Impediments to the study of medicine : a lecture, introductory to the course of practice of medicine / by J.K. Mitchell ... ; delivered on the 18th of November, 1850.

  • Mitchell, John Kearsley, 1798-1858.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Impediments to the study of medicine : a lecture, introductory to the course of practice of medicine / by J.K. Mitchell ... ; delivered on the 18th of November, 1850. 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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    farm. As for Joe, if I don't make him a doctor, Aviiat on cartli can I do Avitli him ? You may well suppose, gentlemen, that I felt not a little mor- tified at a conversation which the good lady did not suppose offensive, inasmuch as it was a current notion to mIucIi she gave vent. I took good care to put my able and estimable preceptor in possession of the news of the qualities of his promised pupil, and he astounded the lady by telling her to make her young hope- ful a tailor or a shoemaker. Now, why did this lady, and why do ten thousand other people, entertain such an estimate of the pre-requisites for medical studies? Because students take so little pains to do more than acquire the mere elements of a medical education; because regular medi- cine is so full of imbeciles. While the profession is rich in fine examples to the contrary, no one can doubt that by far too many look on medicine as a mere trade—so much work against so many dollars—and as they know little themselves, they are dis- posed to undervalue learning in others, and thus by precept and example aid in disseminating notions not only derogatory to medicine as a science, but destructive to it as an art. In the earlier periods of our national existence, this evil was a necessary consequence of the state of society. Refined and well-educated men could not often consent to bury themselves in the woods to earn amidst hardships and privations a scanty subsistence. The higher qualities of the profession could not be often used, and were more seldom properly appreciated. In- deed, few students of medicine could find means of obtaining a good preliminary education, or of following out in foreign uni-, versities a complete system of instruction. Hence society was compelled to take the best accessible adviser, and habit reconciled it to what was a necessary evil. It is so no longer! The love of learning is a characteristic of the people of this land of ours. Schools are everywhere ! The common school, the academy, the lyceum and the college, follow to the boundaries of society the woodman and the hunter ; and no student is debarred from scholastic attainments either by remoteness or poverty. If want of health or the negligence of others have straitened his means.of acquirement, let him now retrieve his loss, and endeavor