SIGNIFICANCE OF A DIPLOMA:

   A VALEDICTORY ADDRESS
         DELIVERED BEFORE THE

    GRADUATING CLASS
OF THE
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NOVEMBER 19, 1862,
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WM. WAEEEN GEEENE, M. D.
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   PITTSFIELD, MASS.:
HENRY CHICKERING, PRINTER
      18 62. 
Pittsfield, Nov. 20, 1862.
Prof. W. W. Greene,

    Dear Sir:—At a meeting of the  Alumni of the  Berkshire  Medical
College, held last evening, it was the unanimous  request of the members that
a copy of your address, delivered before the Graduating Class, be obtained
for  publication.
  In behalf of the Society and in discharge of my duty as  committee, duly
appointed, I take pleasure  in announcing to you this fact.  Hoping you will
favor us with a copy prepared for  the press, in  addition to  your invaluable
labors already bestowed and most justly  appreciated, I remain,

                       Yours very truly,

                                    I. W. DOTEN, President and Com.
                         Berkshire  Medical College,  Nov. 21,  1862.
Dr. I. W. Doten,

   Dear Sir :—The address is at  your service. To those of you who know
the circumstances under which it was prepared, no apology will  be  necessary
for the marks of haste which it bears.

                          Sincerely yours,

                                         WM. WARREN  GREENE. 
ADDRESS.
 Gentlemen of the Graduating  Class :
     It becomes, to-day, my pleasant duty, in behalf of the Faculty
 of this College, to recognize you as successful candidates  for the
 Degree  of Doctor of Medicine;  to give  you our right hand of
 fellowship, and welcome  you to all the honors and privileges of
 our noble Profession.
   You have just  reason  for pride, my new-born  brethren, when
 after long years of etudy, interrupted and embarassed, as with
 some of you it has been, by sickness or pecuniary need,  you have
 proved yourselves worthy of the honors of this Institution, and have
 received its Diploma ; which marks the honorable termination, of
 your pupilage ; which is  at once the seal  of  our  confidence and
 the key that opens the gate  of social and legal restraint imposed
 between the student and practitioner of .Medicine.  With  all my
 heart I congratulate you upon the position to  which you are this
 day exalted—and  I sincerely sympathize with  you  in all the lively
 emotions that thrill your hearts to-day: the consciousness  of duty
 done ; plans accomplished ;  obstacles overcome; honor acheived;
 and position  gained ; the bright anticipations of  return to homes
 and hearts made  glad  by your  success, and of the fulfilment of
 glorious  hopes in the future.
   And yet, gentlemen, this  hour is to me  full of serious thought.
 When I  reflect that with its close you will leave these quiet halls,
 sacred to the peaceful pursuits of science, to enter upon anew life;
 to assume, amidst a jostling, crowding world,  all the sacred duties
 and fearful responsibilities of the Profession, whose title you now
 wear: that involved in this transition are  not  only your personal
 interests ;  your success  or failure in the great struggle on life's
 battlefield, but the lives, health and happiness of thousands  of the
 human family ; I feel that it is a time not only for congratulation
 and rejoicing,  but for sober thoughts and honest words.
   We have to-day conferred upon you  our certificate  of your fit-
 ness to enter upon the practice of Medicine ; that, if true to your-
 selves and your trusts, you are fit to assume professional responsibili-
 ties.  But  this Diploma is no  warrant of the stand you will take as
 Physicians.  Whether or not in the true  sense of the  term, you
 shall succeed, is to be decided by yourselves ; not by the parchment
of any  school.   Your Degree  merely  assures the public, so  far as
we can judge,  of  your present fitness  and of your  capabilities for
the future.  It testifies of what is, of what may  and ought to be, but
not of what will be.  In other words, we say to the world that you 
4
are fit to  become the guardians of life  and health, and  to  receive
professional  honors and  emoluments,  only  upon  certain  con-
ditions : and now let me give you the burden of  my thoughts by
briefly telling you what those conditions are.
  The first condition then, is strict  temperance in all your habits.
I say first, because upon this depends, to a very great extent, the
value of all other qualifications  in any individual instance.   You
are not to  pervert or unbend your mental, moral  or physical ener-
gies by over-eating, over-drinking, narcotics, or by any irregulari.
ties  or excesses.  The public have  a  right to  demand that you
shall  always be prepared for  emergencies, with  cool heads,  warm
hearts and steady hands.
  The second, and I believe the grand condition, is Love for your
Profession.
  Gentlemen ! have  you thoroughly examined yourselves in this
matter?   Are you prepared to tell me, why you  are here to-day?
Why you have chosen this path for life ?  If you have entered our
ranks from indifferent choice, looking  upon the  practice of Medi-
cine simply as a respectable business, or as a  means of wealth or
position, I can only say that I have no encouragement to offer you
of success or happiness in  your career, or any guarantee  for the
public of your ability or fidelity.
  Love of your Profession for itself alone; for the rich treasures of
knowledge it brings ; for the boundless field for scientific research
it opens, and for the glorious opportunities it offers for  the exer-
cise of the highest style of intellectual power and of all the moral
and christian virtues.  Without such love you will lack that devotion
which is almost its synonyme, and which is the earnest of success.
  The world is full of failures in all departments  of life, from igno-
rance of the law, that taste is, normally, but the offspring of superi-
or ability.   That every man is naturally fitted to excel in something,
and that under proper  education this something will indicate itself
unmistakably in early life.
  Thus one little boy is all engaged in agricultural  pursuits, his head
full  of horses and oxen, ploughs and harrows,  and all his childish
sports are farm-work in miniature.  Another is always in the me-
chanic's shop, watching the movements of machinery and  uses of
tools, spends his coppers for knives and gimlets, and makes his own
playthings.   Another dodges both work and play to bury himself in
some choice book, to draw parallels  or triangles  on his slate, or
sketch his baby brother in the cradle—or  he wanders to gaze upon
the beauty with which the heavens and the earth flood his little soul,
till it is bewildered with longings and joy.  Or,  perhaps, you fol-
low him  to  some of his  retreats, and find him  engaged with a
collection of  frogs, cooly studying Anatomy and  Surgery upon the
same subject.  Now these little fellows are telling you, in the strong-
est language  that Nature can employ, the paths of usefulness and
happiness that God designs them to tread ;  and from disobedience
to these simple  teachings the world is full of blighted, withered
lives.  And yet in ordinary pursuits of life, I can  readily conceive,
how,  thorough mental discipline, a strong will, and a high sense of
moral obligation shall ensure earnest and successful labor in what-
ever position necessity may place the  individual; but I can hard- 
5
ly picture  that devotion which will make a man a life-long, earnest
student, and a diligent, self-sacrificing, kind yet firm, scientific, yet
practical practitioner of Medicine, unless that devotion be born of
love ; yea of passion even, which impels the man toward, and binds
him to, his chosen  work with mysterious and inexplicable bonds ;
enobling and tinging with celestial light what otherwise were dull
drudgery and toil.
  With such devotion you will be, as already intimated, constant
students.   Instead of spending your leisure hours  in clubs or  bil-
liard saloons, or lounging in  country stores  or taverns, you will
make the library, the microscope and all other means of refreshing
and  extending your knowledge, your chosen  companions.  In ad-
dition to the  systematic prosecution of  any particular branch, you
will  daily find, in your cases, abundant material for  thought and in-
vestigation.   In fact, however so much a man may boast of his ex-
perience, unless he is a constant, earnest student, he is ever going
backward.
  Again, you  are to be honest in the practice of your profession.
Ignorance is  ever the victim of dishonesty and fraud, especially,
in Medicine ;  for of no other subject  of equal practical importance,
are the great majority of mankind so profoundly ignorant.   With
no knowledge of the simplest facts or laws of  Anatomical struct-
ure, of Physiological or Pathological conditions or processes, with
no proper estimate of the  conservative or recuperative powers of
Nature, or of the modus operandi of the therapeutic agents, thus
always using the post hoc ergo propter hoc style of argument; is it
strange, that, while in the Christian world which enjoys the light
of Divine Revelation, written in terms so plain that he who runs
may read, we find the Advent Miller and Mormon  Young, count-
ing  their followers by thousands, the  various isms and pathys in
Medicine should have their day ? When, too, we realize that in
our  own ranks we have so many men whose incompetency and dis-
honesty is a constant reproach to the profession.
  People cannot discriminate in these things.  They look upon an
individual Doctor as a representative member of the whole class ;
and  if he chances to be a man lacking professional culture or fideli-
ty—one  who  is constantly giving  medicine  when time  and care
would do the work better ; whose  Diagnoses may be summed up
in a few vague phrases like " Liver Complaint," " Fever," "Stop-
page of Circulation," &c.; who  gives drastic cathartics in Peri-
tonitis, and heavy opiates in Enteritis ;  diuretics in acute Nephri-
tis and mercury in Anemia ; who sees in a rapid  pulse an indica-
tion always for antiphlogistic  treatment,  the activity of which is in
direct proportion to the rapidity; who is thus afloat as a practitioner,
always sure  when in doubt to do something, and do it heroically ;
actually  destroying more lives than he saves ; can you wonder
that any community, ridden by such a man, should give their con-
fidence to the  first quack that comes along, no matter  what his
label?
  Why, gentlemen, he will succeed better, whether he packs them
in wet sheets, vomits them with Lobelia, applies Perkins' " Trac-
tors" to the spine, or tickles their  fancy with sugar pellets; he
will  allow more patients  to recover, especially with these  latter 
6
means, than  the so called, regular  physician, simply  because
his weapons are less dangerous.  Thus it is, that men whose utter
lack of philosophy and integrity is cloaked by a diploma from some
regular College of Medicine and Surgery, destroy the  public con-
fidence in  the profession as  a  whole,  and open up the  highway
over which quackery, in all  its forms, travels to the hearts  and
purses of the people.
   This is no flattering picture, but it is  true.  Ask  your venera-
ble President here, laden with honors, as with years, whose life has
been an expression of enthusiastic devotion to his profession ;  ask
him if I say too much in asserting that quackery within  the pro-
fession is responsible for quackery out of it.
   Yes, be honest; be truthful;  not harsh or rude, but always speak
the truth when you speak.  You are not to  magnify trifling ills for
the sake of fee or eclat.   You are not to give medicine or  use sur-
gical  appliances  until you see the indication.  Remember your
business is to care for your patient—cura—care.  To see him safely
through his danger, giving Nature  every opportunity to do  her
own work, ready at any moment to assist her faltering powers.
   I am aware that many delicate questions arise here.  Mankind
are not only so credulous, but  capricious, that the man of highest
integrity and purest motives may be perplexed as to his duty under
certain circumstances.  Queen  Anne, you know, would insist that
she had inflammation of the brain, while Dr. Redcliffe as strenuous-
ly insisted  that hysteria explained all her symptoms.
   Dr. R. was dismissed for his impudence, and a physician called
who allowed her majesty to have just  such disease as pleased her,
thereby adding both to his reputation and purse.  With many peo-
ple it is fashionable to have grave diseases.   It is such a  comfort
to have escaped  great danger ;  to be able to sympathize with your
neighbor in all his sufferings; to feel that you are a brand  plucked
from the  burning, by the hand of your  pet physician ;  and it may
be questioned whether it is not  sometimes allowable  in the physi-
cian to permit his patients thus to amuse  themselves.  All such
matters you will readily settle by doing just what you believe  the
good of your palient demands, leaving self entirely out of question.
   Not only are you to be honest with your  patients, but with your
professional brethren.  You  will not credit or circulate  the silly
gossip that is always floating about "the  Doctor," but  wait for
the evidence.
   You will not avail yourself of the credulity of his patients, or of
yours ;  of  the fickle current of popular prejudice or  his unavoida-
ble misfortunes, to injure  his reputation  by  wise looks,  mysteri-
ous nods,  or sarcastic words.   You will not treat him kindly to
his face, and all the time  be setting back fires upon his  reputa-
tion.  You are not to visit his patients  in his absence,  and con-
sole them  or their friends with the assurance that  they  will  re-
cover if they are treated properly.
   While you are not to cover crime or  conceal gross blunders, or
do anything that shall compromise the safety of the sick  or your
own honor ; you are to remember that he, like yourself, as being
mortal is fallible, and  that the highest degree of professional know-
ledge or skill,  at present attainable, falls far short of perfection. 
7
  Again, you are  to  be forbearing.  Forbearing with  the  sick,
with all their petulance and caprice.  Treat them in this respect
like children.  Forbearing, too, under all the scandal or misrepre-
sentation to which you may be subjected by community, orby your
unworthy professional brethren. Do right; devote yourselves with
singleness  of purpose to your profession, and you can afford to
wear all the mud-spots your chariot wheels will throw.   Don't
soil your fingers by trying to rub them off.
  You are to  be pure :  pure in thought, word and deed.  So pure
that into your presence, poor stricken humanity comes with child-
like  confidence and trust, telling all its wants and suffering, re-
ceiving all its need, and goes out unblushing and unashamed.  So
pure that when you enter the family circle, open to you as to none
other, its sanctity shall remain as if only the recording  angel had
been there.
   You  are to be  kind and  generous to  the worthy  poor.    Do
not  misunderstand  me upon  this point.   For the  exercise  of
professional judgment and skill to all who are able to  render com-
pensation, charge an  adequate fee and collect your bills.  Nor are
you to  spend your time and strength for  those whose poverty is
only the measure of their indolence, or  who lack all  gratitude or
appreciation of your  services ;  unless the public consent to share
the  burden with you.   There are bounds here, which common jus-
tice, and the laws of self-preservation even, suggest.
   But the helpless child ;  the lone  orphan ; the widowed mother ;
the  down trodden ; the unfortunate ; all appeal to your sympathy
and aid, in the name  of Him who bore the  cross of suffering hu-
manity.  And, gentlemen, here is the noblest prerogative of our
Profession;  that to  the  lowest and vilest, in  the hour  of dire
extremity,  it comes  with all its  knowledge and skill, sustaining
neither loss nor pollution.
   You  will have sufficient reward in the  thanksgivings of grate-
ful hearts, that recognize in you the hand that saved the loved ones
from suffering and death.
   With benevolence  comes moral courage  and  patriotism.   And
it is with pride  that I claim for my profession, a place  second  to
no other in the exhibition of these virtues.  No matter whence the
cry for succor ; whether  from pestilence-stricken cities, or  gory
battle-fields; quietly and  calmly have our brethren  gone  forth,
regardless of hardship or danger, with  no  sound of  trumpets  or
gilded equipage, simply doing their duty  ; knowing,
                  " The fittest place for man to die,
                  Is where he dies a man."
   Let me relate one  incident that occurred while I was upon the
Peninsula during the bloody campaign of last summer.  During
the battle of Williamsburg, in the edge of the forest  skirting the
battle-field, a soldier was struck by a bit of shell which  severed
the  brachial artery. Faint from the profuse hemorrhage, he fell just
as a surgeon  was riding rapidly past, toward the front, to get or-
ders for establishing  a hospital at a certain point.  The poor fel-
low had just strength to raise his bleeding arm and say " Doctor,
please !"   The Doctor dismounted and rapidly ligated the vessel,
applied a compress and bandage, and administered  a  cordial.  As 
8
he  turned to  go  away,  the man asked,  " Doctor, what's  your

name."   "No matter," said the Surgeon,  and  leaping upon his

horse dashed away.   " Ah !  but  Doctor," said the wounded  man,

"I want to tell my wife  and children xoho saved me."

  Need I tell you how forcibly  this brought to my mind,  those

words of another.
                    As life's unending column pours,
                      Two marshalled hosts are seen ;
                    Two armies on the trampled shores
                      That death flows black between.

                    One marches to the drum-beat's roll,
                      The wide-mouthed clarion's bray ;
                    And  bears upon its crimson scroll,
                      " Our glory is to slay."

                    One moves in silence by the stream,
                      With sad yet watchful eyes ;
                    Calm as the planet's patient gleam
                      That walks the cloudless skies.

                    Along its front no sabres shine,
                      No blood-red pennons wave ,
                    Its banner bears the single line,
                      " Our duty is to save."

                    For those no death-bed's lingering shades ;
                      At Honor's trumpet call,
                    With knitted brow and lifted blade,
                      In Glory's arms they fall.

                    For these no clashing falchions bright,
                      No stirring battle cry ;
                    The bloodless stabber comes by night,
                      Bach answers,  '' Uere am I."

                    For those the sculptor's laurelled bust,
                      The builder's marble piles ;
                    Anthems pealing o'er their dust,
                      Through long cathedral aisles.

                    For these the blossom sprinkled turf
                      That floods the lonely graves,
                     When spring tolls in her sea-green surf
                      In flowery-foaming waves.

                    Two  paths lead upward from below,
                      And angels wait above,
                    Who count each burning life drop's flow,
                      Bach falling tear of love.

                    Though, from the Hero's bleeding breait,
                      Her pulses Freedom drew ;
                     Though the white lilies in her crest
                      Sprang from the scarlet dew i

                     While valor's haughty champions wait,
                      Till all their scars are shown,
                     Love walks unchallenged through the gate,
                       And sits beside the throne.

   Thus  gentlemen, have I hastily told you what I deem to be the

 significance of your Diplomas;  and although the conditions imposed

 are  a life of  self-sacrificing  devotion  and  love  to your chosen

 work;  if you are thoroughly imbued with this spirit, they will not

 seem hard or exacting.
   And let me assure you that with  these qualities your success is

 certain    You will have no occasion to search  for the "Secret of

 Success."   You  hold it in your hands.   The world has need of all

 such men.                                                             ,
   Trusting that  such a life  may belong to  each of you,  and

 that  at  its close you may  fall asleep, with  saying faith, in  the

 arms of the Great Physician ; in behalf of my Colleagues, I bid you

 an affectionate farewell.