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ANNUAL LECTURE.
INTRODUCTORY LECTURE
DELIVERED IN- THE
CASTLETON MEDICAL COLLEGE,




       HA1BGSI 8» EMS*
   BY JAMES McCLLNTOCK, M. D.,




prope»sor or general, special and scroioax akatoht.
PUBLISHED BY THE CLASS.

    CASTLETON, Vt.   ^






ROBINSON to SOUTHMAYD, PIIINTERS.






        1842. 
Castleton, March 19th, 1842.
Prof. James McClintock :
  Dear Sir-At a meeting  of the Students of the Castleton
Medical College, Mr. Z. W. Joslin, of  N. Y. was  called to the
Chair, and Mr. Samuel Galcntin,  of N. Y. appointed Secretary;
and the following resolution was unanimously adopted :
  Resolved,—That a Committee of five be  appointed to request
of Prof. James McClintock a copy of  his Introductory Lecture,
to the Course of this Spring, for publication.
  In behalf of the Class, the Committee beg leave to present the
above request.
                  Respectfully Yours,
                          CHARLES  WARREN, N. H.
                          II. JUDSON SQUIRE, N. Y.
                          LEWIS F.  TITUS, N. Y.
                          SAMUEL GALENTIN, N. Y.
                          GEORGE F. NEWELL,  L. C.
                              Castleton, March 21, 1842.

  Gentlemen, —Your communication of the 19th inst. requesting,
in behalf of the  Students e-f Castleton  Medical College, a copy
of my late Introductory Lecture for publication, was duly received.
  As it is my determination to  comply, as  far as I possibly can,
with every wish of the Class, I herewith furnish you a copy of
the Address.
  Accept for yourselves, Gentlemen, and the Claas  you repre-
sent, the best wishes of
                        Your Friend,
                                  JAMES  McCLINTOCK.
Messrs. Waruen, So.ltre, Titus, Galestin aud Newell. 
1NTR0DU C TORY   L l\ C T URE.
Gentlemen:
  It is my duty to deliver to you the General Introductory to the
Course of Medical Lectures in this  College.  I cheerfully em-
brace the opportunity to give you a cordial welcome to our Halls,
and to express the hope, that in your connection with this Insti-
tution, all your anticipations will be more than realized.  I shall
also, before entering upon  the  principal topic of my discourse,
offer you a few remarks upon the present condition of the School
to which you have attached yourselves.
  At the late Session of the General  Assembly of Vermont, our
Board of Trustees presented a  petition requesting the alteration
of the title of our Institution,  from the ';Vermont  Academy  of
Medicine"' to the "Castleton Medical College.*'  It was believed
that the latter title would comport more strictly with the charac-
ter of the School, and that a change in this respect would be ben-
eficial.   The Legislature passed the necessary law, and our title
is altered accordingly.
  Since our last Session important alterations have  occurred  in
<he organization of the  Faculty.  The first of these changes was
occasioned by the resignation,  on the part of our highly  respec-
ted colleague, Horace Green, M- D. of the Chair of Theory
and Practice of  Medicine.   I am happy to announce to you that
the Trustees have succeeded in  procuring the  services ol Or.
David M.  Reese,  of New  York, as successor of Dr.  Green.—
Dr. Reese is no  doubt known to most of you as a distinguished
member of the profession; and, in  addition to his well deserved
general reputation, we have the fullest assurance, in the success
which attended his late lectures upon the same branches in the
Albany Medical College, that the responsible duties of his Chair
will be .\bly performed.  In consequence of Dr. IIadley's remo-
val to Geneva and engagements there during out Lecture Term,
he found it impossible to attend to the duties of his Professorship
in this Institution, and therefore tendered  his  resignation.  The
vacant Chair has been filled by the  election of William  Math-
er, M. D. a pupil oT our  much  esteemed late colleague.  Dr.
Mather has been for twelve years  engaged  in  lecturing on the
branches which  it will be  his province here to teach ;  so that
your Professor will not  come before you as a novice in his busi-
ness, but with the advantage of that thorough acquaintance with
his  subject and the best modes of teaching it,  which nothing but
long study  and experience can  impart.  A distinct Professorship
of Medical Jurisprudence has  been created  since we last met
yon, and Dr. W. P. Rlssel, of Middlebury,  formerly Professor 
4
 •f the same branch In Vermont Medical College, has been called
 to fill the Chair.  This important department of Science, hereto-
 fore too  much neglected by Medical Students, will  now receive
 the full attention of an able teacher in our College;  and we have
 no doubt that you will second the liberal views of  the Corpora-
 tion evinced in the creation of the Chair, by your improvement
 of the opportunities which it will afford you.  The duties of Pro-
 fessor Mitchell's Chair have been much increased, by the ad-
 dition of the  departments of Physiology and Operative Obstet-
 rics, to both of which he has given  his special study and atten-
 tion.  The members of the Class of last Spring need not be told
 of the industry and talents which he devotes to the business of
 instruction ; but to those of you who are here for the  first  lime,
 I may present the assurance that his  teachings will be  found un-
 usually perspicuous and  instructive.   Some slight  changes that
 have been introduced in regard to the duties of the other Chairs,
 will be alluded to in the progress of my remarks.
  Since the last Session great improvements have been made in
 our College Edifices and Museum.   The Lecture  Rooms  have
 been entirely remodelled, and are  now, in  point of comfort and
 convenience, not inferior to any with which we  are acquainted.
 It has been found necessary to fit up  a commodious room for the
 collection of specimens  in Materia Medica and  Mineralogy, and
 another for the reception of Anatomical preparations, on account
 of the great increase of our specimens in these departments.   I
 have no hesitation in saying, that our Anatomical Museum is be-
 hind very few collections of the kind in  this country, in regard
 to the number and value of the preparations which it contains.—
 In the last Annual Announcement cf this College, it was stated
 that its Museum contained a certain number of specimens of dif-
 ferent kinds.   That statement is now reiterated, notwithstanding
 the gratuitous insinuation of one of the Professors in a neighbor-
 ing Medical School, made, as I am informed, in his Introductory
 Lecture at the opening of the last term, that it was an exaggera-
 tion.  You are here, Gentlemen, and can judge for yourselves,
 at whose door the charge of falsehood ought to lie.
  With this brief exposition of  the present  condition of our Col-
 lege, I now proceed to the subject chosen for the body of this ad-
 dress.  It would certainly be a more easy  and grateful task for
 me to direct your attention to some topic connected with that de-
 partment of Science which  it is my duty and pleasure to teach,
 but as this discourse is designed to be a General Introductory to
 the Courses of Consecutive Lectures  on the various branches of
 our professional study, I shall offer you a few remarks upon the
 more extended  subject of Medical  Education.  To treat this
great topic at large would require a much longer time than is al-
lotted to me on the present occasion ;  I  shall, therofore,  be un-
der the necessity of confining my observations  to  the  strictly 
5
 professional part of a Medical Education, which you will find to
 include the various branches of Science taught in this Institution.
   The Art of Healing is of ancient date.   From  the earliest
 ages men have sought to alleviate the  pain of di-ease, and  to
 ward off the stroke of death.  In primitive times, rude as  the
 art was, it assumed so high a dignity as fo be  associated with re-
 ligion; the Priests were the first  Physicians.  And although  a
 tolerably rational system of practice was created by Hippocrates
 two thousand years ago, it is certain that up  to a comparatively
 late period,  even among civilized nations, to  possess skill in the
 use of remedies was to secure the  reputation, whether for good
 or evil, of masteiing inexplicable powers, or of communing with
 the mysterious beings  of another world.  The Science  of Medi-
 cine  is of later growth.  The great Greek whom I have named,
 did, it is true, establish the fundamental principle of making ob-
 servation the only rule in the treatment of disease; and since his
 time, in the  course of  centuries, there have been, as in all other
 branches of human knowledge, great men who  have  observed
 closely, thought profoundly, and by single di.vcoveries assisted in
 preparing the way  for the true developement of the Science; but
 it is only within a very limited period, that the Newtonian prin-
 ciple of "arguing from phenomena without feigning hypotheses"
 has been applied to this most important  department of Science.
 "Unfortunately for us," says Dr. Gcdruan, "the perfection  of
 our Science  is neither  in proportion to its age  nor to the revolu-
 tions it has undergone.  Yet this liability to change, both in doc-
 trines and practice, is rapidly diminishing, as the  diffusion  of
 knowledge is promoted and extended by a more correct study of
 Nature.   The charge of being a conjectural Art, must, at no dis-
 tant period  cease to be applicable, and the resources of our Sci-
 ence  know neither  limit or circumscription, if all who engage in
 its cultivation be properly zealous  in their exertions and true to
 the trusts they assume."  There are at (his day, Gentlemen, in
 our profession, many men who are thus true  to the  high trusts
 which they assumed on entering  it.  Through their labors  the
 stock of medical truths is daily increasing, and that, too, by the
 application of the only  legitimate mode of enlarging the bounda-
 ries of our Science, an extensive induction of facts, the results
 of patient observation.  And I  have made these remarks, in or-
 der to impress upon your  minds,  now, on the threshold of your
 studies, that  the very basis of your Medical Education, is to be
 laid in the doctrine  that our Science is an assemblage of facts as-
 certained by obs rvalion.   These may be combined into  systems,
 or, for the sake of clearness  and  method,—generalized  under
 some  form of theory,  but all  speculation beyond these limits is
 "less than nothing  and vanity."  Men may theorise elsewhere,
but here they must  not; the day for Medical hypotheses is over.
 The reproach of uncertainty  has  been  deserved long  enough; 
I)
 we must wipo it  out by giving to our  Art the only cei'lainty of
 which it is susceptible, founded upon close and accurate investi-
 gation.  Divest yourselves, then,  in the beginning of all prepos-
 session; swear in the words of no master; adopt the dogmas of
 no sect; attach yourselves to no  exclusive system.  Devote
 yourselves to the study, not  of opinions, but of facts,  not of
 schools, but of nature.  It were bad enough to lose lime by mis-
 directing your efforts ;  but worse, inconceivably, would it  be, to
 lay the corner stone of your education in prejudice.
   Whatever you may  have heard  of the  fame of distinguished
 men, and how far soever you may be inclined  to reverencetheir
 names, and to honor their achievtnents, beware of being led by
 any name to the adoption of a mere theory.  I would not detract
 from the reputation of the great masters of science, rather  is it
 our duty to cherish their memory with religious care, and  regar-
 ding them as  benefactors of mankind, to  embalm their memo-
 ries in perpetual praise, but yet we are bound  to  follow them so
 far as they  followed  nature, and  no further. If Hoffman  en-
 larged the boundaries of science by the discovery of new  facts,
 we avail ourselves of his labors with thankfulness,  but we do
 not thereby incur the obligation to  adopt his hypotheses.  If Cul-
 len imparted accuracy to our views of certain  forms of disease,
 we must use the light thus afforded us, without following him in
 the twilight gloom  of  his speculations.  If Brown infused into
 medical investigations a scientific spirit, we shall  try to labor in
 that spirit, but not to make proselytes to his theories.  If Brous-
 sias brought the vigor of a commanding intellect  to bear  upon
 some of the most difficult questions in medicine, we can employ
 the results of  his scientific labors without  imifating his dogma-
 tism or being  called by his  name.   In a  word, gentlemen, we
 should be men of no sect, but men  of science.
  The assemblage of truths constituting the science of Medicine
 is classed in the curriculum of studies in this College,  under the
 following heads, viz : Anatomy, General,  Special and Surgical;
 Physiology and Pathology; Chemistry and Pharmacy;  Materia
 Medica, Therapeutics and Obstetrics; Principles and Practice of
 Surgery; Theory and Practice  of Medicine;  Opthalmology and
 Medical Jurisprudence.  A formidable list truly.  And wheu I
 tell you, in addition to all this,  as I may without  vagueness or
 exaggeration, that the well disciplined Physician  ought to make
 the whole range of the Natural Sciences contribute to his  skill,
 and should also be thoroughly versed in the knowledge  of Psy-
 chology, which attempts to explain the workings of man's spirit-
 ual nature; or, at least, to classify  the phenomena of mind, you
 will believe that the Profession which you  have chosen is  to be
 no playground, and that the training  which shall  fit you  for it
 must be laborious and long continued.  But I must confine  my-
self,  as  I have said, to the enumerated branches of a strictly 
t
professional education, which I shall now take up in order, —ex-
plaining the province of each of the several departments, -set-
ting forth, briefly, their importance in your course of study,— and
exhibiting the manner in which they are taught in this College.
  The first department to which I call your attention is Anatomy,
the study of the  organization of the human body, which is the
basis  of the pyramid of Medical Education.   According to  the
strength and extent with which this only sure foundation is  laid,
will be  the firmness and durability of the  entire superstructure.
He that erects the fabric of Medical Practice upon any other ba-
sis, ''builds his house  upon the sands."'   But as I cannot detain
you here with a disquisition on the inestimable value  of Anato-
my to the practitioner, or its intimate connection with the  other
branches of medical study, I take the liberty of referring those
of you who may wish for a further  exposition of the subject, to
an Introductory Lecture delivered in Philadelphia in November
1840, in which I endeavored to set forth the importance  of this
great subject, arising from its relations to gencial science as well
as from its particular bearing upon our professional pursuits.
  We teach here, as our time  and abilities will allow7, those sub-
divisions of this science, called General,  Special  and Surgical
Anatomy.   The  first,  General  Anatomy  or Histology, has  for
its special object the Anatomy  of Textures, under which is com-
prised a knowledge not only of the  proper elements of the  or-
ganization, but likewise of the proportions in which they com-
bine to  form the various tissues entering into the  composition of
the several organs and  systems.   For our knowledge of this
branch  of science we  are mainly indebted to Bictiat,  who  may
indeed, be said to have created it.   Removed, at the  early age
of a little over thirty,  from the pursuit of a career of research
which was original in the extreme, he yet lived long  enough to
throw the light of his brilliant genius upon a new  developement
of the science that he  loved, and, with  an unrivalled power of
analysis, to demonstrate and generalize all the different tissues
which are now recognized as constituents of the human system.
What heightens the claim of his great work on General Anato-
my, to be considered one of the highest achievmonts  of human
intellect and industry, is the almost  incredible  account  that  he
began and finished  it within  one year, working  by  night  and
sending the copy in the morning to the printer without correction.
I need not apologize, Gentlemen, for thus dwelling, for a moment
upon  the name of the  distinguished  Frenchman, who  must  al-
ways rank among the  noblest  of the Martyrs  of science.  Spe-
cial or Descriptive Anatomy investigates  the  form,  magnitude,
weight, situations and  connections of the different organs  form-
ing the  system.  In Surgical  or Topographical  Anatomy,  the
body  is  divided into regions, and the various tissues and  organs
composing those regions, arc  examined in  order to  determine 
u
their importance in case of disease, accident or surgical opera-
tion ; to estimate which, it is of course necessary to be  well  ac-
quainted with the composition, size, shape and relative position
of the parts thus circumscribed.
  A knowledge of this extensive science is to be obtained by the
study of books, by attendance upon Lectures, and by the dissec-
tion of the dead body.   As for the first of these,—you should se-
lect some approved treatise and make it  the hand-book  of your
studies, and while you  are making yourselves familiar with  the
arrangement  of the matter and the details of the subject as taught
in the text, you will find it necessary also to enlarge, and  per-
haps correct,  your views, by collating it  with that of other auth-
ors.  Read, Gentlemen, as much as you please, so  that  you do
it accurately, and lay  up  the  results  of your reading in your
memory, but avoid as a bane, that loose  and  desultory  reading
which leaves no substantial possession as its fruit.  You can ob-
tain books enough, and of the best kind, in regard to the subject
now under discussion 5  but in reading the clearest  and  simplest
of them, you  will find it necessary to employ all your acuteness
in perceiving, all your comprehension of mind in embracing, and
all your power of memory in retaining the various and  compli-
cated topics which will be  presented to you.  Without the faith-
ful study of books your attendance upon lectures will be depriv-
ed of half its value.  I would  advise  you, indeed, throughout
the course, to read what the books have  to say upon  any given
subject before attending the lecture, in  order to  prepare your
mind to follow the Professor with ease; and to read again,  upon
the same topic, after the lecture in order to  fix the  impression
which it may have made, ineffacebly, in your memory.  In  the
rapidity  of oral  discussion some  points will escape  even  the
readiest mind and the most vigilant attention : but, the book will
still lie open to you, ?nd will wait for your continued scrutiny.—
If you would be full of anatomical knowledge, read many books
and read them well.
  But experience  has shown the great utility of oral Lectures in
this, as in most other branches of Natural Science, and a  great
part of your Anatomical knowledge will be obtained in this way.
The course I shall adopt in the consecutive  Lectures  will be
first, to demonstrate and explain the different tissues entering in-
to the composition of the body, thus giving an outline  view of
General Anatomy.  I shall then take up the skeleton, and exhihit
the different parts and the manner in which they are connected
by means of ligaments and cartilages ; the muscular system will
then be brought into view, after which will be demonstrated the
viscera contained in  the various  cavities,  and,  finally, I shall
treat of the circulating and nervous systems, which will com-
plete our views of the  second  division  of the  Science, Special
Anatomy.  During the exposition  of the vessels, nerves,  and 
9
 viscera, I shall call your attention to the relative position of these
 parts and the contiguous bones and  muscles, show' the manner in
 which the principal regions are formed, and exhibit the contained
 parts in connection with their practical  and surgical relations,
 thus attempting to teach  you  the third division of the Science,
 Surgical or Topographical Anatomy.  Throughout  the  lectures
 the  parts under discussion will be exposed in the recent subject.
 I shall also be greatly assisted in my demonstrations by the vari-
 ous  plates, models, and preparations in our Anatomical Museum.
 And although it would be  unbecoming to make promises in  re-
 gard to what I shall do, there can be no impropriety in  my  as-
 suring you that ho labor of mine shall  be  wanting to give perspi-
 cuity to my teachings, and to facilitate yourefforts in the acquire-
 ment of Anatomical knowledge.  In the  language  of Dr. Win.
 Hunter, which expresses my  determination in this respect so ac-
 curately that I cannot forbear to quote it, "I have alvvuys studied,
 and shall continue my endeavors, to employ the time that is giv-
 en up to Anatomical studies as usefully to the  students as I  can
 possibly make it, and therefore, shall never aim at showing what
 I know, but endeavor to show and describe, as  clearly as  possi-
 ble, what they ought to know.  This plan rejects  all declama-
 tion, all parade, all wrangling, all subtilty ;  to make a show,  and
 to appear learned  and ingenious in natural knowledge may flatter
 Vanity;  to know facts, to  separate  them from suppositions, to
 range and connect them, to make them plain to ordinary capaci-
 ties, andj above all, to  point out their useful applications, is, in
 my opinion, much more laudable, and  shall  be the  object of  my
 ambition."
   But, Gentlemen, I have yet to call your attention  to the prin-
 cipal source of Anatomical knowledge.  Indispensable as books
 are, and instructive as Lectures may be made, you can never be-
 come, I will not say distinguished in the science; but even such
 Anatomists  as you ought to be before you can  safely be trusted
 with the lives and limbs of your fellow creatures, unless you  su-
 peradd to those modes of study, the  practical method of dissect-
 ing the  dead body.  It is  said of John Hunter, the Father  of
 British Surgery, that when Dr  Physick  was  placed under his
 care, as a private pupil, he led the young student into his dissect-
 ing room, and pointing  to some dead  bodies, said,  " These are
 the books from which the student will learn under my direction."
 And they are books, Gentlemen, which are  not to be hastily ex-
 amined, but rather to be made the subjects of your daily scrutiny
 and your nightly toil.  I have never  found it neeessarv to defend
the practice of  dissection.  Its absolute necessity is  plea enough
for its use, notwithstanding the strong repugnance,  founded in
the best feelings of our nature, that  must be overcome by most
persons, before they can entirely reconcile themselves to it.  I
Would not insult the intelligent community in which we dwell, 
10
nor the good sense of the audience of students  in  this Hall, by
harboring the supposition that either they or you cherish that un-
reasonable prejudice against dissection which exists only  among
the most ignorant classes of mankind.  The religious veneration
of a superstitious people for the remains of the departed—even
of the lowest orders in society—prevented the ancient physicians
from dissection, and thereby from bringing our science  into phi-
losophical system; but that time has gone by, and now, the Anat-
omist, instead of  being looked upon as the despoiler of the grave,
is viewed as its enemy and almost conqueror.  The reproach,
however, is generally cast upon the inland schools of this  coun-
try, either that the students cannot be induced to dissect, or that
material sufficient for the purpose cannot be  furnished by such
institutions.   The former objection canuot lie, I am sure, against
the students before me; the latter, we are  determined shall not
hold good against ourselves.  I am happy to say that we have
made such arrangements as enable us to promise, we think with
confidence, that we shall always have on hand a sufficient supply
of material to enable every member of the class to pursue cadav-
eric investigations.  If you fail, therefore, Gentlemen,to become
sufficiently versed in  Anatomy to warrant us in conferring upon
you the diploma of this College,  the fault will be your  own, not
ours. Do not understand me to say that you must become perfect
Anatomists before you can graduate here;  so ridiculous  an  as-
sertion would destroy itself by its  very absurdity.   I only mean
to declare our purpose to discharge our duty to the community,
by taking care that the  opportunities of study which  are here
afforded to you shall be fully and faithfully improved.
   While it is the  business of the  Anatomist to exhibit the struc-
ture and texture of the human body, the developement of its vi-
tal phenomena and their laws, is the object of Physiology.  Even
in the restricted sense in which the term  is used in the Medical
Schools, as denoting the Science which investigates the functions
of the system in a healthy state, you will find it one of the most
interesting and useful blanches of study which  will here engage
your attention.  Since the time  of Haller,  Physiology,  which
was formerly a tissue of empty speculations, a mass of error and
fiction, has assumed a more scientific form, and it now presents
us with a beautiful array of facts and not a few well-established
principles.  From the close connection of the  living phenomena
with the organs themselves, you  will find that this more philo-
sophical developement of  Physiology has gone pari passu with
its association with Anatomy, and that the best  observers of  the
functions have first made themselves  thoroughly  familiar with
the organization.   You cannot fail to be attracted by a Science
in itself so fascinating, and which has been illustrated by the la-
bors of a Haller,  a Richerand,  a Majendie, a Bichat,  and  a
Broussias.  The useful applications of Physiology  will be fully
unfolded to you by my colleague  whose  duty  it is to teach this
beautiful department. 
11
   Founded upon Anatomy  and Physiology, is Pathology, the
science which examines the  nature, symptoms, causes, varia-
tions and results of disease.  To name the objects of this branch
of knowledge is to state its importance.  Dr. John  Bell  calls it
"the complement  of all the  other medical studies, which are
ranged around it, as a  common  centre, at unequal distances;"
and  declares that "no branch of medicine requires more  indus-
try in research, patience in  investigation, nicety of discrimina-
tion, and enlarged views of  mankind."   The growth of Pathol-
ogy  has been  wonderfully rapid of late  years.  The external
signs of  disease, indeed, did not escape the observation  of the
old physicians, but without the aid of Morbid Anatomy,  even a
Galen  or a Sydenham could know nothing of organic  changes.
Here the greatest triumphs of our Science are to be found.  The
skilful physician no longer makes up an inaccurate  diagnosis of
diseases  of the chest from external indications, but  by means of
auscultation and  percussion  decides, with almost mathematical
precision, upon the organ that is affected, and even upon the ex-
tent  of the ravages which disease has committed.   The class of
last  Spring will remember the indefatigable zeal with which Pro-
fessor  Mitchell demonstrated to the groups of them, who, by his
appointment, visited his rooms after lectures, the manner of em-
ploying these  comparatively  new means  of investigation, for
which  we are indebted  to the French, our masters in  medicine,
as in almost every other branch of Science.  In the  Course of
Lectures, the Professor will exhibit  to  you  fully, not  only the
principles of Pathology, but, also, the best  modes of investigat-
ing disease in general.
   Chemistry makes us  acquainted with the composition of bod-
ies, and with the laws by which they act on each other.  Hardly
known as a Science a century ago, it now presents  us with an
accurate analysis of a vast number  of  inorganic bodies, and re-
veals,  also, many of the mysteries of organized  matter,  both in
animal and vegetable substances.  Important as this Science is
to the Agriculturist and the Manufacturer, its noblest applications
are to  be found in Medicine   Whether  occupied in the investi-
gation  of gases, salts,  and metals; or in the analysis  of plants
and their products; or  in the study  of animal  substances, the
Chemist  is contributing to the enlargement and perfection of our
Science.  He shows us the nature and  properties of medicines,
and thus assists our Materia Medica; he exhibits  to  us many
principles of the food which we eat and the atmosphere  which
we breathe, whose influence in sicknes  and health is  almost in-
calculable, and thus improves our Hygienic knowledge; he  even
helps us in examining the power of Life and the effects  of dis-
ease upon the animal organization, and  thus  enlarges our Physi-
ology and Pathology.   You will, therefore, study this extensive
Science,  Gentlemen, not merely because of the  brilliant  light 
12
 which it throws upon the operations  of nature, but also, and es«
 pecially, because of its practical applications in your future pro-
 fession.  Pharmacy or Pharmacology, which explains the physir
 cal and  chemical properties of medicines, and the  best modes of
 combining them to produce the desired results, is here taught in
 connection with Chemistry.  To illustrate  both subjects, your
 Professor is provided with  an  ample supply of specimens and
 apparatus.   From his intimate acquaintance with these subjects,
 acquired during long experience in teaching them,  I have no
 doubt the consecutive lectures will not only be highly interesting,
 but practically useful to you.
   Materia Medica teaches the knowledge of the various medici-
 nal substances, animal, vegetable, and mineral, with the natural
 characters and properties, as well as their application to  prac-
 tice.  Although its scientific character cannot be rated as high
 as that of the other branches of study to which I have  called
 your attention, because the proper modes  of investigation  have
 been less applied to this, than to any of them, its  practical impor-
 tance cannot be  too strongly  stated.  Empiricism, indeed,  re-
 quires no extensive  knowledge of the Materia Medica; the pana-
 cea supersedes any  such  necessity.   The routine practitioner,
 too, may be satisfied with knowing that mercury is an alterative
 and opium a narcotic. But the man  who  professes to found  his
 medical practice upon scientific principles, and  yet administers
 remedies with whose properties he is unacquainted, or fails  to
 administer the proper ones for  want  of such acquaintance, is a
 quack in spite of diplomas.  You will lack no  necessary  helps
 here, Gentlemen ;—a thorouoh Course  of Lectures,  illustrated
 by a large collection  of specimens of medicinal  substances, will
 enable you to acquire a sufficiently copious and accurate knowl-
 edge of this important branch of study.  The same  Professor will
 also instruct you in  the doctrines of  Therapeutics, which teach-
 es the principles that should  govern  us in the administration of
 remedies, and the indications fulfilled by the different  articles of
 the Materia Medica.   To cure  disease is  the object  of all  our
 studies; and although this hranch of our science is the one which
 has been the most disgraced by vague theories and unsubstantial
 speculations, you vvill find that better views are now prevailing;
 and that with a sound pathology, a close  examination of symp-
 toms, and a tolerably distinct knowledge  of medicinal  agents,
 the therapeutics of this day are far removed frcm  the arbitrary
 systems  which formerly took the place of observation and exper-
 iment.   The lectures on the  two branches just alluded to,  you
 will find  eminently instructive.
   Obstetrics or Midwifery, is that  department of our profession
 which teaches the  manner of treating the diseases incident to the
 female during her pregnancy, parturition and  puerperal stale.—
 The true object of our studies here  ought  to  be, to  determine
 tvhen Nature, unable alone to accomplish  the  delivery without
injury to the mother or her child, needs the assistance of Art.—
In this Institution the  Science is  divided into  Operative and
Practical Obstetrics.   Professor Mitchell  will  teach  the first 
                 ■-■* tffi*- -.


                              13

branch, and during his course will fully explain to you the  cir-
cumstances of natural labor, the method of operating to accom*
plish delivery should any mal-position of the child occur, and all
the detail of treatment required by a parturient woman; illustrat-
ing the different subjects referred to in the lectures by  the mani-
kin, plates and preparations.  Practical Obstetrics treats both of
the diseases of the parturient patient and those of the newly born
child.   This branch is under the charge of Professor Perkins,
whose well-known  practical  skill,  and  accurate  acquaintance
with the whole subject, will enable  him  to  afford  you the best
and most useful information in  regard to them.
  I now pass to the consideration of  Surgery,  one  of the noblest
studies to which  the human mind can be directed.  When it is
stated to you that the object of Surgery is to obviate the effect of
injuries done to the human body, whether occasioned by internal
or external causes, you will have some idea of the variety  of its
applications, and of the  absurdity of the  notion which has ob-
tained to some extent, that its  practice  requires only a limited
knowledge of Medicine.   The  principle of division of  labor,
valuable as it is,  becomes  destructive,  when it is applied  to the
separation of  Surgery  from Medicine.   In  England the two
branches of practice are disassociated, so that, by law, the  phy>
sician  is not required to know anything of Surgery, nor the sur-
geon to understand  the treatment  of  any  other than surgical
diseases.   It is well for us that no such distinction exists in this
country.   The Surgeon  ought to be  the best of  Physicians.—
Indeed, every demand for the use of the knife is an  implication
of the poverty of our science,  whose highest aim should  be to
cure disease of every form with the least possible  injury  to the
organization.   I  cannot exhibit to you the true characteristics of
a good surgeon better than in the language of the lamented God-
man, in a note to Coster's Manual of Surgical Operations.   "The
difference  between a surgeon and a mere operator, may be  more
thoroughly appreciated  by contrasting them :— the  surgeon in-
quires into the causes and removes the consequences of constitu-
tional or local  disease—the operator inquires into the willingness
of his  patient to submit, and resorts to the knife.   The surgeon
relies on the restoration of the healthy  actions  by  regimen  and
medicine—the operator relies on himself, and cuts off the diseas-
ed parts.   The surgeon reflecting on the comfort and feelings of
his patient, uniformly endeavors to save him from pain and de-
formity—the operator considers his own  immediate advantage,
and  the notoriety he may acquire, regardless of all other consid-
erations.   The surgeon reluctantly decides  on the  employment
of instruments—the operator delays no longer  than  to give his
knife a keen edge.  The surgeon is governed by the  principles
of medicine—the operator, most generally by the principles of inr
terest: one is distinguished by the numbers  he  has  saved  from
mutilation  and restored to usefulness—the other by  the number 
14
of cripples he has successfully made.  The surgeon is an honor
to his profession and a benefactor to his fellow creatures—the
mere operator renders the profession  odious, and is  one of the
greatest curses to which mankind, among their  manifold miser-
ies are exposed."
   But, gentlemen, in the present  state  of medical  science,  the
use of the knife is sometimes indispensable.   I  trust  therefore}
that you will apply yourselves closely to this  important  subject,
and endeavor to prepare yourselves for those scenes  of trial to
which, in all probability, you must more or less frequently be in-
troduced in  the course of your practice.  My colleague, the Pro-
fessor in this department, divides  his lectures into two parts, in
the first of which the principles of surgery'are developed, while
the second is given up to operative surgery, where, "in addition
to the usual demonstrations on the subject of the operations both
of major and minor surgery, and  the  dislocations and fractures
made and reduced in presence of  the class, there will  be  further
illustrations by casts, and a complete set of oil colored paintings
the size of life, representing the various  surgical diseases,  and
the respective operations for their removal."*
   The Practice of Medicine leaches the application  of principles
derived from the various branches of  study to which your atten-
tion has been called,  at the bedside of the sick.   In this  depart-
ment, your intellectual powers will  be  more strongly  tasked,
perhaps, than in any  other, for it is furnished with few  helps in
the form of  ocular demonstration.  It will not  appeal to your
eyes but to your  understanding.   Manual dexterity  will  avail
nothing here.  But whatever capacity for observation,  memory
or reflection you may possess will be constantly  and thoroughly
tasked.  The Professor of Theory and Practice  will  not fail  to
set before you in the strongest light the importance  of  his  de-
partment, and I am sure that he will develope its principles inthe
true philosophical spirit, and with the  utmost clearness and pre-
cision.
   Opthalmology, as here taught, is a much more extensive  sci-
ence than is implied in its title, embracing not merely the Anat-
omy of the eye, but also its Physiology and  Pathology, medical
and surgical.  During the lectures, the structure  and functions of
the organ will be fully demonstrated  by means of recent dissec-
tions, preparations, models and diagrams.  In the surgical  part
of the course, the various operations will first be performed  by
the Professor, upon the eye of some  inferior animal; you  will
then have the opportunity of repeating the operation in presence
of the teacher, thus acquiring that practical skill which is so  of-
ten called for in the performance  of the delicate operations  re-
quired in opthalmic diseases.  In  addition  to these demonstra-
tions, many operations upon living patients were performed dur-
ing last session in presence of the class; and we  have every rea-
* Annual Announcement. 
15
son to expect that during the present term the number of  such
operations will be much increased.  It is worthy of remark that
this College is the only one in the United States  where  this es-
sential branch of science is taught by a distinct Professor.
  The last subject to which I sh-vll call your attention in this re-
lation is Medical Jurisprudence, which is said by Dr. Beck  to be
that "science which applies the principles  and practice of the
different branches of medicine to the elucidation of difficult ques-   »
tions in Courts of Justice."  Great contempt has been  brought
upon our profession by the apathy with which, until lately, this
important subject has been regarded.   Consider its bearings for
a moment, and you will see the folly of neglecting it.  The issue
of an important  trial depends upon the question  whether or not
a certain individual is of sound mind.  Who but the physician is
called upon to decide the question ?  A rapcis charged—the med-
ical man is placed in the box and must settle the point as to the
guilt or innocence of the prisoner at the bar. . Murder is  suspec-
ted in another case, and the  causes of death, or the  effects  of
wounds or poisons must be fully laid open  by the physician.   In
a word, cases are continually occurring in which the lives of in-
nocent men,  the property of supposed lunatics, or the character
of individuals before of good repute, lie absolutely at the mercy
of the medical practitioner.  "Who can  measure his guilt,  if in-
justice be done on account of his wilful ignorance?   Who  will
sympathize with his shame, when  that ignorance is  exposed  in
the crowded  court-room by an acute lawyer?   VTho  will  envy
his feelings, when,  after the verdict is rendered, he finds that the
guilty  have escaped or the innocent been punished, through his
stupidity?   To this ordeal, gentlemen, you will  all be liable.—
I trust, for the honor of the profession, and for the  sake  of your
own good name, that  you will prepare yourselves for  it  by  a
faithful improvement of the opportunities here offered to you by
the lectures  of a competent Professor devoted to the single sub-
ject of Medical  Juiisprudence.
  From the brief outline which I  have now given   you,  gen-
tlemen, you can form some idea of the extent and variety of the
studies requisite to prepare you properly to discharge  the duties
of the honorable profession to which you are looking forward.—
Need I say, that, in view of these extensive studies, you  must
apply yourselves diligently to the acquisition of knowledge dur-
ing your stay here?  Need I now tell you that there is no  royal
road to medical  skill?   Be assured that no acuteness  of  percep-
tion, no strength of understanding, nay, no brilliancy  of genius,
will enable you to dispense in the course of your future practice,
with a knowledge of the branches of science which I have enu.
merated in your hearing.   The possession of these great gifts, if
it disposes you to neglect your studies, will prove a curse to you
instead of a blessing.   The physician must be a man  of  knowl- 
1(5
 edge as well as of talent.  I know that you may answer every"
 exhortation of this sort,  by adducing  examples  of men  within
 your own knowledge who  have acquired  practice and wealth
 without any proper preparation for the profession.  So, gentle-
 men, have panacea mongers and pill-venders of all classes suc-
 ceeded in amassing wealth by imposture.   There  is abundance
 of quackery in the profession as well as out of it; and it is hard
 to say which is the most  pernicious.  The man who attempts  to
 cure diseases generally without such a basis  of  sound  medical
 knowledge as has been named  to you,  is a  quack,  as I  have al-
 ready said, in spite of diplomas.  You  may find these titled  ig-
 norami hanging on to the skirts of our noble calling and disgra-
 cing it by their blundering ignorance, in every village, town and
 eity  in the land.  From the culpable negligence of  Medical Ex-
 aminers, or perhaps more frequently, from the avarice of  Medi-
 cal Professors in Colleges, in whose eyes the Cees of graduation
 were of more importance than  the worth and dignity of  the. pro-
 fession, many such unqualified  men have been sent forth into the
 world, with an  M. D. tacked  to their names, licensed to practice
 physic without skill,—or  more truly,  licensed to kill their  fellolv
 creatures  with impunity.
  Shall this class ol men  continue among us?  Shall the medical
 character never assume its proper elevation in this country ?   It
 is for you, gentlemen, and such  as you, to answer these questions*
 Apply all  your  energy and industry to study now,  and you may-
 go forth from these Halls  with a rightful title  to the respect  of
 your fellow men ; prepared by your own skillful  and successful
 practice, to vindicate the  scientific  claims of our Art, and to ele-
 vate the reputation of the Profession which you have chosen.
  Do not understand me,  however, to present the  difficulties  of
 our study  as discouragements to any of you.  There are no deep
 mysteries in medical practice requiring supernatural skill  to un-
 ravel them.  You will never  be expected to work  magic.   Any
 mind of ordinary capacity may  embrace the range of  medical
 science, by diligent perseverence in study, to a  sufficient extent
 for all practical purposes.   We  do not even expect you to obtain
 a full knowledge of all the  departments included in the succeed-
ing lectures; to study any  one of them  completely,  would  be
 enough to engross your whole attention for a long period.  What
 we ask is, that you form habits  of thorough study, and  acquaint
yourselves with the elements of each division of the science, by
 storing up its leading facts and fixing in your minds, firmly and
 forever, the principles that will  be unfolded to you  as  essential
for your future professional course.  This will be within the reach
of any one of you who exerts his powers faithfully ; it can  be ac-
complished by no one who does  not.
  Recollect also, gentlemen, that your  course here  will be but
the commencement  of your  studies.  Your medical educatiou
must end only with your active  life.  Not a few,  however, ab-
surdly enough, seem to suppose that books and thought are to be
laid aside  as soon as actual  practice  is begun,  and some  even 
17
take pride in the notion that they do not need  to study.   A fool-
ish distinction is sometimes made, between physicians who read
and those who rely upon their own observation; as if it were  im-
possible for a man to  avail  himself of the resources of ethers,
and to keep his awn eyes open besides; as if no experience were
of any value but his own.  " The eye  sees in any object only
what the eye biings the means of seeing;" and the w ell-read practi-
tioner perceives, at one glance, what the microscope would hard-
ly exhibit to his unlearned neighbor.  But why need I  dwell in
such truisms?  We lose  all patience in thinking of the  lazy or
self-confidant Doctors whose "studies were finished," when they
left college with a parchment in their pockets, and to whom  the
progress of Medical Science has since been a sealed book.  If
you have no higher ambition than to enter into this class of priv-
ileged dunces, I pray  you to shut up your books  and go home;
you have mistaken your calling.  But you have a nobler ambi-
tion.   In the fervor of your youthful aspirations you look forward
to eminence, and you are resolved that no labor of yours shall be
wanting to obtain it;  you look forward to long years of patient
thought  and untiring observation ; you even dream that the boun-
daries of Science shall be enlarged through your means, and  that
you shall leave the profession higher than you  found  it.   Let
not those young dreams expire.   The earliest purposes are gene-
rally the noblest, and not until their impulses  are forgotten, can
the love of ease, or the sordid desire for gain, obtain  complete
mastery over you.  The field before you is wide, and its toils are
abundant; but its honors are ample.  Enter it, Gentlemen, with
an earnest purpose to "sow  your seed in the morning—and in the
evening not to withhold your hands ;" labor  in it, like  zealous
cultivators, with ceaseless anxiety  and unfailing industry;  and
as surely as the laws  of  God are changeless,  will  your harvest be
rich and satisfying.  Rich, even in the lesser rewards of wealth
and honor; richer still, in the steadfast satisfaction of your  own
conscience ;  richest of all, in the approving smile of that Great
Being whose favor is  better than life—whose  frown  is  destruc-
tion.
   I shall now close this address, by answering a  question which
has often been propounded to me since I  became a resident  of
this State, viz : whether it is not better,  on the whole, for every
medical student to attend lectures in one of the  large cities ?  I
have had some opportunities of observation in regard to  this mat-
ter, and shall now  endeavor to give you the results of that obser-
vation, fairly and candidly.
   Philadelphia is the metropolis of Medical Science in this coun-
try ; in no other city  have medical schools ever obtained so  high
a rank,  or kept up a healthy existence for any length of time.—
In that eity, where most of my life has been spent, I was for a
number of years a practitioner and  teacher of medicine, and
know the condition of its schools, I believe, thoroughly.   Th» 
18
 best of those schools, beyond all doubt, is the University of Penn-
 pylvania, whose Courses are attended by about four hundred stu-
 dents every year, whose fame is the oldest, and by far the most
 extended, of all the American Colleges ; whose teachers have
 been, during many years, the oracles of medical wisdom for this
 nation :  and whose alumni, scattered through every  State in the
 Union, are generally the best educated and most respected med-
 ical men among us.  In stating to you, therefore,the advantages
 of this ancient school, I take the strongest case that can be pre-
 sented.  I should say to you at once, Gentlemen, if you must go
 to a city school, go to the city of Philadelphia and  to the Univer-
 sity of Pennsylvania.   There you will  find seven  accomplished
 Professors, lecturing on Anatomy,  Surgery, Institutes  of Medi-
 cine,  Chemistry, Materia  Medica,  Obstetrics, and Practice  of
 Medicine, besides  the Demonstrator,  who is  one  of the best
 teachers of Practical Anatomy to be found. During the Course,
 which lasts from the first Monday in November to the middle of
 March, you will hear  from, the lips of these distinguished men
 about eighty lectures each in Anatomy, Surgery, Practice, Insti-
 tutes of  Medicine and  Chemistry ; and about fifty  lectures each
 in Materia Medica  and Obstetrics.   You will find these lectures
 delivered in a large and commodious edifice—affording every ac-
 commodation  for the business of instruction,  and  illustrated by
 the most extensive collections and apparatus in Anatomy, Sur-
 gery, Obstetrics, Materia  Medica  and Chemistry,  which the
 country affords.  You  will  have  every facility for the study of
 Practical Anatomy—subjects in abundance, and constant instruc-
 tion.   You will find  better  opportunities  of Clinical  instruction,
 and for the observation of Hospital Medical and Surgical prac-
 tice than are afforded any where else.  Add to all these, Gentle-
 men, the opportunities for improvement in general literature and
 science, by means of libraries, public institutions and lectures, in
 respect to which Philadelphia stands at the  head of the cities of
 the New World, and you will have, I think, a  complete idea of
 the advantages afforded to  the medical student  at the  University
 of Pennsylvania.
  And let us compare  these  advantages with those of a well or-
 ganized country School. I may, without presumption, take our
 own School as the subject of this comparison, for,  after all, that
is intended to be the point of my remarks ;  and Ism sure that  as
to completeness of  organization  for the  business of medical in-
 struction, we have no competition to fear out of the city of Phil-
 adelphia.  As to the lectures, then, without making  any unbe-
 coming comparison of  the members of our  Faculty with those of
any other school, I have no doubt that you will  fi.,d each of them
fully qualified to teach the branch to which he is here appointed.
This college offers you eight Courses of Lectures by distinct Pro-
fessors, who will spare no pains or labor to do justice to their
•«veral subjects.  Observe, too, that these lectures will cover a& 
19
 the ground that can be advantageously cultivated in a preparato-
 ry course of education, which is all that is attempted in the cour-
 ses at Philadelphia.  To  our buildings,  apparatus, and collec-
 tions, your attention has already  been directed;  they  speak for
 themselves.   As to facilities of Clinical  instruction we do  not
 pretend to compare with Philadelphia, where there are exten-
 sive dispensaries and hospitals, of which we are  destitute.  But
 we expect to show  you, almost daily, one or more medical or sur-
 gical cases, enough, indeed, to occupy all the attention you will
 have to devote to the subject; and from arrangements now in con-
 templation,  we think  it highly probable that,  before  long,  wa
 shall have an Infirmary connected with the  Institution.  As for
 Practical Anatomy,  which is  generally neglected in  country
 schools, we do not  need to fear comparison.   We shall afford you
 every necessary illustration from preparations, and leave you  at
 no loss for material for dissection.   So much, then, forthe means
 of instruction and improvement.   The practical  question, after
 all, in regard to these means, is.  how far can the student, in the
 limited period of his attendance at College,  avail  himself advan-
 tageously of them.   You  may surround him, indeed, with all the
 lecture rooms, hospitals, and museums of the city of Paris ;  but
 if he has not time to employ them all, their very profusion of ap-
 pliances and means will distract his attention, and prevent  his
 improvement.  I think it  may be  safely stated that the  mass of
 students who attend but two courses of lectures  in Philadelphia,
 appropriate  to themselves no greater amount of instruction and
 assistance than is afforded to every student of this College.
  But there are  other, and very material, grounds in  regard to
 which this comparison must be  stated.  And first,  let me here
 notice the expenses  of a student at  the University of Pennsylva-
 nia.  The fees paid before the diploma  is  received,  including
 those of  the  Demonstrator of Anatomy, whose ticket no one who
 desires to secure either a  good  character or a sound education
 will omit to  take, amount to three hundred and thirty-five dollars.
 Most pupils  also receive, during one session  at least, private  in-
 struction from one or  more physicians, the average cost of which
 is thirty-five dollars.  The expense of boarding  for the two ses-
 sions will average about one hundred and sixty dollars.  There
 are few students who do not  spend money at the different places
 of public resort  and amusement; the amount, of  course, varies
 with the habits of the student, but  a very  low   estimate would
 make the average at least one hundred dollars.  Add these sums
 together and you have a total of six  hundred and  thirty  dollars,
 exclusive of the extra cost of clothing in the city, which is no in-
considerable item, as the habit of expense in this  particular,  is
 almost universal with the students.
  J,ook now  at the  expenses of attending this School.   The feci 
20
 for two courses cf lectures, and for graduation, amount to one
 hundred and thirty-six dollars; the highest  cost  of boarding for
 the two sessions is sixly-three dollars;  and, allowing thirty dol-
 lars for outlays in amusement, &c. which is a large estimate in
 view of  the absence of those places of attractive resort  which
 allure so many in the city, we have a total of two hundred and
 twenty-nine dollars, leaving a  balance in favor  of Castleton  of
 over four hundred dollars!  It might be supposed that the cost of
 dissection would be greater here than in Philadelphia, but as we
 make  no charge for dissecting ticket, use of rooms, or service, it
 is actually less.  In these days of  retrenchment and reform such
 a difference in the cost of education as has just been presented to
 you, is worth  considering.
  I need hardly say to you that in view of the physical  health  of
 the student, a residence in so pleasant a village  as this,  is  far
 more desirable than in the confined streets of a crowded city.—
 To one who has not been accustomed to a city life, the change
 from the pure air of the country is, almost of necessity, injuri-
 ous; and besides that, all the habits of  society, foreign  as  they
 are to  his accustomed mode of living, when combined with  close
 attention to study and neglect of active exercise,  tend to impair
 the general health.   I can say  from  my own  knowledge, that
 many young men from the country find their health so much af-
 fected  by these causes, that they are  obliged  to  abandon  their
 studies and return home before  the completion of their course j
 while others, more persevering,  but perhaps  more  unfortunate,
 carry away a diploma, indeed, but  with it also an" enfeebled sto-
 mach,  shattered nerves, or a disorganized liver, which either in-
 capacitate them for the duties of the profession entirely, or make
 the rest of life a miserable burden.  No such causes  of disease
 operate here.  In the  quiet society of our village  you  will find
 no unnatural excitement.   In our simple, frugal  mode  of living
 you will not be tempted to excess and led on to disease.  In your
 daily walks, instead of inhaling  an atmosphere  burdened  with
the countless noxious  vapors that steam up from the  streets and
 alleys, the wharves and gin-shops,  the  factories  and  slaughter-
 houses of the crowded city, every breeze that  fans your chei'k
 will bring health and vigor on its wings.  Even  while  you  are
 devoting yourselves untiringly to  the  pursuit of knowledge,  if
 you will combine daily exercise in  the open air, to which every-
 thing invites you, with habits of great  regularity, from which
 you will have no temptations to deviate,you may enjoy as strong
 health here as amid the leisure or  the  toils of home;  and  then
 you may apply yourselves to study  with all your energy, succeed-
 ing,  as men only can succeed, who enjoy the mens sana in cor-
pore sano.
  But the strongest argument against a few years' residence in
 the city for the purpose of education is to be found in  the  dan-
 gers to which the moral health of the student must be exposed, 
21
I say a few years' residence,— for as they who are brought up in
the city are less likely to suffer in their physical health from  its
causes of disease, so also are they less likely to be  infected  by
the evil moral atmosphere to whose miasmata they have been ac-
customed from their  childhood.   Without  any sentimentalism,
Gentlemen, but in all honesty of heart, and with a  full  consci-
ousness that what my own eyes have seen  will confirm  all my
assertions, do I declare to you, that no young man  goes  from a
quiet country  or village home, where  he has been reared  in the
midst of virtues and religious associations, to study  a  profession
ip the city, without running the fearful risk of moral debasement.
Not that aZ/such become depraved ; there are many bright exam-
ples  to the contrary; but the hazard is absolutely fearful in every
case.  Unless the heart is fortified  by a strong religious  faith,
the only armor that is proof against temptation, the chances are
two to one that it will be pierced through and through  with  evil;
that its foundations of fetling will be  corrupted, its pure  impul-
ses destroyed, its habits of virtue broken up,audits  unconscious-
ness of sin changed into a  bitter knowledge of that  evil tree and
its deadly fruits.—I recollect three young men  out  of the  class
which attended lectures with me nearly twenty years  ago, who
had  all been carefully brought up.  Entering upon  their course
with good principles and habits, the results of their moral edu-
cation, their attention to study and their exemplary  conduct,  for
the first part of the session were worthy of all praise.  But after
a while the poison began to work.  The attractions of vice be-
came too strong for them;  evils,  at  first  hideous,  by degrees
grew tolerable,—and, at last, in  the fatal  progress downwards,
altogether fascinating; places of resort, at first shunned as  lurk-
ing places of  mischief, then visited occasionally, became  finally,
habitual haunts trodden with willing  feet.   Their  studies  were
neglected ; their habits grew more and more irregular ; midnight
found them waking in revelry, and the morning sun shone in up-
on them, lying, with aching heads and fevered  veins, upon their
sluggard beds.  One short winter was enough to change  them
from modest,  virtuous young men, into reckless and intemperate
profligates.  I have watched their course since that fatal  winter.
The sun of one of them has gone down in  gloom.    The  others
are yet alive, but, worse than dead, the bond-slaves of intemper-
ence.   These are no fancy sketches,  Gentlemen, nor are they
solitary instances.  Alas ! there are but too many  such.  And
how can  it be  otherwise,  when  our great cities, though  the
homes of art and refinement, and  even the scenes  of stronger
religious zeal and effort, than are to be found elsewhere, are  yet
the centres of vice, the abodes of all forms of depravity, and the
theatres whereon organized and disciplined vice contends con-
stantly with virtue and goodness.  Tacitus long ago called Rome
"the city wherein all vile and shameful things flow together from
all sides and flourish;" and there would be  little injustice in  ap- 
£3
 plying his remarks to every great city of the present day.  Com-
 pare now, in this moral aspect, the situation of the inexperienced
 student in such a city and  in a quiet country  town  like  this.—
 There, many forms of vice prevail,  which are here entirely un-
 known.   There he  will find,  not  merely associates  in every
 kind of wickedness, but tempters ready, at every corner of the
 streets to allure him to  destruction;  here,  the stamp  of public
 reprobation  is set upon all such characters ; and low  practices, if
 indulged at all, must be indulged  in secret.  There Art  lends
 her aid to  adorn Vice in attractive  garbs of beauty.  Painting
 and Sculpture unite for her decoration.  Music waits  upon her
 steps.  She  walks forth openly, in the broad  sun-light,  flaunting
 her gay draperies before the eyes of  the  unwary, and  dazzling
 them with her loveliness.   She exhibits herself daintily by can-
 dle-light, amid  throngs of willing worshippers, who gather  gar-
 lands from all the fields of art, literature and  science,  to  cast
 them at her feet ; and with whose dovotion it is almost impossi-
 ble  not to sympathize.   Here, all  this fictitious splendor is un-
 known ; and vice, if loved at all, must be  loved for her own sake,
 in spite of her naked deformity.  There, the wretched devotee of
 sin may mingle in  society unmarked nay even courted ; and in the
 midst of thousands like himself, find the power of public opinion
 an ally, instead  of an antagonist: here  that power  repels  him
 from all association  with mankind, and drives him back,  like a
 leper, to his  own den of solitary infamy.  The poet of truth  and
 nature, Cowper, said long ago,
            "God ma:le the country, and man made the town.
            What'wonder then ili:it heaith and virtue, gifts
            That can alone make nvert the hitter draught
            Thai lite nods ou' to all, should im>>t abound
            And least be Ihrealeued in ihe i.elds and giovest
             Possess ye, iherefure, ye, who, borne abuu:
             In cliariois and sedans, know no fatigue
             Hut  that of idleness, and taste no scenes
             ISir  such as art contrives, possess ye stil)
            Your element ; ihere only can ye shine:
            There only minds like yuurV can do no harm."
   Where, then, will the young man's feet be  least like'y to go
 astray from the  paths of virtue ?  Where is it most probable that
 the lessons of virtue imprinted  upon  the young heart by the pious
 care of parents  will  be effaced ?  It requires  but little knowledge
 of human nature to  answer, that  the parent's counsels  will be
 more likely to abide in the  heart, and to  work out their mission
 in the virtuous conduct of  after life,  if the young man  spends
 that most perilous portion of his aje, the  period  Df professional
 education,  in the comparatively pure atmosphere that will sur-
 round him here, than in the midst of  the strongest  forms of temp-
 tation.
  Observe, Gentlemen, that in this comparison, I  have referred
to the city of Philadelphia;  simply because it  is the emporium of
medical science,  and not  because its moral character is worse
than that of New  York or any other  of our great cities.   On the 
23
contrary it has always maintained a distinguished reputation for
morality and good order; its inhabitants are  generally  a peace-
loving and law-observing  people: and  its many  institutions of
charity, in regard to the number and excellence of which it
Stands unrivalled, prove the existence of a large amount of sound
virtue and expansive benevolence in its  population.   But, with
all its excellencies, it is a great city;  and, as such, the picture of
its vices and temptations, which has been drawn for you, is not
overcharged.  I  could not overcharge  it if I would;  certainly,
in regard to my native city, I ivould not if I could.  It is the best
of our great cities, and therefore, my  argument  in favor  of a
country residence should be the more powerful and influential.
  In the remarks already made, Gentlemen, the value of moral
character has been fully implied.   You will not deem it imperti-
nent for me, in conclusion, to make a more direct assertion of its
importance to you, in view of your future profession.  The re-
proach has long been cast upon medical men,  that, as a body,
they are irreligious.   Without stopping to inquire into the justice
of this imputation, it can be affirmed most earnestly, that it ought
not to be just.  The Physician  should rank next, in purity  and
dignity of  character, to the  Minister of God ; as, certainly,  next
to that high office whose heavenly calling it is to heal the moral
maladies of man's nature, in importance and usefulness to man-
kind, must be estimated the calling  of the  Physician.  To no
man, then, is moral worth and religious strength more indispen-
sible.   Every day he must contemplate  humanity  in  its decay
and ruin.  Almost every day he must see the dissolution of the
earthly tabernacle of man's immortal spirit.   Shall  he stand
amonj the affecting scenes of sickness  and death which his  eyes
must look upon, as a mere mechanical, unsympathizing man of
Science?  Shall  he not.behold  in the suffering form before  him,
a man and a brother?  These questions will be answered accor-
ding to the moral worth of the  practitioner.  If the high  impul-
ses of Virtue govern him, instead of finding his sympathies daily
deadened by contact with suffering, he  will exercise them  con-
stantly, and thus increase their power.  If the light of Religio
illuminate his own soul, he will be no feeble agent in  conveyii
it to the heart of his suffering patient.  And, as men  of scie
Gentlemen, you are bound to fix a high standard of moral
ture,  and to strive vigorously for its attainment. The cultivi
of the intellect, apart from that of the heart, has been one
greatest curses of our race.  Make all  your acquisitions, t
fore,  subservient to your moral  culture, and  your whole being
will be developed in fair, harmonious proportion ;  live without  a
moral aim, and your highest accomplishments, considered  with
regard to the great objects of human life, will be  but  ephemeral
and worthless.  But I rejoice in the belief that this unnatural sep-
aration of moral from intellectual power  is not always to last— 
24
that its-day is almost over—and that with one of  the  greatest ct

modern poets, Wordsworth, we may indulge
             •v
            "The animating hope tl:a* time tiny r  me,
            W hen, sireiigiherifd, y.-t :.<u dazzled, by the might
            < >f tbei dnuiiui n over Nature pained,
            jvi <n o  all limits -hill exercise the same
            In ducpropoi tiou to llieir country's ncid ;
            I.earning, il oujrh laie, tlatatl true glory tests,
            AH praise all safety,  and all happiness,
            Upon ihe iitoial law.  Egyptian Thet>e»,
            'J yre, by ihe margin of the Muinriing waves,
            P.iimvra, central in the desert fell;
            And the i.rts died by which  they had been raised.
            ('ail Archimedes from his buried tomb
            Upon the plain of vanished Syracuse,
            And feelimily the sage shall make leuort
            How insecure, how baseless in itself,
            Is the philosophy whose sway depends
            On mere inatcial iusUuuier.ts ; how weak
            Tho>e Arts and high inventions, if unpropped
            By Virtue."
CASTLETON  MEDICAL  COLLEGE.
          FALL COUKSK  OF  LECTURES.
  The Fall Course of Lectures'will be commenced on  the first
Thursday, 4th day of August next, and be  continued  fourteen
weeks.
                    F ACU LT Y.
         JAMES  McCLlNTpCK, M. D., President.
     Professor of General, Special and Surgical Anatomy.
           JOSEPH PERKINS, .M. D., Registrar.
   Professor of Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Obstetrics,
             FRANK H. HAMILTON, M.  D.,
      Professor of  the Princip es and Practice of Surgery.
                DAVID  M. REESE, M. D.,
      Professor of the  Theory and Practice of Medicine.
            CHAUNCEY L. MITCHELL, M. D.,
   Professor of Physiology, General Pathology and Operative
      Obstetrics.
             WILLIAM  MATHER,  M. D.,
            Professor of Chemistry and Pharmacy.
             WILLIAM  C.  WALLACE, M. D.,
        Professor of Opthalmic Anatomy and  Surgery.
              WILLIAM P. RUSSEL, M. D.,
             Professor of Medical Jurisprudence.

               EGBERT JAMIESON, M. D.,
                 Demonstrator of Anatomy.

  Fees for the Course;  $50.  Matriculating  Fee, $5.  Fee for
those who have attended two full Courses at other regular  Med-
ical Institutions, $10.   Graduation fee, $16.  Expense of Board-
ing, &c. $1,50 to $2,25 per week.
                           JOSEPH PERKINS, Registrar.
  Castleton, April 5,1842,