Introductory address to the students at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, October 1, 1866 / by W.S. Savory.

  • Savory, William Scovell, 1826-1895.
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory address to the students at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, October 1, 1866 / by W.S. Savory. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    5/42 (page 5)
    of an imwortliy act, but our characters are not so readily moulded, our destiny is not so easily or abruptly changed. And I am sm^e you will be reheved to hear that I do not purpose to spend the time allotted to me in giving you good advice., But I will forthwith assume—nay, I verily believe, that you have come hither with a genuine desire to learn, with an honest resolution to study. But let me say a few words upon the subject of your future work—Medicine, employing this word now in an inclusive sense. Whatever position Medicine is entitled to hold amongst the sciences, this is certain—^it is not an exact science; and I venture to think that much of the great interest, aye, of the charm of its study depends upon the kind of evidence with which it has to deal. I believe that if you obtain clear and definite ideas of the relation of Medicine to other sciences, you will work at it more inteUigently; and while you will avoid, on the one hand, exaggerating the power of your art, you will, on the other, know best how to vindicate the just claims of your profession. It may be said that there are essentially two kinds of evidence:— That which is, in its nature, conclusive or ab- solutely certain, and which can leave no doubt on any reasonable mind. Thus there is the direct evidence of our senses. Here the only source of fallacy would be in our senses themselves. So, again, there is the evidence called mathematical, by