriads—you may ere
long feel that the rapid advance of knowledge will consign brigades of books
 to oblivion.
  Learn your profession as  you learned arithmetic—rule by rule—example
by  example, in order.  When you learned that  two added to two equalled
four, you  knew it as well as Sir Isaac Newton.  In medicine, master one
principle, and make it your own, before you proceed to the next.  Place
no reliance on the figment called genius.    It is  like the armour of Saul, it 
9
will not fit you.  Use common sense, and uncommon industry, feel  like
Virgil's boatmen "si forte brachia remissit" that if you drop the  laboring
oar you will be carried backward.  Use application and skill, and you  will
"conquer victory."
  In schools of navigation principles are taught, but something  more than
the school is requisite for the mariner.   He may know how to ascertain his
position—may calculate  the  direction  given  by opposing forces.  He may
be familiar with  the ship, from the kelson to  the  truck,  and "know the
ropes," but all this  is not enough.  The ocean  must be encountered, its
storms must be felt.  So in medicine, all  that can  be taught by lectures  is
no more than  the preparation for practice.   Make good use of your time
and  opportunities here,  and the knowledge of  facts  and  principles  will
enable you to succeed.  If you are false to yourselves, the diploma and all
its Latin will be as useless for the objects of your profession, as a policy  of
insurance to a  foundering ship.
   The  department  assigned to  me in  this College is Materia Medica,—a
branch which, at first view, is covered with beautiful foliage,  clustered with
flowers, all the gorgeous colors of the tropic, to the fading gray of the Arctic
regions—vegetation not innocent,  as  the vulgar believe, but deleterious  to
life, unless controlled  by mind.   The path is strewn with minerals, whose
lustre and starry chrystalization are resplendent with beauty—messengers  of
health only when directed by intellect.   Poetical as the subject may appear,
it is not so in reality.   There is little in the study to feed the imagination;
the intellect alone is addressed,  not reveries of fancy, but stubborn facts are
to be investigated.
   Abundant as are the materials of medicine, we shall endeavor to impress
upon you  the great responsibility of administering a dose.  It is a great
object in  life to know when  and how to act, yet  he possesses great know-
ledge who knows when to do nothing—not the ignorant, but the " masterly
inactivity" which  one  of our country's brightest ornaments has named  in
another science.*  We believe that the physician ought to have the brains—
we know  that the  medicine  has not.   It has  no charmed volition, like the
bullet in Der Freyshutz, to hit the mark, though shot at random.
   Nor has the disease mind, to take its choice out of a multitude of articles
administered, of that  most suitable to its character.   If the  physician then
want intellect,  God help the patient! Gentlemen, of my capacity for teaching,
you will be my judges.   I would rather,pmuch rather fail in promise than  in
performance.   I will try to lead you, along the  paths I have trodden,  in
search of  knowledge, as far as  my slender ability will permit;  and I  feel
confident that no co-operation will be wanting  on  your part.   Your starting
point, is the accumulated knowledge of preceding generations.  It will be
your duty to sustain and advance the standard of professional knowledge.
I know and feel that it will be done.
*Hon. J. C. Calhoun. 
 
PHILADELPHIA COLLEGE OF MEDICINE,

        FIFTH, SOUTH OF WALNUT STREET.
   The Spring and  Summer Course of Lectures for 1848, will be
commenced on Monday, March 6th, 1848, and be continued four months.
The faculty are:
  JAS. McCLINTOCK, M. D., General, Special and Surgical Anatomy,
  J. R. BURDEN, M. D., Materia Medica and Therapeutics.
  D. P. GARDNER, M. D., Chemistry and Medical Jurisprudence.
  HENRY GIBBONS, M. D., Institutes and Practice of Medicine.
  JAMES McCLINTOCK,  M. D., Principles and Practice of Surgery.
  LOUIS H. BEATTY, M. D., Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and
Children.
  S. R. McCLINTOCK, M. D., Demonstrator of Anatomy.

  RICHARD BURR, M. D., Prosector of Surgery.
  Fees for the full course, $75.  Fee for those who have attended two full
courses in other Colleges, $40.  Matriculation to be paid once only, $5.
Graduation Fee $20.  Practical Anatomy, including Recapitulatory Lectures,
$10.   The Dissecting Rooms will be opened on the 1st of March.
  For further information inquire of
                 JAMES McCLINTOCK, M. D., Dean,
                                 No. 1 North Eleventh Street.
  Philadelphia, December, 1,  1847.