A lecture delivered at the opening of the medical department of the Columbian College, introductory to a course on the theory and practice of medicine / by Thomas Henderson.

  • Henderson, Thomas, 1789-1854.
Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A lecture delivered at the opening of the medical department of the Columbian College, introductory to a course on the theory and practice of medicine / by Thomas Henderson. 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.)

    18/24
    step, with most decided reprobation, that a diplomatick honour is the signal for the cessation of your professional studies. Pupils may view that attainment as a declaration that they are henceforth to depend, not on others for instruction, but on a diligent and persevering improvement of their own ta- lents. The relation of preceptor and pupil ceases ; and the latter is introduced to a theatre where he will unceasingly find motives and causes for a persevering prosecution of his studies. There is a kind of medical consultation too little resorted to ; we mean a daily and habitual reference to those authorities, which are constantly within the practitioner's reach. Never is he so little alone, as when entirely alone in his library. The treasures of accumulated wisdom surround him on every side; and invite to a removal of his doubts and difficulties, as well as to confirm him in those principles which he is hourly called on to apply. Our remarks do not refer to the text books which are so rapidly multiplying around us—but to those elaborate works on the general principles of medicine, which, duly studied, will convey an enlarged, confident, and practical influence to your charac- ters as practitioners; and enable you to meet the ever v rying exigencies of professional life with unhesitating judgment, peculiarly resulting from such pursuits; and most happily favorable to form an imposing character as a physician. Such results must obtain, where the mind is accustomed to consult with Celsus, Sydenham, Cullen, Van Swieten, Rush, and a host of others. Let it never be supposed that a text book is intended to be relied on, beyond the walls of a school, or the mere incidental reference of a practitioner. While we have often regretted to observe the neglect of preparato-