Transactions of the Medical Society of King's College, London.

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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Transactions of the Medical Society of King's College, London. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and at once. And there is yet a third advantage, conducing to truthfulness of impression, which the young possess, depending on their tenacity of memory. Things new and old make an equal impression on them, nothing is forgotten, and their opinions are formed on a fair average of their whole experience, of recent as well as of long past events. But as we get older our memory of recent things becomes from our diminished impressibility more and more feeble; recent impressions exercise less and less permanently their proper corrective influence over old ones,—we are converted to-day, but to-morrow we fall back into the old belief. The charac¬ ter of the papers and debates in this society have often suggested to my mind such thoughts as these; and, acting on a conviction of their truth, I have often consulted the impres¬ sions of the young when I have mistrusted my own, and generally with advantage. 9. Another, and no mean good, resulting from your join¬ ing this society, will be that your intercourse here, your meetings for a common object, your cultivation of a common pursuit, your discussion together of subjects of a common interest, will be a bond to bind you to one another, and a most worthy and reliable foundation of permanent and life-long friendships. Depend upon it there is nothing like community of tastes and pursuits to cement friendships; and the stronger the love for the object pursued, and the more intimate and personal the relations that its common pursuit gives rise to, the stronger and faster will be the friendship that will be built upon it. Bulwer says that the love that binds man to woman is not stronger than that wherewith the student is enamoured of his studies. No wonder then that such is the case. No wonder that such genuine worshippers at the same shrine should find, in their common devotion to such dearly-