Charge addressed to the graduates in medicine at the commencement of the Medical Department of the Columbian College, D.C : March 10, 1830 / by Thomas P. Jones.

  • Jones, Thomas P., 1774-1848.
Date:
1830
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Charge addressed to the graduates in medicine at the commencement of the Medical Department of the Columbian College, D.C : March 10, 1830 / by Thomas P. Jones. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    You have produced the debt—the discharge of it must be the continued business of your lives. Trite as is the observation, that the period of graduation should be considered as that in which your studies are most advantageously commenced, yet such arc its truth and its im- portance, that it is well worthy of constant repetition, and of being indelibly impressed upon your hearts and minds. Whilst your diplomas may be to others the mere testimony of your rights, let them, upon yourselves, operate as perpetual evi- dences of your duties; of the obligations which you owe to the Institution from which you have received them, to yourselves, to mankind, and to Heaven. Whilst, in the frame-work of human society, it becomes ne- cessary to invest some with commissions to '« burn, sink and destroy, the God-like attribute, to save, will belong to you; and you will prove yourselves unworthy the name of Physi- cian, should not this consideration operate with you, both as a motive and a reward. From this day, gentlemen, consider yourselves, as devoted offerings on the altar of suffering hu- manity; let the vow be recorded in Heaven, by which you en- gage to sacrifice every consideration, merely selfish, to the benefit of those, who confide to your skill, and your care, their most precious earthly blessings. Resolve, for the good of your fellow beings, to spend sleepless nights, and days of anxious un- remitted research. Afield of inquiry and observation, almost boundless, lies open before you ; you have no time now, nor, if you are faithful to yourselves, will you ever have any, to devote to frivolous occupations ; you must consider yourselves as perpetual sentinels appointed to guard the community against the ravages of disease and death ; and never forget, that by a moment of inattention, you may betray the important trust committed to you. Countless thousands of our fellow- creatures have lingered out their lives in disease and pain, or been consigned to premature graves, because their Physicians have indulged in the evil habit of delay, or have neglected to store in their minds, and to render so familiar as to bo called