VALEDICTORY address ON THE SOURCES AND BENEFITS or PROFESSIONAL EARNESTNESS. BY JOHN P. HARRISON, DEAN OF THE FACULTY. VALEDICTORY ADDRESS OR THE SOURCES AND BENEFITS PROFESSIONAL EARNESTNESS DELIVERED MARCH 3, 1849, TO THE (fitaxltoates of tfje Uteuiml College of (fltyio. n/ BY JOHN P. HARRISON, M. D.f DEAN OF THE FACULTY. .,:■-&>& fciU-4 CINCINNATI: PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE "WESTERN/ LANCET." Ark., Cincinnati, March 3, 1849. At "a meeting of the Graduates, held in College Hall, H. H. Young was called to the chair, and John McElwee appointed Secretary. On motion, it was Resolved, That a Committee of five be appointed by the Class, to wait upon Prof. J. P. Harrison, and request of him a copy of Valedic- dictory address for publication; whereupon Messrs. J. S. Norris, T. B. Williams, T. Smith, F. A.J. Gervve, and H. Coleman, were appoin- ted said Committee. On motion the meeting adjourned. H. H. Young, President. John McElwee, Secretary. CORRESPONDENCE. College Hall, March 3, 1849. Prof. J. P. Harrison: Dear Sir:—The members of the Medical Class, having heard with great pleasure your interesting and eloquent Valedictory, deliver- ed this evening, do, through their Committee, respectfully solicit the favor of a copy for publication. Respectfully yours, John S. Norris, ^ T. B. Williams, T. Smith, }- Committee. F. A. J. Gerwe, | H. Coleman. J Fourth & Race Streets. Gentlemen: I cheerfully comply with your request. Yours &c, JOHN P. HARRISON. John S. Norris, } T.;%B. Williams, j T. Smith, \ Committee. F. A. J. Gerwe, H. Coleman. J VALEDICTORY ADDRESS. Gentlemen : After an assiduous application of your powers to the study of medical science, you stand invested with the honors of the doctorate. Well have you acquitted yourselves in the ardu- ous task of attendance on our prelections and demonstration? during the past .winter. Days and weeks, and months have elapsed since you came together, as students of a high and useful branch of human learning, that your minds might be furnished with the acquisitions needful to an honorable pros- ecution of the practice of medicine. And now, ere we sep- arate, permit me to address a few suggestions to your candid and considerate attention, which may, I hope, tell on your future history; which may direct your footsteps, and uphold your course through the coming years of your profession- al life. The special subject chosen for my remarks this evening, is professional earnestness—its sources and benefits. Earnestness of character, prompting to a warm and eager pursuit of the great interests of human existence, is a fine, ennobling trait of the American people. The soil we tread is full of the mementos of this trait of character—whether we live amidst the scenes consecrated to immortality by the valorous deeds of our fathers, as they hand to hand, in their animated struggles for freedom, met and beat back a civilized foe, or walk over the ground dyed with the blood of wes- tern pioneers, shed by a savage enemy. The air we breathe is rife with the quickening elements of an earnest life;—no- sound floats on the breeze but the voice of freemen, calling on each other to renewed efforts in the race of social pro- gress. The heavens echo back the sound, and all nature travails together in earnest manifestations of the living pow- er, and inspiring hopefulness, of the glorious de|tiny which awaits us. 4 tion, have their eves directed towards us. A jubilee has gone forth to the ends of the earth; old institutions are crumbling awav; kings and kingdoms are receding beneath the beams of human liberty, and with America's noble example blazing high above all that the past and present can signalize, we at once attest the value of earnestness of character, and the goodness of that Providence which has crowned that ear- nestness with such bright and glorious fruits. Earnestness, in the prosecution of any enterprise, involves four fundamental attributes of our nature. First, a deep and settled conviction of mind as regards the importance of the subject which has awakened this feeling. Second, a glowing atmosphere of interest and attractiveness which invests the enterprise. Third, a generous enthusiasm which feeds with undying lustre the warmth of the emotions by which the subject is invested with such a halo of interest and attrac- tiveness. And fourth, the rejoicing consciousness of duty fulfilled—of having acted right in our earnest denotement to the line of pursuit we have engaged in, with full engrossment of all our best powers. There are six distinct, and mutually blended influences which operate in the creation, and sustained action of pro- fessional earnestness in the mind of the aspiring physician. These are, first, the enlarged scope of mental activity afford- ed to the most cultivated faculties in the profound subjects of inquiry presented in the science of medicine. Second, the wide field of investigation yet to be traversed, that life and its mysteries, disease and its recondite nature, with the most apt methods of arresting its fatal tendencies, may be more thoroughly explored and elucidated. Third, the spirit of the age, which is every where in ceaseless, busy operation, mov- ing, agitating, and transforming. Fourth, the necessity which is laid on the regular profession to contend with the encroach- ing empiricism which lifts its threatening front, and utters its menaces on every side. Fifth, the urgent calls of human- ity; and sixth, the generous appeals of a just emulation, which demands of each physician an entire dedication of his ener- gies to his profession, lest, in the race of competition, he be left behind, an inglorious loiterer in the way. The terms of a just and apt relation between the faculties of the mind, and of the objects which require a strenuous exercise of these faculties, are found to exist in the science of medicine. There is a counterpart presentment. Man has vast capacities of thought, and medical science presents a 5 most abundant opportunity for the intent application of the human faculties. And no one can master the varied truths —penetrate the depths, and ascend the heights of investiga- tion presented in the science of medicine, without the most earnest consecration of his time, and devotement of his mind, to their perquisition. It is no castle of indolence which the student enters when he commences the study of medicine. There is no " pleas- ing land of drowsy head;" here are " no dreams that wave before the half-shut eye," nor " gay castles in the clouds that pass, forever flushing round a summer sky;" but he who en- gages in this good cause must come prepared to sum up all his best resources of patience, of industry, of zeal, and of ardent aspirations after knowledge. The science of medicine is the science of health, and of disease. Its basis is laid in a knowledge of the structure and functions of the human body in health. And that this know- ledge may be accurate and minute, comprehensive and just, the comparative anatomy and physiology of inferior animals must be diligently investigated. And then to this precise consideration of the varied organic adjustments, and textural arrangements of the physical frame of man, must be super- added a philosophical conception of his mental constitution. For medicine has to do with the deranged states of mind as well as disordered conditions of the body. Now the myste- ries of our complex organism begin to open before the pen- etrating eye of science as with patient toil, the anatomist and physiologist disentangle the puzzled skein which binds the different parts of the system together in unity of action and harmony of design, and as certain enigmas of the metaphy- sical, are solved by a clear understanding of the various states of the physical portion of our nature. The endless forms of morbid action, incident to the elabor- ate machinery of life, under the disturbing influences which are forever operating bowi on body and mind in our luxurious civilization, require great labor for their due investigation. And the copious opulence of our present Materia Medica, in whose ample resources are found medicines taken from the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, asks at our hands a most industrious application of our powers for a just appre- ciation of the therapeutic virtues of these diversified agents. How can these hard and intricate problems of life, and of disease, of the laws which preside over the conservation of the system, and of the tendencies which are constantly 6 threatening its dissolution, be revealed to our minds, except we, with intense earnestness, strive to reach their acquisition. Professional earnestness is demanded by the still imperfect state, but though imperfect, still progressive condition, of medical science. Imperfection attaches to every branch of human inquiry that deals with the elements of a variable kind. Abstract science, which has to do with magnitude and space, and numbers, is certain, because all its investigations are grounded on fixed data. But the mixed sciences, and those divisions of mental effort which refer to modes of re- search grounded on discovery of new truths, and which are ever seeking for fresh revelations of nature as she places phe- nomena in new relations, or as experiment compels her to vary her aspects, must remain imperfect as long as the human intellect possesses inquisitiveness to push its exploring way into new fields of inquiry, and the boundless riches of crea- tion lie around, above and beneath us, waiting for fresh dis- closures of truth. But though not a perfect science, medicine is ever moving onward and upward to a more elevated position; whilst " hills peep o'er hills, and alps on alps arise," yet already from the summits won, a glorious panorama spreads around; already the eye sweeps a wide circle of culture, and the heart is cheered by the abundant demonstrations of the fertility of beauty, fulness and life, of the regions traversed. .The spirit of the age calls upon us to exercise a deep and animated interest in the great questions of our calling. The breath of a new life has diffused itself among men ; the eye is kindled up with new fires ; the brain, that workshop and forging house of thought, sleeps no longer over the dull cru- dities of the past, but in ceaseless activity is working out new issues of truth, and with redundant freshness and fulness is pouring forth brighter creations of genius, and more glorious forms of philosophy; the heart of man teems with more no- ble breathings after excellence ; and the hand of man is ear- nestly and busily engaged in executing the promptings of the heart, under the guidance of the intellect; space is annihil- ated, " panting time" overtaken, and nature made subservient to the purposes of the child of earth. Man so closely presses on the seraph's wing, that, in the language of a great poet, " 'Tis hard to say which is the seraph, which the child of clay." Amidst all this glory of the race; amidst all these brilliant achievements, and signal manifestations of mental power, 7 shall our profession remain inert? amused spectators, shall we be of the busy scene around, and not feel the stir? Shall no earnest life be shown in the medical profession, whilst the glowing mass of mankind are throwing out such tides of burning energy? Awake, arise, with deathless fervor fraught, Go, spring the mine of elevated thought— Pour out your souls in inspiring freeness; in fervent con- secration of thought give yourselves up to the high trusts, and solemn purposes of your profession! The same sun that quickens into beauty and usefulness the foliage, and flowers, and fruitage of the earth that delight the eye, and please the palate, and nourish the body, imparts virulence to the lurid plants which prove inimical to the life, as well as nauseous to the taste of man. Thus whilst the vivifying beams of popular freedom have nourished into life the fair and useful results of legitimate medicine, they have animated into disastrous being the vile offspring of a crude system of medication. So when the Jewish leader stretched his arm, And waved his rod divine, a race obscure Spawned in the muddy beds of Nile, came forth; The croaking nuisance lurked"in every nook, Nor halls of legislation 'scaped, And the land stank, so numerous was the fry. Let us with earnestness, as a profession, oppose these abom- inable imitations of true science; these spurious, ill-concoct- ed, misshapen, abortive schemes of practice, which conceived in ignorance or wrong-headiness, brought forth in impudence or strong-headedness, dry-fed *by vanity, or lightheadedness, and distended by the fumes of a fitful, popular breath, are strutting and vaporing in professional apishness, as if truth smiled on their impostures, and science claimed their tricke- ries and shallow devices, tattered and made stale in the ser- vice of quackery. There are additional, and yet more urgent reasons, derived from the benevolent spirit and humane intentions of the medical profession which should prompt us to augmented diligence in our calling. In sickness, encompassed with the frailties, and borne down by the sufferings of a physical frame, now no longer capable of executing the mandates of the will, and with a mind enfeebled and agitated by the dis- *tfS-f 8 ordered functions of the body, man realizes his dependence upon the kind ministrations of his friends for the preserva- tion of his life, and imploringly directs his eyes to the skill of the physician for his restoration to health. Science lights up the chamber of sickness with the radi- ance of hope, and sheds upon the couch of the patient the blessings of returning strength. Gathering up the trophies of her conquest over nature, she summons the various con- tributions rendered to art from the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, and freely and lavishly offers them in the cause of suffering humanity. Collecting the fly from the sunny regions of Spain and Italy, iodine from the fuci of the Mediterranean, opium from Turkey, bark from the Andes, ipecacuanha from Brazil, and last, though by no means least, antimony and mercury from various parts of the world, more widely distributed by the hand of nature, than the other val- uable articles of the Materia Medica.; blinded by no preju- dice, mislead by no abject acquiescence to popular notions, and not perverted by sinister calculations of interest, sci- ence looks to the well being of the sick, and not to the transient favor of incompetent judges, and with enlightened authority claims the respect and consideration of every man whose mind is open to conviction, and whose bosom glows with philanthropy. Nor will the benevolence of our profession permit us to remain mere passive spectators of disease, as it preys upon the vital powers of the sick. Cautious and circumspect, vig- ilent and prompt, will the enlightened practitioner ever be as he deals with the elements of life and death; but he can not so far prostitute his high calling, nor so compromise the sol- emn responsibilities of his position at the bed-side of an afflicted fellow being, as to stand by, amidst the struggles of disordered nature, a passive observer of the scene. No, he will not, he can not, if belonging to the honored ranks of the regular profession, palter to the sick man in this double sense; hold out the signals of friendly aid, whilst, derelict in execution of his sacred trust, he utterly disappoints his hope. And his sense of self-respect, of professional dignity, and of moral obligation will not allow him to substitute the charla- tan trumpery of the mock heroic in. medicine for a real and decisive interference with disease. He, therefore, utterly ab- hors, repudiates, and with ineffable disdain rejects at once and forever all vain tampering with disease. Truth, theoretic and practical;—truth in its scientific de- 9 inonstrations and useful ends; truth in all the beanty and glo- ry of its ideal excellence, and in all the effectiveness and hu- manity of its applications, is to the conscientious and well instructed physician the supreme object of his reverence, his love, his joy. Insphered in the radiant image of its immor- tal being, and under all the incarnations of its earthly form, truth is ever shedding its mild and enlivening rays on the path of the true physician. And assured that humanity is ever " twinned with truth," and from truth " hath no divid- ual being," he will most earnestly contend for the truth, no matter what maledictions the apostate followers of medicine may utter against his practice. The last inducement which I will bring forward to urge to professional earnestness, is a generous emulation for excel- lence. Whatever abstract objections may be urged against the spirit of emulation in its excessive or perverted operation upon the mind, yet we think it a well established truth, that man is essentially a very emulous creature; he is ever impel- led by a love for comparative trials of strength, of skill, and of heroic daring. With some noble exhibition of intellectual or moral superiority before him, he abandons his wonted in- dolence, foregoes the petty gratification of physical indulgence and yields up his faculties and energies to. a strenuous com- petition for the prize set before his eager longings. Blended with the love of truth, and kept in due subordina- tion to the rigid guardianship of conscience, emulation is a noble spur " wherewith to prick the sides of our intent," in all our professional ways. Emulous of scientific renown, we trim the midnight lamp;—emulous of professional reputation we court the good will of the distinguished sons of medicine, and emulous of social regard we consecrate, with well sus- tained earnestness, our days and nights to the duties of our- vocation. To the bosom which burns with the least degree of ingen- uous pride, how harrowing is the reflection that others have won the goal, and seized upon the rewards of successful toil,, whilst from intellectual inertness, and want of moral deter- mination, the loiterer in the race is left to " upbraid his little heart's inglorious aim "—left to secret repinings which embit- ter life, and to the sad lamentation that, from the absence of a generous emulation, his days must be spent in obscurity,. un cheered, and unrelieved by even the conscious assurance that he had done as well as his circumstances would allow. To such a man life is bereft of its most endearing associatipnis,, 10 by having the great animating principle of activity annulled, and thus curtailed and dwarfed of its fair proportions, the soul sinks down into abjectness of desire, all those sky-aspi- ring and ambitious thoughts which were wont to traverse the wide horizon of life, now contracted, shrunk, and wither- ed under the blighting spell of a low and sordid calculation of the mere physical enjoyments of existence. The benefits which spring from professional earnestness re- late to society, to the sick, to the medical profession, and to the individual who is the partaker of this principle of con- duct. The community is always a large recipient of the benefi- cial results which flow from earnestness of effort on the part of those who are prosecuting useful pursuits. Look around in society, and see who are the men who work out the high- est ends, and achieve the greatest triumphs in all honorable, useful avocations. Are they not the earnest, those whose souls are kindled up with enthusiastic ardor, whose entire na- ture is enlisted, the mind filled with eager conceptions and constant ruminations on the favorite theme, the affections wrapt in intense earnestness, and the physical powers taxed to the utmost to the accomplishment of the desiderated ob- ject? The head may be surcharged with endless trains of ra- tiocination, and eloquence may distil from the lips in copious effluence; logic and rhetoric the most acute and persuasive may put forth their noblest efforts to recommend and uphold a good cause,—and yet if we see that no earnest deeds ac- company these appeals, how little are we moved in our appre- ciation and acceptance of a cause thus espoused and thus en- forced. Earnestness wins the day, whilst good intention is forming its plans; earnestness keeps the field, whilst good intention li^s snug and inactive in downy recumbency. The public are always benefitted by earnest men, when em- ployed in a laudable enterprise, in four ways. First, their zeal awakens attention and consideration to the merits of the subject which engrosses them; second, a benign and pu- rifying moral influence is exerted by every such dem- onstration as goes to show the worth of that undertaking that thus has enlisted the warm sympathies and roused the active capabilities of the earnest man; third, the cause cannot be promoted in its inherent and essential interest?, except by men determined on the progress of the scheme which occu- pies their attention; and, fourth, it is only by earnestness of effort that the most enlarged and diversified applications 11 of any useful design or calling, can be made to bear upon the greatest variety of cases. Professional earnestness aggrandizes the great interest of medical science in the estimation of the public : fills the con- templative mind with ennobling images of the dignity and uti- lity of the healing art; elicits applause from every one suscept- ible of sympathy towards a beneficient calling, and carries down in humane acts to the poorest and humblest in society the multiplied benefits of the science of medicine. Destitute of a sedulous addictedness to the responsible duties of his pro- fession how can the medical practitioner be instant in season and out of season in the prosecution of his daily, hourly task, of administering to the pains, and woes of those afflicted by disease who may solicit his healing interference 1 And un- visited by that genial inspiration, which comes from an earn- est collectedness of thought on the truths of medical science. and from the concentrated regard on the skilful application of the principles of medicine at the bed-side, how is it within the compass of human probability, that the medical practitioner can ever advance in the knowledge of his profession, or, with even moderate success fulfill the many onerous duties apper- taining to the daily exercise of his vocation ! The profession of medicine is a unit—its unity is made up by the bonds of science, by the feelings which regulate the deportment of gent- lemen, by a community of interests, and by a pervading senti- ment of humanity toward their afflicted fellow beings. With a cosmopolite spirit every genuine physician views the general advancement of medical science. Limited by no bound- ary lines of geographical range, and confined within no pe- culiarities of sect, we hold communion of thought, and reci- procate kind regards, with every true cultivator of the heal- ing art wherever he may be found, under whatever clime he breaths his natal air, and by whatever social institutions he may be surrounded. As gentlemen, wherever we come in direct proximity with each other, our deportment is under the strict control of a kindly and courteous sentiment; a liberal and respectful refer- ence to the feelings and rights of each other, actuates our inter- course. And aware that our professional standing, greatly depends upon the common sentiment of society, as respects the whole body of which each physician is a member, we are careful to maintain the general reputation of the profes- sion. Utterly abhorrent, therefore it is to the honorable mind- ed physician to observe any charlatanry ; it is repugnant to 12 his nature to connive at any impositions perpetrated by me- dical men upon the credulity of mankind. And by the purifying influence of that benevolence which binds the regular profession still more intimately in consentient action, in devising and executing schemes of a public as well as private character, to meliorate the onset of disease, and to prevent its encroachment, the entire body of the legitimate sons of Esculapius; we feel as if they belong to a dignified, time-honored and catholic brotherhood. Earnest let us be in keeping up in living warmth, in vital force, in undecaying lustre, the bonds of union which connect all parts of the profession together. Enriched with the inher- itance of scientific wealth, transmitted from the days of the Coan Sage, and augmented by accessions through each suc- ceeding age, let us do our best to add to these treasures of me- dical truth, by offering some contributions of our own; the fruit of our earnest dedication to this glorious cause. With earnestness let us strive to exalt the profession in the respect and consideration of society, by maintaining an un- stained moral demeanor, by assiduous attendance on the sick, by kindness to the poor, and by candid, liberal, gentlemanly bearing toward one another. The beneficial effects of professional earnestness, as regards each individual who realizes this principle of activity in his own person, are six: First.—It developes the man; Second.—It makes him happy; Third.—It renders him useful; Fourth.—It attracts notice and favorable regards towards him ; Fifth.—It draws down the blessings of providence upon his life, and Sixth.—It consumates the great purpose of his earthly mis- sion, gives completion to the scheme of providence in his crea- tion, by a pratical attestation that he has not wasted his days in shapeless idleness nor roved in folly over the stage of life. It is by a strenuous exercise of the faculties conferred upon him that a man educes, brings out the dormant capabilities of his character. Beneath the fair and enchanting virtues and accomplishments of his nature there must glow the central fire of a lofty enthusiam. For under the chilling atmosphere, and amid the discouragements and opposition of the world, how can the efflorescence and the fruitfulness of a high spir- 13 itual life reveal themselves unless he feel within some source of moral power. "Sweet refreshings which repair the strength, And fainting spirits uphold." Breaking through the incumbrances which impede his way the earnest man rises in spite of fortune's load, and going on from strength to strength, from victory to victory, he lives down the voice of defamation, and in the brilliant career he pursues, the clouds of malice which for a times dimmed his track, but reflect his beams, and augment his glory. The in- tent prosecution of a good undertaking, by calling out a man's energies and not allowing a single spare faculty to fust with- in, unused, makes the wheels of life to run smoothly along the rugged road of existence. Contentment with ourselves, with our lot, with our prospects, with the world around, never vi- sits the heart and habitation of that loiterer along the throng- ed and busy thoroughfares of society. Poor, pitiful, and painful is his case, who is forever lamenting that his sphere of life is a hard one, and who, instead of putting on the armor of a heroic spirit, girding himself about with truth, and encasing his brow with the helmet of hope, having on the breastplate of integrity, cowers abashed at the faintest noise of coming danger, and ingloriously mutters in the dust his puling lamen- tations over the hard destiny which besets him. A useful life, and happy days are coincident. The Etern- al Sovereign of the skies never designed a lazy man to be hap- py. He, the All-Wise and Ever-Blessed, never intermits, ne- ver pauses in his creative, sustaining agency. And He has endowed his immortal creature, man, with faculties and ener- gies capable of indefinite expansion; has lit up in his bosom a flame, which shall burn when stars are extinguished, and op- ened before his aspiring soul an interminable vista of a happy, active, growing existence. Whatever innocent, whatever use- ful occupation the mind has before it, should fully engross its attention, and elicit its latent activity. The earnest man, though wicked, often draws upon himself the admiring eyes of mankind. For however destitute themselves of earnestness and decision, men love to contemplate exemplifications of these attributes of character in others. Thus hero-worship; thus an infatuated abandonment of the soul of the multitude to the apotheosis of their illustrious fellow worms; thus are they led to build their idol a pedestal upon which they place him, whilst they cry, "Stand there and be our admiration and our praise, whilst we crawl to inglorious graves around thy feet." 14 Earth cannot exhibit a more glorious display of human ex- cellence;—a more luminous fulfilment of man's heaven-born. and heaven-tending nature, than when with holy earnestness, as a messenger of that cause, which "makes known unto prin- cipalities and powers, in heavenly places, the manifold wis- dom of God," we see a fellow being giving himself up, with- out stint, and without reservation, to the high and hallowed impulses of his mission. And the medical practitioner, in an inferior degree only to the legate of the skies, who yields him- self up to a divine earnestness in affording relief to the physi- cal as well as mental sufferings of his race, deserves the be- nedictions of every virtuous spectator of his ardor and of his usefulness. The selected blessings of heaven are ever shed upon the head of that man who employs well the talent or talents, committed to his trust, to be used for the good of man- kind, for the promotion of his own present and future well- being, and for the declarative glory of the Divine Benefactor. To him that hath shall be given; to him that stirs up the gilt that is within him, and who courts with fond assiduity every opportunity for the fair and apposite exertion of his pow- ers, shall be multiplied the choicest favors of the supreme re- warder. He shall have peace and joy, and contentment, and strength in his own soul; he shall see the work in which his hands are engaged prosper; he shall be like a fruitful tree, in a propitious soil, refreshed by the well spring of living waters which is ever kept supplied by the river of life; upon whose branches the birds of heaven carol; upon whose leaves the dews of heaven distil, and which bringeth forth fruit for the good of mankind. But the idle and inert, are those whose nature is steeped to the very lips in Lethe's flood;—they have no eye for intel- lectual and moral excellence, no ear for the sweet sounds of that voice which calls the universe to action, and no heart to receive and echo back the sentiment of the great, and good, and wise of all ages, that life is given man, with all "his large discourse of reason, looking before and after," to be filled up with deeds of useful industry, and to be crowned and adorn- ed with acts of beneficence and piety. To lift our nature from the abject to the sublime, from the sordid to the pure, from the narrow calculations of the pre- sent to the august realities of the future, is the great end of our moral discipline on earth. And to act well our parts in the mingled drama of time; to fill our appropriate orbit, whilst circulating round the uncreated central light of all 15 minds; to discharge with fidelity and with alacrity our duties in any responsible station, we have need of earnestness to bear us onward over the obstructions which check our course, and to give us victory over the numerous foes which harass our march. Gentlemen graduates, to-morrow's sun will witness our separation ;—you are about to return to your homes, there to be greeted by the smiles of friends and the salutations of your respective neighborhoods. In the name of the august vocation which you have chosen, and crowned with the hon- ors of which you now appear before this large and intelligent audience, and before this dignified board of trustees, I, as Dean of the Faculty, exhort you to live up to the privileges and discharge well the duties of the medical profession. In the strength of an earnest zeal for the improvement of your minds in the knowledge of the art of detecting and curing diseases, go forth on your several errands of mercy; ever possess that enlarged conception of the worth, dignity, and utility of medicine as will urgently impel you to an unceas- ing cultivation of its scientific principles, and to a most sed- ulous application of these principles at the sick couch of your suffering fellow-beings. And may the blessings of heaven accompany all your measures and all your labors;—may many rise from their beds of agony and call you blessed; and may the smiles of a gracious Saviour be ever on your path. So may'st thou live, till like ripe fruit thou drop Into thy'mother's lap, or be with ease Gathered, not harshly plucked, for death mature. k;t / if. A , f r