T"
SOURCES, EVILS AND (CORRECTIVES
OF
PROFESSIONAL  DISCONTENT.
AN INTRODUCTORY LECTURE,
■iE)ta»aa^ycs»ap®di s^r®^-* <iaoa» usa^i^.,
            By JOHN P. HARRISON, M. D.,






Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the Med. College of Ohio.
             QTincinn ati:




Printed at the Ben Franklin Printing House, 106 Main StreeJ.
1845 
                             MEDICAL COLLEGE OF  OHIO, )
                                              November 6th, 1845. )
At a meeting of the Medical Class, held in the College Edifice, D. A. Kinchloe
was called to the Chair, and E. H. Ferris chosen Secretary.
    The object of the meeting being explained,  it was, On motion,
    Resolved, that a committee of six be appointed by the Chairman, to request
of Prof. J. P. Harrison a copy of his Introductory Lecture delivered on the eve-
ning of the 4th inst., for publication.  The  Chairman  appointed  the  following
gentlemen: Messrs. T. Kearny, F. W. Ames, G. R. Hunt, L. Soher, R. H. John-
son and L. W. Clark.
   On motion adjourned.                  D.  A. KINCHLOE, Chairman.
  E. H. Ferris,  Secretary.
                         COPRESPONDENCE.

                            MEDICAL COLLEGE OF  OHIO,  )
                                       November 6, 1845.        \
Prof. J. P. Harrison,
            Dear Sir:—The pleasure experienced by the Medical Class in lis-
tening to your introductory lecture in which you have illustrated many impor-
tant  truths  essential to the success of the young practitioner, induces the un-
dersigned committee in their behalf to solicit a copy for publication.
                                Respectfully, Yours,
            T. KEARNY,            F. W. AMES,     j
            L. SOHER,              G. R. HUNT,     }  Com.  of  Class.
            R. H. JOHNSON,        L. W. CLARK,    )
                                             Race St. Nov. 6th, 1845.
   Gentlemen:—Agreeably to your request I send you my Address for publica-
tion.  Accept on behalf of the class and of yourselves, my assurance of great
respect,                                  Yours,
                                             JOHN  P.  HARRISON. 
Sources, Evils and Correctives of Professional Discontent:

              AN INTRODUCTORY LECTCRE, DELIVERED NOV. 4th, 1845,

        By  JOHN  P. HARRISON,  M. D.,

   Professor of Mat. Med. and  Therapeutics in the Medical College of Ohio.
The restlessness of human nature has ever been a fruitful theme
of poetic effusion.  From the days of Homer to those  of Hor-
ace, and from the Roman  satirist down to the era of  Dryden
and Pope, the stream  of song has  poured its lamentations along
this channel.   " Man never is, but always  to be  blest," is  the
hackneyed line of a poet whose beautiful  versification confer-
red an adventitious charm and  attractiveness on commonplace
moral reflections.
   This universal spirit of  restlessness in human  nature seems
an essential portion of man's heritage on earth.   All possess it,
from fortune's  most  favored  child,  who basks beneath a  sun
unclouded  by the dark  shadows  of sorrow, down to him  who
treads  a path of trial in poverty's low vale,  through all  the
graduated scale of earthly conditions, no bosom is exempt from
the inquietude and agitation of unsatisfied desire;—none  are
freed from  the incessant perturbation  of those aspiring thoughts
that reach forth after brighter and fairer scenes which the future
spreads before the mind.  With all this inquietude  of spirit,—
with all the discontent which  the  present  engenders,—there
ever springs a hope of change for the  better,—a pleasing expec-
tation that the to-morrow will supply the defects of  to-day,  and
chase away the clouds which now environ our path.
   And this restless, eager desire  of  melioration in our state is
the prolific  element of improvement;—the efficient source of
progress, and of perfection.  This inherent tendency of man's
nature to grasp after the future,—to feel that
              " Not present good or  ill the joy or curse,
              But future views of better or of worse,;"
can not be extinguished by any process of ratiocination.  Logic
is too feeble to dislodge it from its strong holds in the heart,  and
and experience, though it may  damp  its triumphs,  can not ex-
tinguish its fires. 
 4          SOURCES, EVILS, AND CORRECTIVES OF

    The object  of this address is not to animadvert cm the origi-
 nal tendency of our nature to be ever ready to start away from
 the limited circle  of the present, and to expatiate over the wide
 tract of the future, but to discuss  the sources, evils and correc-
 tives of professional discontent.  The design is, to point out a
 very  prevalent fault among the members of the medical profes-
 s'on-*-a fault  which  exerts  the  mo6t deteriorating influence on
 the well being of  the profession, and which demands, therefore,
 thorough and speedy correction.
    By professional discontent we mean a state ©if mind made up
 of dissatisfaction with the pursuit of medicine as a calNng, a dis-
 like of  its responsibilities, and an  aversion to meet  the  trials
 incident to a just discharge  of these responsibilities.  Whatever
 the general feelings of a physician may be as to unsatisfactory
 nature of all  sublunary objects to satiate the  thirst of the soul
 for happiness, and however assured he may be that there is bat
 one unfailing  fountain of peace and bliss to man; yet superadd-
 ed  to this deep persuasion  of the  utter worthlcssness of mere
 earthly  satisfactions  to tranquilize the restless  spirit, there  may
 be such a strong distaste to his professional  duties as to be pro-
 ductive  of the most unhappy results to his own peace of mind*
    A sterile,  gloomy unquietness  of mind,  which  deadens  the
 heart, and embitters the life ;  which renders  the obligations of
 the profession a burden of wo, and casts the shadow which dims
 the sunshine  of the present moment on the vista of life, and
 which  forces  the melancholy  utterance, day by day from  thc-
 oppressed soul,—
              " How  weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
              Seem to me all the uses of this calling :
              'T is an unweeded garden that grows to seed,
              Things rank and gross possess it merely."
    The indulgence of such a discontented slate of  mind spread*
 gloom on the  fairest  scenes, transforms this goodly earth into a
 dry and  sterile beath, and hour by hour gathers materials for its
 devouring activity in the heart from the most familiar trials of
 the profession.
    The sources of this unhappy  temper of mind  are,—1st.
 want of self-control;—2nd, defective spirit of emulation ;—3rd,
 a hasty  and superficial  training of the faculties on professional
 subjects ;—4th, an excessive  appreciation of  merit, engender-
 ing extravagant expectations of quick success in acquiring busi-
 ness ;—5th, disgust at seeing quackery encouraged ;—6th, loss of
 patients, connected as such an unhappy termination of4he cases
 committed to  the physicianTs care often is, with various detract-
ing remarks, made by gossiping  persons, concerning the treat-
 ment  pursued  ; and lastly, a niggardly recompense for the anxie-
ties and  toils of  the physician, and  often instead of any remu-
neration, or with a reluctant yielding of a part of his demand. 
PROFESSIONAL DISCONTENT.
D
the language of depreciation and of obloquy, from persons snatch-
ed from imminent death by his skill.   The want of self-govern-
ment is a very operative cause of professional discontent.   Self-
sovereignty is exercised in the regulation of  our thoughts,  emo-
tions, words and actions.  Aware that  nothing good  or great
can be achieved without self control, Solomon  has told us that,
" he that hath  no rule over his own spirit," who does not control
his own thoughts and emotions, and keep them  in subordination
to his reason,  " is like a city that is broken  down, and without
walls."  Such  a man is perpetually the  sport of contradictory
feelings ;  tossed about with every variation of  outward circum-
stance, now filled  with  gay visions of his  own worth, and now-
sunk in abjectnessof spirit ;  now elate  with golden  dreams of
life, and now desparing of success in his profession.   Such a one
moves in  an  atmosphere of moody impatience at every petty
obstacle presented in his path, or with desponding acquiescence
lie submits to the difficulties which make demands  upon his for-
titude and perseverance.
    Defective in a warm and generous emulation, the profession-
al man is apt to contract his  views to the menage, exclusive of
his own personal observations.   With  the  onward  march  of
medical science he will not sympathise.  No  kindling  ardor
awakens  his thoughts, and spreads an ennobling transport over
his faculties, as the bright perspective of new  truths opens be-
fore his vision, and as science ladened with  the trophies of her
conquests, reveals her majesty and  loveliness to his admiring con-
templation.
    Exhausting his strength in pouring forth  querulous  com-
plaints against his profession,  the  discontented  physician  finds
no time, and has no aptitude for matters which appeal to the
interests of medical science, and  which  find entertainment in
minds devoted  to the advancement of the art of curing  disease.
    The  crude preparation  made by many  physicians for the
practice of medicine disposes strongly to  the  indulgence  of a
dissatisfied spirit.   Not being thoroughly indoctrinated in  the
principles of medical science, and but superficially acquainted
with its many facts, such persons are  prone to indulge in invec-
tives against the whole  scheme  of interference at the  bedside,
and harshly accuse the profession  of charlatanry.   Conscious of
deficient information  on professional subjects, and  with, no
prompt alacrity of mind to supply his deficiency, the ignorant
physician is inclined to deny altogether,  the  certainty of scien-
tific medicine, or to dote fondly  on his own  narrow  modes of
treating diseases.
   An exalted  conception of merit renders the mind exquisitely
sensitive to real or supposed neglect.   Hence a corroding  fret-
fulness preys on the heart of the vain man, whenever his  high
personage  meets  with no special manifestations of honorablo 
6          SOURCES,  EVILS AND CORRECTIVES OF
notice.   Eulogy must be forever breathing her  soft language
into the vain man's ears, else with mortified spirit, he utters his
maledictions on all around.
    Disgust at the encouragements afforded quackery, in various
forms, may create in the ill regulated mind, a strong dislike to
the  profession.   To witness the encroachments of ignorance
and presumption, to see the pretender in physic  shoving  aside
the scientific physician, and to hear  the paeans  sung to  some
Magnus Apollo of empiricism by a credulous public, are tempt-
ations not easily  resisted, to forego  the exercise of our profes-
sional duties.  And when with blind and  eager patronage, the
educated are seen to mingle in  the  degrading worship offered
up at the shrine of charlatanry  ;—when we read  the  puffing
notices of quacks, and  quack  nostrums from  the pens of law-
yers, judges, and  clergymen, our disgust then rises into contempt,
and we are ready to pronounce,
            " Congenial souls;  whose life one folly joins,
            And one fate oft hurries in quackery's mines."
    The sad event of death  is  calculated  to  check our rising
pride in the glory of our art.  Man goeth to his long home, and
this solemn issue  of disease  reminds the physician of the impo-
tency of all human means to prolong life in many severe  forms
of illness.  The benevolent  physician ever feels sad at such an
awful event.   But he has  done his  best ;  all  the  resources of
his art have been faithfully, diligently, perseveringly put forth y—
death thrusts them aside ;—he has come with a commission from
the throne of God to do his  work, and he will not be frustrated,
for the decree of  the Most High  has gone  forth, " dust thou art
and  unto dust thou shalt return."  And now with mournful ac-
quiescence, he must bow his head,  and  resign his patient  up to
the Supreme Will.   Agonized at the sad spectacle of a dying
fellow being, amid the groans and strife of nature, whom he has
watched over, and by a sedulous application of his remedies en-
deavored to restore to  health, now  about to be torn away from
bleeding hearts who surround his couch, the medical  practitioner
is tempted to abandon his profession, and no longer  practice an
art so helpless, in  many instances, to save.
    Superadded to this source  of unhappiness in his profession,
is the too  frequent infliction of injustice  upon his,reputation,
by the circulation of groundless accusations against his humani-
ty, or his skill.  The shafts of crimination  however, fell  harm-
less upon him who wears the panoply of truth for his defence.
   The parsimonious  manner in  which physicians are frequent-
ly remunerated, accompanied, as the stinted enaahiment often is,
with opprobrious  language, affords an  urgeat  provocation for
professional discontent.  What! shall 1  prosecute a vocation
where, at every step, ingratitude, slander?, swid a denial of my 
PROFESSIONAL DISCONTENT.
7
just claims for services, are as sure to traverse and harrass the
 rugged road of professional  life, as that neither during  meal
 times, nor sleeping hours, nor inclement weather, am I to with-
 hold my person from the bedside, when summoned to attend ?
    The evils flowing from professional  discontent are,—1st, an
 arrest of advancement in knowledge ;—2nd, aversion to the dis-
 charge of the appropriate duties of the profession :—3rd, depre-
 ciation of the profession in the opinion of society ;—4th, aban-
 donment of the profession entirely, or what is worse,  addicted-
 ness to indirection to obtain practice ;—5th, the  indulgence in
 dissipated habite.
    For the intellectual powers to advance rapidly in the acqui-
 sition  of knowledge the mind must with pleasurable excitement
 exert  its energies.   Joy is expansive ;  it opens and dilates the
 capacity of thought to receive with  warmth, and retain with te-
 nacious grasp the truths presented.   The delight of prosecuting
 inquiries into the hidden stores of knowledge  treasured up in
 nature, lifts the soul in communion with the skies, and  makes it
 a participant of the  riches of the  Universal Mind.  "The
 works of God are sought out of all them  that have  pleasure
 therein."  " He hath made his wonderful works  to be remem-
 bered," and it is the glory of his intelligent creature, man, to
 seek out the secret things of the Supreme Mind, and with  ani-
 mated joy revel amidst the bright displays of creative wisdom.
    The mind, alive to the delights of knowledge, exults in over-
 coming difficulties in the pursuit of truth.   Spurning the imped-
 iments which clog the advancement of the faculties in the ca-
 reer of discovery, the  mind passes  onward from one  point of
 inquiry to another, till in its rapid progress over the  field of sci-
 ence, it triumphs over every obstacle, and  gathers  trophies of
 victory from every quarter.
    Deprived  of the pleasures of knowledge but small  advance-
 ment is made in science.  If, therefore, a  physician is discon-
 tented with his profession, if he looks upon the science, and the
 practice of medicine  with aversion, he  can  never  win   anv
renown by following it, nor will he  ever reflect any glory upon
his profession by this melancholy, and constrained adherence to
it as an avocation.
    Averting his intense regards from his profession,  and only
practicing it as a means of subsistence, the  discontented physi-
cian with painfnl  reluctance  enters upon the  discharge of its
duties.  Forever complaining, as he drags his unwilling feet to
the dwellings of his patients, he can never with proper interest
enter  upon  the investigation of a difficult  case of sickness.—
With rapid  examination  he satisfies himself of the nature and
seat of the malady, and then with  unseemly haste decides upon
his course of treatment.  Glad to escape from the sick room he
resorts to any  thing, and every thing, to save him from too close 
8          SOURCES, EVILS AND CORRECTIVES OF
a familiarity with the hated matters pertaining to the science and
art of curing disease.
    Renouncing all pretensions to improvement he is never seen
with a medical book in hand, except, perhaps, to get a recipe in
order to save himself from a severe requisition on his thinking
powers, so indisposed to exert themselves in prescribing for the
sick.   As to a medical periodical, he avoids the expense incur-
red in  its  subscription,  and  thus  evinces a due respect for
economy.
    With such a specimen of the profession of medicine before
them, and with his  reiterated  utterance of contemptuous  lan-
guage towards the practice of medicine  sounding in their  ears,
the public are apt to conclude that the doctor and his physic are
both alike contemptible.  For they deduce an inference  from
the premises, which is an obviously just corollory from such data.
They pause not to investigate the truthfulness of the exhibition,
or the justness of the exhibitor's language,  but rest satisfied that
the physician knows best  the  meanness  of his own profession,
and that if such be the nature of the  calling, the  character  of
those  who pursue it must  be assimilated to  its meanness and de-
gradation.
   To the mind of the discontented physician the medical pro-
fession is a mass of unmitigated  vexations.   Its responsibilities
oppress ; its cares harass  ; its trials irritate.  Restless as Euri-
pus, whose ebbs and flows were an enigma to the ancient  phi-
losophers, the mind of the dissatisfied  practitioner of medicine
is never at peace.  Perturbed as he is in spirit; fretted with the
present, and uncheered by the prospect of  the future, he deter-
mines to abandon such  a miserable mode of life ;—to turn away
in disgust from such a thankless, hopeless, thriftless  pursuit, and
take up with  any thing that  promises  redemption from  such
purgatorial ills—as never  before poor  flesh was heir to, till he
became a doctor of physic.  And now the  law invites, and he
at once enters upon its glorious uncertainties as a sure requital
for the pains and  penalties inflicted upon him by medicine.   Or
he addicts  himself to the  alluring gains of  merchandise,  and in
notes protested, and in the adverse vicissitudes of trade, realizes
a blooming Eden  to his  ardent wishes.   Or it may  be he be-
comes an adventurer in  the  lottery of matrimony, and  fondly
hopes to find a  fortune encumbered with a wife, that may  save
him from the torment* of practicing the  profession, choosing
rather to endure domestic troubles, than  to be exposed to for-
eign invasion.
   Tossed about by various adventures, battered and bankrupt-
ed by other pursuits, perhaps, he may be forced back upon his
deserted and  abandoned  profession, and with grateful feelings
seek its  chances for a respectable  livelihood.   Or if he  does
not abandon  the profession he may in the  recklessness of bis 
PROFESSIONAL DISCONTENT.
9
impatient discontent, seek success in the dark and crooked ways
of quackery; and by some  patent pill, or ointment, or by the
arrogant assumption of some method of curing disease altogeth-
er variant from the practice of the regular profession, attempt to
win the credulous to a high  admiration of his superior skill.—
The doggerel lines of  the witty Butler are well adapted to ex-
press his logic.
                 " Doubtless the pleasure is as great
                 Of being cheated, as to cheat."
And out of pure philanthropy, as it would appear  from their oft
repeated  announcement, the  empirical  pretenders in  physic,
from the attenuated dosing of the homoeopathist up to artillery
attacks of the steamers, do their best to prove that the pleasure
of cheating the credulous  can only be surpassed by the luxury
which the public enjoy of being cheated.  The people  enjoy-
ing the luxury, thus most humanely offered them, with  infinite
relish, these empirical knight errants in gentle pity to the popu-
lar  demand,  supply  the  good  people  abundantly with delu-
sions, nostrums, homoeopathy, botanicals,  and steam, with lobe-
lia and red pepper thrown in at a venture.
    Tired, jaded, disgusted, and irritated, the  poor malecontent
in medipine, often  with feelings too honorable to allow him  to
dabble in quackery, seeks relief in the syren fascination of the
intoxicating cup.  Friends remonstrate,importune, admonish;—
reputation  bleeds; health fails;  heaven frowns; the grave yawns
 at his feet—all—all in vain.  The soul  embruted by the blight-
 ing habit, sinks from its noble career of virtue; the darkness and
 desolation  of  moral  evil  enclose  it;  the chills of the second
 death gather round the heart—and now  he who so lately stood
 fairest among the intelligent graduates of his Alma Mater—the
 cherished  object of parental love, the stay  of their declining
 years, gladdening their eye  with his manly form and filling their
 hearts with his  filial  piety—is a victim of drunkenness.  Un-
 manly, fretful  impatience for the delays, incident to his  profes-
 sion, of acquiring  practice, and a dissatisfied, fiery temper, have
 urged his footsteps to  the precipice, over which  he is hanging,
 hair suspended; ready to plunge into the fathomless gulph  of
 endless night!
     Far better for such a one that  he had never made, medicine
 his choice, far better  if he  had  been obliged to spend his days
 in the drudgery of physical toil ;  that his ambition had never
 prompted him to tread the  ways of peril, which  the profession
 has presented to his unfortified, irresolute, discontented mind.
    The  correctives of professional discontent are ;—1st, a dili-
 gent study of the science of medicine ;—2nd, a determined will
 to become eminently useful in the profession ;—3rd, an earnest
 interest in the progress of medicine;—4th, the cultivation of a
 benevolent regard for the sick;—5th, a dignified self respect;— 
10         SOURCES, EVILS AND CORRECTIVES OF
6th, a high conception of the moral and intellectual excellence
of the  profession; and  a firm belief in the guardian  care  of
Heaven.  A perfunctory, hurried study of a branch of physical
science so difficult and  complex  as  medicine, is calculated  to
produce either great distrust, or great presumption.  Whilst
shallow draughts intoxicate the brain of the bold and arrogant
man, and render him hasty in the  formation of his opinion, eager
and impetuous in the application of his superficial acquisitions,
and intolerant in the  declaration  and maintainance of  his
views,  vet in  the modest and ingenuous, slight  and superficial
acquirements  generate distrust and dissatisfaction.   Frequent
meditation of the same truths in those diversified  relations which
these  truths bear to  ceah other;  a thorough indoctrination  of
the mind in the principles of medical science; an  intimate habit-
uation  of the thoughts with every form of morbid action, with a
ready suggestive  faculty of bringing forward the appropriate
remedy for each form and modification of diseased condition  to
which  the body may  be subject, can not be attained by any very
quick process  of examination, nor made available at the bed-
side, by any but elaborate and  prolonged inquiries.
    There lies the human form, divested of its moving, animating
spirit, which  so lately diffused its quickening agency over  its
every movement.  That  composite  workmanship of the Divine
Architect, must be made  to reveal its mysteries to the eye of the
inquisitive student.   Its folded  textures  must be  unravelled,  its
tortuous  tubes are to be  minutely traced, its  delicate  fibres
made plain, and its  many organs familiarized to. the eye and
touch ; their aspect,  shape,  position and magnitude  accurately
investigated.   The  well instructed  anatomist  delights in his
knowledge of  the organism of man.  This  knowledge is a pow-
er of great and varied  uses to him. It is the  basis of all his
professional researches.   Chemistry stretches wide the  door  of
her laboratory, and  invitingly spreads her stores  before the eye.
Action and reaction ; attraction and repulsion ; elementary and
compound bodies; atoms and gases ; caloric and  electricity;
with its galvanic and magnetic modes of excitation, are in pleas-
ing variety brought forward, and  made to act their varied  parts
in unfolding the wonders of this noble branch of science.  En-
amoured of the beauties, and deeply persuaded of the advanta-
ges of chemical knowledge, the  student sedulously applies  his
faculties to the inquiries offered to his awakened  curiosity.
    Mastering, to some considerable extent, these two branches
of medical science,  and having expatiated  with  eager and
pleasurable excitement of mind on  the fertile tracts of investi-
gation  thus opened before him, he now turns with  quickened
attention to the  more  practical subjects  of his professional
knowledge.   With the  Theory and Practice of Medicine,  df
Surgery, and  of Obstetrics,  he,  with assiduous toil, strives  to 
                   MEDICAL DISCONTENT.                11

be made familiar.  And with the therapeutical indications, and
the means of their fulfilment, which Materia Medica presents,
he  cannot remain  ignorant: assured, as  he is, of the essential
importance of this species of  knowledge  to his success  as  a
practitioner.   After  a conscientious  devotement  of his  best
powers to  these pursuits for several years, and having success-
fully wooed and won medicine, the solemn engagement is ratified
and sealed  by a crowning  act  of union,  performed in  the
presence  of many witnesses, when he  stands up in the dignified
attitude of a legally pronounced doctor of medicine.  Having
thus with  patience, and toil, and self-denial of the gaities of life,
courted this mistress of his choice, and having  received the
blandishment of her  favor, and been  united to  her  in solemn
covenant, think you he is going in boyish impatience to relin-
quish  the  bride  of his youth ?   Gan  he put her  aside for  a
stranger,  and  forego forever all  the  sweet joys of  her loved
society ?
    Another corrective  of professional  discontent is  derived
from a determined purpose to make  ourselves  useful to the
community among whom we dwell.   The friendship of  the
public is to be sought most successfully by the physician in the
way of his  vigorous,  punctual  attention to the duties of his
avocation.   By kindness, faithfulness, and assiduity in the dis-
charge of his professional obligations he  will  win  upon  the
good will and  secure the abiding  patronage of the  community.
The meteors of quackery may  flash  and glare a while on the
horizon, ^beguilidg  the  unwary  and credulous for  a  time, but
the  sober  light emitted by the calm  demeanor, and  upright
walk of the  regular physician will  shine  on, and  diffuse its
cheering lustre when the false fires of imposture  have gone out
in endless  night.  Perhaps other exhalations, bred of  ignorance
and presumption, may spring  from the fat soil of human credu-
lity, but as meteors of the night they shall endure  but  for  a
while, and then vanish  away.  By securing the  satisfaction of
others towards his course of life, a man will be  reconciled to
himself.  By making ourselves  useful  we will realize our  rela-
tive consideration  in society, attract  honor to the profession,
and at the same time fix  upon  ourselves the best regards of
those around us.  The reflex action of virtue is never lost.
    By participating in the good wishes, and generous  approval
of our fellow-citizens, our own contentment  will  be  promoted,
and  by devoting oui lives to virtuous industry, the good wishes
and  generous  approval of society  will accompany us through
all  the vicissitudes of our  earthly condition.  Another parrec-.
tive of discontent in the profession is an earnest interest \n the
progress of  medical science.  It is  mournful to reflect  how
many physicians  are totally indifferent to the advancement of
the science of  medicine,  From year to year they, in  reference 
12         SOURCES, EVILS AND CORRECTIVES OF
 to the progress of medicine, listlessly  live on, acquiring by its
 practice  abundant means  of purchasing those productions of
 the  medical press, in which are given  the most recent improve-
 ments in the art of curing disease ; thus  setting at naught the
 precious fruits of the labors of the numerous  cultivators of the
 science, living  in all  parts  of the  civilized world.  Shame to
 their derelection of  professional duty!   Shame  to their  mer-
 cenary spirits!  What!  despise the glorious achievements made
 by our profession in the wide  field  of  investigation spread out
 before it in the  causes, preventives, and modes of cure of human
 maladies; forego all the intellectual advantages and moral
 satisfactions, derived from  growth  in the  knowledge of this
 most useful  and  human  branch  of inquiry ?  Let them tread
 their narrow path of selfishness;—let  them seek  their highest
 bli-»s in accumulating pelf; let them rejoice in their career of
 cupidity ;—but let them know that they live not up to the  high
 requisitions  of professional morality ;  that  they  are  recreants
 to the  high trust deposited in their  hands,  and are  striking
 examples  of perverted and  abused opportunities of vindicating
 the  honor  and dignity of  the profession from the assaults of
 those who accuse its members of vain pretensions to knowledge,
 and  of a sordid desire for gain.
    The cultivation  of a  benevolent'regard  for  the sick is
 another mode  of counteracting  the tendency toward  profes-
 sional discontent.  By an enlistment of the kind  sympathies of
 our  nature  there springs  a strong  incentive to the cultivation
 of an enlightened judgment  of diseases, and of  their  appro-
 priate methods of cure.  Entering into  the  sufferings  of our
 fellow beings we shall take  a deep  concern in every thing
 which  ministers  to  their  restoration  to health.   As special
 instruments of  good to them in the capacity of medical atten-
 dants, we  are  to interpret the  obscurities of morbid action,
 release nature from her embarrassments, and illumine the dreari-
 ness of the sick chamber with hopes  and promises  of succor.
 It is not as mere  mercenary, servile attendants  that  we enter
 upon the solemn duties of our  high  calling.   Not  as  paid
 servants of the patient's behest that we  stand by his couch of
 suffering,  during  the  exigency and helplessness of his prostrate
 body,—for amid the uncertainties of life a liberal remuneration
 to the  physician, after his attendance, is to  be  set down as
 among the foremost,—but  as  possessed of kindliness,  and di-
 rected by duty, we obey the  calls  of  the sick, and employ all
 the resources of our art for their rescue.   Entertaining such a
 phih nthrophic  intention,  and often reaping  from the  happy
 termination of the cases  of disease  committed to our care, the
 purest satisfaction that earth can  bestow, the consciousness of
doing good, we will  not be  easily driven into  petulency, or
seduced into contemptuous expressions- towards the profession* 
MEDICAL DISCONTENT.
13
Misanthropic  feelings cannot gain  mastery, where the attesta-
tions of good  will to man are multiplied at every step of the
medical practitioner's course.   The  irradiations of joy beaming
in many a household, and the  gladdening smiles of  welcome in
many a countenance will dispel the  despondency which threat-
ens to enshroud the mind, before it settles in heavy sadness upon
the spirits.
    A dignified self-respect will  co-operate effectively in pre-
venting professional discontent.  A just relf-respect is made up
of four elements,—a  firm conviction of duty,—repose of mind
or self-command—calm reliance on that which is right and just,
—and  an unalterable  courage in  the  maintenance of  truth.
Clear and comprehensive views of. our  responsibilities ought to
be assiduously cultivated.  We ought to be intimately conver-
sant with  the duties  of our calling, and revolve in our  most
familliar thoughts the high claims of the medical  profession on
our  time, our talents,  our industry, and  our patience.   No
medical man  can be possessed of a just self-respect who  does
not entertain accurate views and feelings of the many, varied,
solemn  responsibilities  and duties  of  the  medical prbfession.
On this point, perhaps, there is too slight a  reference made by
many young  men, when they commence the  practice of medi-
cine.  But  as years  mature their judgment, and the trials  of
life deepen their  moral sensibilities, a more  elevated concep-
tion of  the  responsibilities attached to the  profession occupies
and fills their thoughts.   Equanimity of mind, as  opposed to a
perturbed, anxious state of the feelings, must accompany our
convictions  of duly, in  order to secure a proper  self-respect.
A restless, disordered, vacillating  soul can never possess abiding
self-respect.   To-day firmly convinced of his duty, his mind, in
a sustained tone of feeling, will pursue it; to-morrow finds him
discontented, fluctuating, unprepared, and though convinced of
his right, perhaps, the wrong pursues.  Or he has not moral
intrepidity enough to  carry out, in action, his assured conviction
of duty, and he remains in a stationary attitude waiting for re-
lief from  some new  developments  of Providence  to  get  him
out of his dilemma.
    Firm,  calm reliance on that  which  is right and just  must
be  present to aid in  the formation  of a just self-respect.  To
see our way clear, and to maintain a repose, a steadiness of
mind in the conceptions we entertain of duty, should be united
with a persistent trust in the correctness and excellence of the
plan adopted.  And, as a crowning element,  that  will  vivify
and strengthen the  other elernents  of  a proper self-respect,
courage must be added.   Destitute of a determined, courageous,
persevering power, no high order  of excellence can be attained.
Having  this power, with an enlightened judgment, an equable
tenor of feelings, and  a resolute reliance on  the justness of our 
14         SOURCES, EVILS AND CORRECTIVES OF
course, great things may be hoped  for, and great things will be
accomplished.
    Now, a fretful, querulous physician,—who is forever lament-
ing his miserable lot, and filling the air with petulent expressions
of regret that he ever adopted  the medical profession as his
active pursuit, fails essentially in self-respect.  And the particu-
lar reason of this failure is  detcctible either in  a  deficiency of
an enlightened conception of duty or a want a of due equipoise
of mind not to be driven from its moorings by every wind that
may ruffle the surface of life, or a destitution of trustful depen-
dence on  the  ways of duty, or of a courageous consistency that
will enable him to keep onward in the path chosen.
    No physician  can overrate the science and art of administer-
ing relief to the numberless infirmities and woes which disturb
and torment our nature, in the  multiform attacks  of disease.
To soothe pain, or mitigate the lighter forms of bodily infirmity,
would be a task  of some magnitude, requiring much study of
the causes, progress and  means of melioration of these inferior
ill?.   But to stand as a determined opposer of death  ; to search
into his  most  concealed processes of destruction  ; to range
through the realms of creation for adequate weapons by which
to repel the onsets of the  king  of terrors, and to tax to the utter-
most, all the capabilities of art, in advance of nature, oppressed
by disease, require prolonged and profound researches, that can
not be prosecuted aright, without educated  faculties, trained to
analysis by a severe logic, and  intent on  a full comprehension of
the matters submitted to inquiry, through a love of truth.   To
venerate the science in its commanding delegation  of usefulness
among mankind, we should never Jose sight of the  numerous fa-
vors it dispenses in its practical applications.   From the tran-
sient  torment  of a  neuralgia, that requires  the  rectification of
some  disordered function for its  removal, through  the burning
agonies of a fever, to the outbreaks of some fiery  disorder which
covers the  body with  a loathsome incrustation, up  to  the
more awful forms  of morbid action,  displayed in the convulsions
of the body, or the  horrible delusions of an insane mind, medi-
cine, with unsleeping eye, unrelaxing purpose and vigilant kind-
ness, watches over, and ministers  to the wants and distresses of
mankind.  All the superior powers of intellectfon, all the  most
graceful  attributes of the heart, and all the endearing traits of
refined  deportment are called into  requisition  by the  science
and practice of medicine.   The  physician, if he be endowed
with the appropriate and fitting  characteristics of his vocation,
must be a man of education, a gentleman, and a philanthropist.
Furnished with a  rich fund of knowledge, and alive to the beau-
ties of literature,  he often indulges his taste, and replenishes his
mind at the fountains of ancient and modern  learning.  But,
however fond  of such excursions  into the  regions of general 
MEDICAL DISCONTENT.
15
knowledge, bis chief and most gratifying inquiries are directed
towards bis own beloved science of medicine.   With the keen-
est relish be luxuriates amid the truths of medicine, fondly and
longingly dwells on its new  revelations, and with  enraptured
eye, gazes  on the noble edifice, reared by the labors of centu-
ries.   O! who that has a mind capable of receiving truth, or a
heart susceptible of transport, or a philanthropy that burns with
zeal for  the good of the race, will forego, after having once
sought and found instruction and  delight in the study of medi-
cine, the multiplied and exhaustless  stores treasured up in the
bosom of his favorite science. Attached to the profession by
such ties, no ordinary  causes of dissatisfaction will  alienate  us
from its interests, or detach  our  sedulous efforts from the pro-
motion of its  dignity  and  usefulness.  In  comparison of  its
excellence with other pursuits, we are persuaded that it reposes
on the best and firmest foundations.  It is  bred and nursed  by
education ; baptized and consecrated by the blessings of humani-
ty, and in  its march of  victory over disease, it is cheered by the
voice  of praise from gentle infancy, as it draws the sweet breath
of peace in its mother's arms ; and by the kind accents of wo-
man's gratitude ; whilst man responds in loftier panegyric to the
beneficent science which, in the  hour of emergency, snatches
him from a premature grave.
    Amidst the hourly mutations of our dependent being; amidst
the rebukes and disasters of calamity;  amidst the  desertion of
friends, and the  persecution  of enemies, there is a sure resting
place  on high, where our hope and trust are garnered up beyond
the reach  of change, unalterably  fixed amid the shocks of time.
    The high intellectual endowments of the  gifted and accom-
 plished physician should never be  sullied by the polluting admix-
 ture of infidel pride.   Whilst we  can not too highly appreciate
 our profession, it is a very easy matter to esteem our own attain-
 ments and importance too highly.  To chastise this  foolish error
 of self-consequence, nothing will  avail so much as a recogniza-
 tion of our own  circumscribed intelligence, as compared to the
 boundless  wisdom of God, and of our entire insufficiency to ac-
 complish any good  purpose without his divine sanction.  Were
 there  any  direct bearing in medical inquiries to generate scepti-
 cism,  thie  profession would stand a scoff and scorn to all pure
 and noble  minds.  It would have  the brand of  reprobation
 affixed to  it, and the divine anger would, ere this, have made it
 a blasted  and desolate thing. But the  science and practice of
 medicine  are  eminently conducive to the formation of correct
 conceptions of the wisdom, power and goodness of  God, of the
 helplessness and frailty of man, and of the glory and attractive-
 ness of the Christian faith.  Thanks to the goodness of the Su-
 preme Father who has made us partakers of the intellectual and
 moral benefits which flow  from this science !  As men devoted 
16        SOURCES, EVILS AN0 CORRECTIVES, ETC.,

to the  highest ends of our earthly being, the  promotion of hu-
man happiness and the advancement of ourselves in knowledge
and virtue, let us ever look upward for his smiles to irradiate the
dark clouds that  may from time to time frown upon our path,
and  to feed our fainting spirits with the hallowed joys of his
blessed presence.   Then may we go on from step  to step with
renewed vigor ;—trampling on, or plucking up the thorns which
infest our way ; rising from hill top to hill top, till seated on the
highest summit, we  hear  the  harmless  thunders roll  beneath
our feet, and lift  up our brow to catch  the beams  of an ever-
lasting day.

    Gentlemen:  You are assembled  here from various  parts of
our common country, to  be taught the principles, and to be en-
lightened in the practice of medicine.
    Penetrated with a just  sense  of the  excellence  of Medical
Science, you will, I trust, not flag in your efforts to acquit your-
selves well in the sphere you are called to fill this winter.  Let
not the seductions of pleasure lure ;—nor the  lethargy of indo-
lence depress you ; but by  patient industry,  determined pursuit,
and  undeviating progress, let no discontent be felt by us, whilst
we, by our faithful and diligent attention  to our respective chairs,
will strive that no dissatisfaction  shall  be experienced  by you.
And, gentlemen, when you go  hence, and assume the responsi-
ble office of administering  to the sick, cherish a lively satisfac-
tion for  what you have already accomplished  in  the  study of
medicine, and be excited to an  unreserved  dedication  of your
time and talents, to higher degrees of knowledge  in your pro-
fession.  And if at any time your resolution fails, and your aspi-
rations sink, meditate on what we have  this morning told  you.
and by all the ennobling motives  derived from the excellence of
the  science, and  the humane purposes of its  institution, reani-
mate your zeal, to persevere in a  career of honor and usefulness.
    And  if still your hearts fail you, if despite of these  influen-
ces and  inducements, you  still loiter and reluctate in the  path
you have chosen, then seek the enlivening presence of one who
will pour fresh joy into your cup of life.  Lead to the nuptial
bower a  gentle spirit, who shall cheer you when sad ; inspirit
you when dull;  and aid you in all  your worthy enterprizes.
Guarded and honored by woman's love, what can not  man at-
tain in all virtuous efforts, in all high achievements of glory.
              In the clear heaven of ber delightful eye,
              An angel guard of loves and graces lie;
              Around her knees, domestic duties meet,
              And fire-side pleasures gambol at her feet.