Valedictory Address, DELIVERED AT THE ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT OF THE KaHMAM fjllM, fjfjoLLEGE, OF PHILADELPHIA. MARCH 10th, 1875; BY O. B. GAUSE, M. D., Professor of Midwifery. PHILADELPHIA : Bering, Pope & Co., Printers, 112 and 114 North Twelfth Street. i 875- Ilering, Pope & Co., Book and Job Printers, See Advertisement on Third Page. Valedictory Address, DELIVERED AT THE ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT OF THE JjjjABMAI fj§EDICAL jjJoLIffi, OF PHILADELPHIA. MARCH 10th, 1875; BY O. B. M. D., Professor of Midwifery. PHILADELPHIA: Bering, Pope & Co., Printers, 112 and 114 North Twelfth Street. 1875. President, HOWARD MAL.COM, D.D., LL.D. Secretary, Treasurer, D. T. PRATT. JOHN W. SEXTON ofj Jt|edwtie. H. N. GUERNSEY, M.D., . Emeritus Professor of Materia Medica. JOHN C. MORGAN, M.D., • Emeritus Professor of Surgery. H. NOAH MARTIN, M.D., Professor of Practice of Medicine, Pathology and Diagnosis. A. R. THOMAS, M.D., Dean, Professor of Anatomy. LEMUEL STEPHENS, M.D., Professor of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and Toxicology. 0. B. GAUSE, M.D., Registrar, Professor of Midwifery and Diseases of Women and Children. MALCOLM MACFARLAN, M.D., Professor of Clinical Surgery. C. CARLETON SMITH, M.D., Professor of Institutes and Clinical Medicine. E. A. FARRINGTON, M.D., Professor of Materia Medica. B. FRANK BETTS, M.D., Professor of Physiology and Microscopic Anatomy. Hon. J. T. PRATT, Lecturer on Forensic Medicine. R. B. WEAVER, M.D., I Demonstrator of Anatomy. J. N. MITCHELL, M.D., Assistant Demonstrator of Anatomy. C. M. THOMAS. M.D., Demonstrator of Surgery. M. S. WILLIAMSON, M.D., Librarian. VALEDICTORY ADDRESS. Gentlemen of the Graduating Class : In conformity to the custom of this college, I come before you to-day to utter a few parting words in the name of the faculty. First, I desire to express the great satisfaction which your conduct as students lias given us. Your attention, industry and perseve- rance have enabled you to pass a most creditable and rigid examina- tion. The diplomas which will this day be bestowed upon you, and each of you, certify to your attainments, and will accord you an honorable introduction into the ranks of the medical profession, with all the honors, responsibilities and emoluments incident thereto. If we may be permitted to foreshadow your career as practitioners, we may say that you can hardly fail of success, if you continue to put forth the same energy and application to business, which have distinguished your career as students. You have reached your present attainments by two agencies.— Thoughtful study of your text books; enforced and illustrated by your teachers. You doubtless realize the full value of the labors of your Alma Mater. You have learned to depend upon us for the elucidation and illustration of that which had else remained obscure and difficult of comprehension. During these years of pupilage, you have been receiving and appropriating; every faculty and 5 6 sense have been bent to the one task of acquisition. Heretofore, you have been eager, diligent gatherers; you must continue to he so; hut hereafter, you must apply that which you have or may garner, for the benefit of those "who are sick. Doubtless you have noticed, that in every walk and department of life, there are a few men who excel their compeers. What is it that enables one man to outstrip an hundred, in the same race ? Why is it that but ten succeed where a thousand contend ? It is the ability to use to the best advantage their knowledge; to make it practically available, and especially, to promote the welfare of others. How may you best become fitted to give to others, that which you have gathered? By first making it your own in a higher sense than that of mere acquisition. That which you have acquired as students is as yet but borrowed. It is seed which we have sown, dropped into the soil of your minds, there to germinate and spring up as new plants and bear fruit, which you may give out for the benefit of others. Let not the soil become fallow, lest the seed die or imper- fectly germinate. Continue to cultivate it; let it have the warmth and sunlight of thought,—your own thought—together with critical and close observation, and you will rapidly make it your own, an organic part of your mental being, and then, and not till then will you become qualified to successfully battle with disease. In order to do this, let your minds become fully imbued with the purpose to succeed. Make up your minds to bend every energy of body and soul to this end; shrink from no sacrifice of ease or comfort, and you will succeed. It is not the sword, nor the arm that wields the sword that wins the battle, but the valiant soul, full of an indomitable purpose, that sways the arm, that makes the sword effective. The regnant will spurning all obstacles presses on with resistless energy toward the object of desire; it courts rather than shuns competition, and opposition only inspires fresh courage. With such preparation as you have had, you have no need to 7 enter timidly into the arena of active practice; but boldly, courage- ously, feeling that you will become equal to any of the ordinary emergencies of your profession. You have chosen a profession of the gravest responsibility. You are under the weightiest obligation to the community to keep yourselves fully prepared to satisfy all the requirements of the sick. What you most need to complete your medical education, is that which you will most likely have to meet; a stern, hard struggle for a lucrative patronage. This will develope your powers, test your persistency, teach you economy, and give you habits of endurance, and love of work. It is thus you will become fitted to enter upon that higher plane of professional life towards which we trust you all aspire. That plane to which so few arrive; that plane which is never crowded; where there is always plenty of room, where your associates will be of the most desirable character. To look forward to this is a most wmrthy and laudable ambition. Its attainment is worth all it will cost of time and self-denying toil. The first step towards the confidence of a community is to estab- lish your character as a man. A good character is more to be desired than gold; it is above all price. In the matter of character, the man and the physician are not to be separated. It is true a man of good character may not be a good physician ; but a physi- cian, to be wholly good, must be a man of good character ; a lover of justice; of high toned integrity; a man of self-control, who would scorn a bribe; not easily led away by temptations; abso- lutely temperate and moral; trustworthy and of gentle and kindly impulses. The laws of the commonwealth recite among other things, that a man to be eligible for the degree of doctor of medicine, “ he must be a man of good moral character.” Your diplomas, therefore, certify that you are such at present. See to it that you maintain it as men, and add to it a good character as physicians. 8 There is nothing in the calling of the medical profession of which you need to complain. It has been said by one of experience, that, in no other vocation are capacity, knowledge and industry more certain to find adequate reward. There are other pursuits that, more certainly lead to wealth, but there is none that affords better opportunities for culture, or greater satisfaction in the successful prosecution of the usual duties incident thereto. It is a noble thing to be instrumental in saving a human life ; the consciousness of having done so, is a most satisfying compensation for any amount of trial or study. All eminent physicians have been noted for this one peculiarity; the faculty or habit of close and accurate observation. To observe in a medical sense; means to note and remember what we see, what we hear, what we smell and touch in the sick room or about the sick. To collate and refer to their true causes the varied changes that occur in the phenomena which our senses detect, is the proper use of the faculty of observation. This thought permeates the whole sub-strata of the homoeopathic system of medicine. We recognize a value in every phenomenon that is the result of morbid force. We have taught you that you must gather up every symptom and weigh it with the greatest care if you would be led un- erringly to the curative remedy. We would, therefore, impress upon your minds the importance of the habit of careful and thoughtful ob- servation, as an essential foundation element of professional success. We are living in an age of wonderful activities. Every depart- ment of thought is in a fervid state; the whole machinery of life is being carried forward with a rapidity unequalled in the past. Old theories are being subjected to the most rigid tests of experi- mentation and logic; religion, political economy, the sciences, mechanics, arts, philosophy,—everything is being scrutinized, dis- sected, analyzed and purged. 9 In the midst of this universal up-stir, you have chosen to enter into the maelstrom of action* Are you ready ; are your convictions fixed and resolute; can you give a reason for your convictions, and are you willing to engage valiantly in the inevitable strife; or will you be satisfied to push your hark out from the shore, content to be whirled onward and swallowed up? Just now, perhaps, more than ever before, is the field of medicine being scanned with a blazing torch. By the aid of the microscope we are enabled to discern the results of morbific action upon the atomic elements of the body, which otherwise had passed unobserved. Teaching us that the forces which nourish life are spent upon the ultimate elements of the organism, and that it is by the disturbance of these forces at this point, that disease is developed. By the aid of the spectroscope we are enabled to analyze elements too minute or too remote for the powers of the microscope. Thus science is revealing to us that the world is teeming with unseen agents, infinitesimal in size, that, aggregated, exert a modi- fying influence upon all life.. The mightiest forces in the realm of nature, are the imponderable, invisible, and intangible ones. Those which our senses detect are, generally, either evanescent or disturbing in their influence. The earth, which is now so barren and verdure- less, in a few weeks will bloom and bud, and blossom under the gentle and genial warmth of the sun’s rays which come streaming down through millions of miles of space. Concentrate heat and light into the vivid flash of lightning and it scathes, scorches and destroys. While the scientist pushes his researches into every department of nature, it is marvelous to observe the abrupt limit which is given to inductions that are directed into the domain of medicine. What, if an inappreciable amount of variola virus will produce an epidemic that may slay its scores and put a whole city into a flutter of excitement or dismay ? It will never do to infer that, an inappre- 10 ciable agent may stay its ravages in the individual economy ! God has imprisoned in the Peruvian hark a curative force or agent. It is not the bark—else the chemist could tell us all about it. God has given the laboratory of the body, the power to unlock the prison house and liberate this agent, but in doing so, the body suffers from the toxic influence of the crude drug. What, if science should dis- cover a means of liberating this curative agent and administering it, and it only to the body suffering from disease ? Would it be reason- able to expect that the curative properties of the drug should be ponderable, tangible or visible ? Is it not enough that the system needing the curative influence of this agent, should respond to it ? Is there anything so monstrous in the effort to accomplish this, that he who does so should be branded as a fool, madman or quack ? Is he less a fool or madman who says he can develope from a few gallons of boiling water a power greater than an hundred horses, and can harness and make it rush with its burden over the country with the speed of the wind ? Ah ! but he has done it and we no longer call him madman. So did Samuel Hahnemann set at liberty the im- prisoned curative agent, and he who will may test it. We have done so and know whereof we speak. Prejudice, conservatism and radicalism are elements which enter into and largely control the results of every agitation. Prejudice clings to the ways and methods of the fathers, not because of any convictions upon the subject matter, but because it recoils from laying sacrilegious hands upon anything which has the sanction of antiquity. Conservatism, recognizing the possible imperfection of the present status of things, yet from a love of ease and comfort, is content to wait for a very gradual improvement, because it dislikes upstirs that partake of the nature of fundamental change. Radicalism does not regard present consequences, but “goes for” the supposed wrong; seeks its exposure at whatever cost of present 11 comfort or good order ; loves excitement; courts investigation; has no regard for old ways and methods; goes in for pulling down and building up anew; radicalism agitates rather than investigates. Each and all of these elements are unfriendly to medical progress. The mental characteristics which are most needed in the present upheaval of opinions and theories, are: Clear convictions, unbiassed by preconceived notions; based upon the results of observation and experimentation; a desire to arrive at ultimate truth and a willing- ness to test and try all things, and hold fast that which proves good. You have elected to enter upon your professional career under the banner of what is termed the “new practice of medicine.” It is new—both as respects its age and the principles of practice upon which it is based. It differs so widely from the “ old school,” that there is no avoiding the conclusion, that if one is founded in truth, the other is not. Our claim to a fundamental scientific law of cure, is scouted as the arrogant assumption of youth and ignorance. In this country, where freedom of thought and research is the corner-stone of government and society, you might suppose that the two schools of medicine could pursue in perfect harmony the investi- tions which are needful for the complete settlement of the question of superiority. It would seem that the demands of science and humanity require that it should be so, and it would be so, if men who lay claim to superior attainments in the “ old school,” were uninfluenced by bigotry and prejudice. These men will not investigate the claims of the “new school.” They condemn it because it is new. Not only do they refuse to investigate, but they bitterly persecute those who do. They hold an iron rod over every man of their own persuasion and forbid investigation. They call every homoeopathic physician hard names; apply opprobrious epithets and descend to conduct un- unworthy of Christian gentlemen. At this very time, there is a gen- 12 eral and concerted movement organized in the State and County Medical Societies, to crush out the practice of homoeopathy, by legislative enactments in the various States and in Congress. Why is this? Gentlemen, I cannot answer. I am and have always been at a loss for a solution of the cause of the bitter and unrelenting opposition which is evinced by them. You have seen a specimen of this spirit in the management of the public Clinic of the Philadelphia Hospital during the past month. There is a re- markable parallel in bible history. You will find it in the book of Esther. The representative characters are Haman and Mordecai. Read it, and if you can discern the cause of Haman’s anger and bitterness, you may also be able to account for that of our oppo- nents. One thing is certain,—we have found favor in the eyes of very many, whose good opinion is of more value to us than that of allopathic practitioners. And it is just possible that before another half century shall have passed, the devices of our enemies may terminate as Haman’s did. That this may be so, every man engaged in the practice of medi- cine in accordance with the law of similia, similibus curantur, must bend every energy to the development of this laAv, in conjunction with all the collateral sciences of medicine. Resolve then that you will deserve the confidence of the people; show that you are deeply and earnestly interested in everything that has for its object the wel- fare of the community in which you live; be careful of the public health ; do all that you can to prevent sickness and forstall epidemics, and public opinion will take care of your reputation. The people will see to it that you do not suffer from oppressive legislation. Gentlemen, you have now completed your course of instruction. We have together ascended to an eminence from which we can view a more extended landscape. As we look back we look downwards, but forward the eye looks upward. There is no level in life; and especially is professional life, ever an ascent—upward, upward ever 13 upward—until at length upon the mountain side we sink to rest and our freed spirits with a single upward, lofty flight scale the boundaries of time, and fold their pinions on the shores of the river of life. Thus far we have climbed the ascent together. Here we must part company as teachers and pupils. We take you by the hand to-day and welcome you into our company as professional equals before the law. Your future is in your own keeping. The most ardent solici- tude for your welfare, the most fervent prayers for your success, will only avail to evince our regard for you. Your future is in your own keeping. If you go forth imbued with a lofty ambition, with a clear conception of the responsibilities of your calling; if you are faithful to yourselves and to humanity; careful to add to your present store of knowledge more knowledge, and to your knowledge practical experience, to your experience tenderness, firmness and fidelity in the discharge of every duty; you will not fail, but walk amid suffering humanity, a dispenser of mercy, a reliever of dis- tress, carrying light into darkness, joy to the sorrowing, hope to the despairing, comfort to the dying. What an inspiration is this to unwearing diligence in your calling, an inspiration drawn from two worlds—the one which now is, and that which is beyond the confines of time. You will be called to stand as it were on the threshold of time and eternity. You will behold the embodiment of all the hopes, aspirations and expectations of this life, incarnated in the new born infant, and by 'all the possibilities which centre and cul- minate in it; possibilities which have been realized in all the good and great of earth; you will be irresistibly drawn towards the tender helpless bud of so much promise. To shield it from danger, guard it through the perils of infancy and childhood up through youth to maturity, is a sacred responsibility. Gentlemen we are persuaded that you will be earnest workers ; we are persuaded that some of you at least will not be content to gather a flock about you and tend and nourish them alone; but, prompted 14 by a large philanthropy, will endeavor to let your light shine as opportunity may offer. This you may do through the pages of our journals, county and state societies, and by frequent correspondence with each other after your final separation, each to his field of labor. Go forth then full of faith, full of enthusiasm; go, resolved to meet every emergency with calmness and fortitude. Never shrink from any responsibility, but meet it with an unwavering determination to relieve distress and carry succor to those who are in danger of death. Go forth fully panoplied with the armour received this day from your Alma Mater; keep every weapon bright by use. Go, and may the prosperity which industry and perseverance deserves attend you, and may the Benediction of Heaven rest upon you and each of you. GRADUATES. SESSION OF 1874-75. Samuel A. Brown Philadelphia, Pa. Morbus Brightii. Edwin Solomon Beeyfogle Columbus, Ohio, Morbus Brightii. John Wesley Bechtel, Jh Harrisburg, Pa. Physical Diagnosis. John Lemuel Capen Philadelphia, Pa, Medical Consultations. John Shoenbehgek Crawford Pittsburg, Pa, Pulmonary Tuberculosis. Samuel McCoskey Cleveland Philadelphia, Pa, Definition in the Materia Medica. Howard Cheyney West Chester, Pa, Diphtheria. Robert Leroy Dartt Wellsborough, Pa. Development of the Human Ovum. Edward Williams Dean Pittsburg, Pa, Lithotomy. William George Dietz Philadelphia, Pa Morbus Brightii. Robert Denison Dasiiiell Princess Anne, Md, Physiology of Digestion. John Benton S. Egee Philadelphia, Pa, The Birth of Chemistry. George Addison Evans St. Paul, Minn Morbus Brightii. Joseph 1ST. Fitzmathew Bristol, England Cerebrospinal Meningitis. Eugene Sue Fuller Waukesha, Wis Morbus Coxarius. Frank F. Frantz, M.D Lancaster, Pa Inflammation. Thomas M. W. Gardiner Norristown, Pa, Diabetes. Harry Perry Guy Harpersville, N. Y Medicina Ex Cathedra. William Jefferson Guernsey Philadelphia, Pa, Inguinal Hernia. Monroe Jacob Holben Ivutztown, Pa, Scarlatina. James Henry Hamer Freeland, Pa Morbus Brightii. John A. H. Helffricii Vogelsville, Pa Pneumonia. 15 16 James C. Johnston, M.D Lebanon, Pa. Non-digestion of Stomach. Charles Augustus Jackman Morrisville, Vt. Scarlatina.. George Henry Jenks Petaluma, Cal. Disease, its Causation and Cure. Joseph Cresswell Lewis Philadelphia, Pa. Physiological Phenomenon of Labor. Joseph Morgan Maurer Baltimore, Md. Fracture. Duncan Macparlan New York, N. Y. Sugar as an Article of Diet. Jewett W. Metcalf San Francisco, Cal. Actea Racemosa. Charles Mohr, Jr Philadelphia, Pa. Indium. John Fletcher Nowell Friendship, Md. The Liver in Health and Disease. Reuben Owen Conshohocken, Pa. The Physician, his Qualification and his Work. James Ames Osborn Philadelphia, Pa. Pneumonia. ' John Elwood Peters Philadelphia, Pa. Typhoid Fever. Eldridge C. Price, M.D Baltimore, Md. The Heart. Edwin Bowen Rossiter Phoenixville, Pa. Diphtheria. Henry D. Rosenberger Hatfield, Pa. Uterine Displacement. Philip George Souder Philadelphia, Pa. Menstruation. William Stiles, Jr.....' Philadelphia, Pa. Homoeopathy and its Influence on Allopathy. Lewis Francis Smiley Shippensburg, Pa. A Physician always a Student. William Penn Sharkey, M.D Newliope, Pa. The Child and its Physician. Leon Alfred Snyder Slatington, Pa. Scarlatina. Jacob Gordon Sharp Camden, N. J. Duties of a Physician. Henry Augustus Sheetz, Jr Bristol, Pa. Development of the Ovum. Alexander Tait Carlisle, Eng. The Tonsils. James William Thomson Philadelphia, Pa. Apis Mellifica. William Hains Tomlinson West Chester, Pa. Mental Influence. James Utley, M.D Taunton, Mass. Typhoid Fever. Stephen Woods Pittsburg, Pa. Saccharum Lactis. Henry William Webner Baltimore, Md. Chorea. Thompson M. Wells Martin’s Ferry, Ohio. Skin Diseases. Total 51. OUR SPECIALTY! AND GRADUATES ! Before leaving the you would do well to call on Bering, Pope & Co., who make a specialty of EVERY DESCRIPTION OF PHYSICIANS1 PEINTINC AND STATIONERY, SUCH AS POWDER ENVELOPES, POWDER PAPERS, LETTER PAPER, NOTE PAPER, LETTER ENVELOPES, BILLHEADS, PROFESSIONAL CARDS, &c., &c., &c. Having special facilities for manufacturing the above, we gain the advantages proper to a thorough system and are so enabled to touch figures that would otherwise be impracticable,—our aim being to unite superior workmanship with the lowest possible prices on a single class of work. We intend shortly to issue a new and more complete line of samples, of which, if you favor us with your address, we shall be pleased to send you a lot, feeling assured that it will be to our mutual advantage. Your obedient servants, IP®IHB