Introductory lecture delivered in the Philadelphia College of Medicine : on Saturday evening, November 4, 1848 / by Christopher C. Cox ; published by the students of the College.

  • Cox, Christopher C. (Christopher Christian), 1816-1882.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory lecture delivered in the Philadelphia College of Medicine : on Saturday evening, November 4, 1848 / by Christopher C. Cox ; published by the students of the College. 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.)

    11/16
    there is a spirit abroad which would ridicule the attainment of learn- ing; we know that ignorance is becoming a boast; that empirics of mushroom growth demand loudly the public confidence to their quack-cure-alls; that science is in many places, in the hands of the apprentice rather than the master ; that the Gordian knot of abstract philosophy, instead of being patiently unravelled, is cut through by a single stroke. I know that every department of science and belle- lettres is marked by that upstart sciolism, characteristic of the age. Stoop not, gentlemen, to the popular voice ; lend no encouragement to this dangerous spirit of the times. Fearlessly resist the assaults of error, maintain under all circumstances the dignity of professional learning ; and you will force the respect which may at first be grudg- ingly tendered. You will possess a power, which appropriately directed no violence can wrest from your hands ; a power to which ignorance will at length succumb, and from which impudence will shrink back terrified and confounded. Sooner or later will the hour of triumph come to you, and you will have the proud satisfaction to find yourselves moulding the public will, which before loudly demanded acquiescence in its unblushing dictates. In the acquisi- tion of learning be independent; pin your opinions to the sleeve of no mere dogmatist; think, reason, reflect for yourselves. Scorn to be a slice of any man's mind; but gather your own resources together, and strike out some bold and startling path to fame and fortune in your profession. In this way will your influence be felt during life, and your name survive the shroud and the coffin. Gentlemen, I feel that you have selected a noble profession. I rue, it has its cares and vicissitudes, and these may be said to be peculiar ; yet is it a lofty, a sublime calling. To do good is emphatically the object of our profession; and what object more glorious, more God- like ? Cultivate a spirit of comprehensive benevolence towards your fellow men ; and I urge this the more strongly, because, from the very nature of our pursuits, the impression has gone forth that the sensibilities of the heart, from constant contact with scenes of pain and suffering, must become to no small extent, deprived of their original acuteness; nor has the charge been withheld by those who have witnessed the apparent nonchalance with which the surgeon has buried the healing steel into the morbid mass of flesh and blood, or the coolness and precision with which the physician has deported himself in moments of emergency and alarm. Little, gentlemen, do such persons know of the private trials of those whom they so recklessly accuse. They distinguish not between the man- ners essential to success in the chamber of affliction, and the sym- pathies and sorrows which too often wring the pillow of the upright practitioner. How often, alas, is the character of our profession thus grossly misunderstood by those who are the recipients of its hard earned skill and unremitting attention! I need not say to you, gentlemen, that all your acquirements in the field of learning spreading out before you, should be in strict obedience to the pure dictates of morality. It is the more necessary, now that you are separated from the salutary restraints of home, and exposed to the dangerous vortices of a great city, that you