•I IP PROFESSOR GILBERTS IIT UTjp 3 SESSION OF 1849-50. T 1 f I / / AN INTRODUCTORY LECTURE COURSE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF SURGERY, « V3 P MEDICAL DEPARTMENT PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE, FOR THE SESSION OF 1849-50. BY DAVID GILBERT, M. D \j PUBLISHED BY THE CLASS. PHILADELPHIA: KING & BAIED PKINTERS, No. 9 SANSOM STREET. CORRESPONDENCE. Philadelphia, November 1th, 1849. Prof. D. Gilbert, Dear Sir : At a meeting of the Class of the Medical Department of Pennsylvania College, the undersigned were appointed a committee to solicit, for publication, a copy of your interesting Introductory Lecture. In performing this duty we are respectfully yours, JACOB D. WHITE, New Brunswick. P. REDFIELD, Pennsylvania. G. S. ROBINS, " SAMUEL A. BOONE, South Carolina. H. J. RICHARDS, Pennsylvania. T. M. LAYTON, Delaware. GEO. J. CHAMBERLAIN, Pennsylvania. G. MONRO DARRACH, " JNO. L. ATLEE, Tennessee. A. McL. PADDOCK, New Brunswick. E. B. RAFFENSPERGER, Ohio. JNO. S. FLICKINGER, Pennsylvania. SAMUEL SMITH, " JNO. F. SCHAFFNER, South Carolina.—" WM. B. SIMONTON, Pennsylvania^ D. W. SHINDEL, President. T. J. TURNER. Secretary. ADINO PADDOCK, Treasurer. Philadelphia, November 8lh, 1849. Gentlemen : I have received yours of yesterday, requesting a copy of my Introductory Lecture for publication. As it was not written for the press, but for your special benefit at the period of commencing your duties for the winter, I should, if left to my own feelings, prefer not making it public. Desirous, however, at all times, to comply with the wishes of the gentlemen com- posing the class, I do so on the present occasion, regretting only that the lecture is not more suitable for publication. With sentiments of great regard, I am truly yours, D. GILBERT. Messrs. White, Redfield, &c. INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. Gentlemen : » In meeting you for the first time in this edifice, I feel the occasion to be one of deep and peculiar interest. It constitutes an epoch in the history of the College, which will be impressed upon your memory through life, and remain upon the tablet of our hearts as an ever-abiding memento of this morning's inter- view. In extending to you the greetings of the opening session, and indulging in the felicitations which pertain to the first occupation of this very convenient and splendid edifice, I cannot refrain from paying a parting tribute to the comparatively humble building in which this College had its origin. It was there that this institution was cradled, it was there that any strength which it now possesses was acquired, and consequently it shall ever be regarded by us as a locality of great interest. But when memory calls up the once familiar countenances, the many heartfelt greetings, the instruction there imparted and the pleasant inter- course had with each other, and with those who are now occupying posts of usefulness and duty in the world, at once our pride and our boast, that old home becomes one of the greenest spots in memory's wide waste, around which reminiscences of the most endearing character will ever continue to cluster. We, as a Faculty, by this change, are entering upon a new career, and it becomes us to be circumspect. I trust that we feel that our responsibilities are augmented by this apparently propitious change, and that our efforts will be increased corres- pondingly. You, gentlemen, are also entering upon new scenes in life ; and when it is considered that every change may involve important results, it is proper to inquire what influences of an evil tendency may assail you during your sojourn in this city— either as affecting your diligence in study, or your character as gentlemen. It is a fact, which needs no argument to sustain it, that we go but once through this world—that we cannot turn back to correct errors, an?l recall neglected opportunities. It is equally self-evident that your character as men and members of the medical profession, receives more of the impress which will characterize it through life, at this particular stage of your studies, 4 than any other of equal length. This character, in a certain sense, is placed in your own hands, and you may make or mar it as you please. It will be to your ultimate advantage or disadvantage whether you are diligent or idle, attentive to all the proprieties of life, or careless or depraved in your demeanor. In after life you will most assuredly find that your success as practitioners, and your general standing as members of an enlightened community, depend not upon accidental circumstances, as mere attendance upon lectures, and having received a diploma, but on the character which you have made as students. Those who labour hard in the acquirement of knowledge, when the facilities for its attainment are furnished, will find that they have laid in a store which will be serviceable to them ever afterwards: but for those who choose an opposite course there is prepared a long series of disappointments and mortifications. To you, then, young gentlemen, this is the commencement of a most important period of life ; and the idea forces itself upon me, that it is one of those when light may be advantageously thrown upon your path- way ; when a few appropriate hints may guide your feet safely through those paths which lead to the happy consummation of your aspirations after professional knowledge. We cannot but feel a deep interest in your welfare as our pupils, for very soon you will go forth as our representatives into the world. We know, too, that the solicitude and affection of family and friends cluster around you; that a thousand hopes are cherished for you ; and whilst all good auspices attend you, so long as you do not depart from the path of rectitude and duty, shall we—dare we, withhold words of advice—which we trust may be " fitly spoken." Allow me, then, to exhort you to improve your time. You have youth and health, and the means of culture and improvement provided for you ; and by husbanding these, can accomplish all that can be desired and fulfil the fondest expectations of anxious friends. With you it is the bright and breezy morning of life, and by a proper and wise appropriation of its precious hours, may make your day a long and pre-eminently happy one ; a day filled with acts of duty—of private and public beneficence, and thus fulfil the weighty responsibilities inseparable from the great work, which the profound and various and extensive science of medicine imposes. You will soon be identified with the medical profession. This has for its object some of the dearest interests of human existence. In your preparation for the exercise of its duties we heartily desire your success, and tender you a cheer of encouragement; and having submitted yourselves to the instruc- tions of this College, we will cheerfully aid you in your onward, and we trust upward career. Choose the wise course and the 5 dreary wastes of life will be clothed with odorous flowers and delicious fruits; your character will be shaped and developed for the most extensive usefulness; a foundation will be laid which will make it your habit to examine, to study and to fix the great principles of medicine—your feelings and actions will be under the control of higher principles ; purity of motive will be the deep, hidden, moving power of the soul; and a sense of conscience and feeling of responsibility will ever guide and preserve you from contaminating influences. Your object being to qualify yourselves as worthy members of a most noble profession, my first suggestion is, that you make it your increasing and steady aim to secure the most thorough preparation. There is probably no fact more frequently overlooked by the great mass of mankind, than that the practitioner of medicine should in all cases possess the very best attainments possible. Gradation in medical qualifications is opposed to reason; for there can no relief be afforded from disease, whenever the amount of knowledge possessed by the practitioner is inadequate to the demands of the case under treatment—nay, positive injury may result from the mal-exhibition of powerful remedial means. The opinion prevails, too generally, that medical men can be fitted for particular stations—that one of ordinary or deficient qualifications will answer very well for a certain location, whilst a different sphere requires a man of more extensive attainments. Such views may be attributed to false analogy drawn from other pursuits in life. It is observed, that in the mechanic arts there are men of every grade of excellence, from the merest bungler to the most accomplished scientific artizan; and each one enjoys his situation, his skill finding a happy adaptation to the wants of the community. So it is with the merchant; and there is an allowable gradation even in the qualifications of men in the legal profession. Some look upon the world of nature around them and draw conclusions equally erroneous. In the vegetable and animal kingdoms they find structure and function in infinite variety. The simple cell; the animal of one tissue; next rudi- mentary organs, and thus up to the most perfect and complicated of all animal existences. In every one of these, however, no matter how simple or complicated, differing so widely and existing so diversely, there is a most perfect sufficiency for the necessities of each individual, each one being complete in itself, in its organism, and in the adaption between this and the world around it. All such deductions are mischievously erroneous when made in reference to gradation in medical attainments. The human system is one and the same, not only structurally and functionally, but pathologically. Fevers, cholera and broken 6 bones speak the same general language, whether met with in India, Turkey, the British Empire or the United States; and the efficacy of medicine and the power of the knife are the same in the person of the Hottentot, the North American Indian, or the highly civilized European. In the management of the maladies of any of these the broad and solid foundations of the fundamental and practical branches of medicine are equally indispensable. For every case the mind should be disciplined and trained, anc furnished to the utmost of its capacities. Hence, no matter where or to what people your ministrations may be dispensed, thorough scholarship in medicine is necessary. In this way only can you meet your responsibilities. You may impose upon an ignorant community—but you will sin against the lives of men ; and remorse of conscience will usher in the gnawings of the worm which never dies—the kindling of the fire which is never quenched. He is the most thorough in his attainments, whose whole intellectual and moral being has been brought into active exercise, in the investigation of all the departments of medical knowledge and its collateral branches. Such training unfolds the mental faculties harmoniously, discip- lines them accurately and strengthens them equally, and a proper balance and harmony of action is maintained between them. In such a one moral imbecility or intellectual torpor does not exist. This is a most desirable consummation, not only in view of its beneficial results upon disease, but error and empiricism of every hue would be disarmed and overthrown; and knowledge, thus freed from the shackles of ignorance, would increase in a geome- trical ratio. May we not indulge the hope that such a day may be seen to dawn by some here present? Do not the signs of the times, as exhibited in the unparalleled increase of knowledge, warrant such a conclusion ? Until a comparatively recent period, knowledge unfettered truth from the chains of ignorance by a slow and gradual process. Percival Pott rolled away a stone of stumbling which for centuries lay over the threshold of pathological truth, by his work on fractures, amputations, and curvatures of the spine; and John Hunter cleared away the mist which obscured the real nature of surgical, pathology for centuries, by his improved treatment of aneurism and his investigations of the blood. Since their day others, and the number of such is rapidly multiplying, have brought the influence of their vigorous and well cultivated minds to bear upon medicine, so as to cause the rays of light, one by one, to penetrate the darkness which so long covered the world, until finally they now constitute that concentrated flood of light which it is the privilege and duty of every one of us to 7 receive. Will not you, gentlemen, at least make an effort to obtain this knowledge ? Let no imaginary difficulties deter you. " Our doubts are traitors, And make us loose the good we oft might win, By fearing to attempt." Another suggestion which I desire to make to you is, that in securing such thorough preparation, the most important elements of success consist in an economical use of time, and in making a patient and continued succession of well directed efforts. A late writer has said of time, " That wisdom walks before it, oppor- tunity with it, and repentance behind it; he that has made it his friend (by diligence) will have little to fear from his enemies ; but he that has made it his enemy (by neglect) will have little to hope from his friends." This is true ; and if you do not appreciate its force now, the day may come when you will acknowledge it, at least to your own conscience, at the bed-side of your patient, with unavailing regret. A proper use of time implies order, which will enable you to attend to all your studies with interven- ing leisure for rest and recreation. Order lies at the foundation of all successful attainments in science; it is characterized by unity of purpose and harmony of effort. A competent knowledge of medicine can be acquired in no other way; there is no royal road here ; this deprivation is not peculiar to geometry. The mind cannot receive at once all the parts of any department of human knowledge. As it is constituted, knowledge can be communicated in no other way than progressively. It is neces- sary to begin with elementary principles; one fact or idea must be predicated upon another, just as one stone rests upon another from the foundation to the top of this edifice. There are succes- sive steps in.the acquisition of knowledge, and every step in the mind's progress must be taken from advances already made. The law of progression is inwrought in the very nature of things ; from the springing of a blade of grass to the formation of a world ; from the development of the first idea in infancy to the most gigantic attainments of which the human mind is suscepti- ble, everything goes forward by consecutive steps. A single effort, of itself, will accomplish but little, and the effect which it is calculated to produce is lost when unsustained by other efforts. It is by a succession of impulses and stimulants that our bodies are kept alive and invigorated. It is thus with mind ; we must rely upon repeated impressions and efforts. We cannot force the laws of mind by any single effort. The ingenuity of man has curbed and harnessed steam ; he has tamed the lightning and made it his errand boy; he has made the sun his painter; and in a thousand ways advanced and exalted himself physically and 8 mentally ; and has extended his discoveries into the several departments of science, and these discoveries have so simplified, co-ordinated and extended knowledge that much more can be accomplished in a given time now than formerly. These improve- ments of the present age, have given birth to a propensity in young men to become matured early; to make the most profound attainments in science by a few hurried spasmodic efforts ; and this has infused its influence alike in every species of moral and intellectual, as well as physical industry. With all these advantages in the arts and sciences, however, we have to start into the world at birth and grow up in it gradually, as our fathers did before us. We may have more elegant cradles, a greater variety of toys to amuse us, and as we get older we may travel faster, enjoy more conveniences, and have furnished to us more extensive and more perfect systems of education ; but the passage from infancy to adult age, from childish ignorance to mature wisdom, must still be made by the old progressive method of gradual accession until full development is attained. The philosophy of the failure of many young men is plain ; they are willing To make a few hurried and powerful efforts, and then stop, discouraged because theyhave not mastered every difficulty. This law of gradual attainment lies at the foundation of all success. The painter, in bringing his picture to perfection, lays on and blends his colours by innumerable touches'of his pencil, until the canvas is made to speak by gradual accession. It is in consequence of this law, that a powerful mind, however envied or desired, is not. absolutely necessary in order to success. Opportunity, improved by well directed and patient industry, produces greater differences in the mental attainments of men than natural talents. A thorough knowledge of your chosen profession therefore cannot be obtained by occasional efforts, however great; but patient, continuous and assiduous efforts only can accomplish for you that thorough preparation which it is your duty to make. Be not deceived by a false inference that any thing valuable can be secured by an impulsive effort, a wish, or a mere resolution. However desirable then it may be to have talents or genius, it is still more to have industry and well formed habits of application. Hence many who possess genius and talent fail of success, whilst those who have patience and persevering industry are almost always successful. But, gentlemen, although you may have acquired all the know- ledge that is attainable during your probationary period as students, and be prepared to enter upon the discharge of the duties of the practitioner with the evidences of the most finished professional education, there is another element not only of success 9 but of usefulness, which is indispensable to the accomplished physician, and that is sound morality. The proper exercise of the duties of the medical man renders a virtuous life necessary. Mere knowledge without virtue is educated vice. You readily admit all this ; your early education, the influences under which you have grown up, and the established character which we believe most of you possess, will not allow you to entertain any other view. True progress implies growth in moral as well as intellectual attainments. Allow me then to offer another, and it is the last suggestion ; that you strive to preserve and cultivate the moral powers of the soul. Leaving the quiet retirement, the blue sky, the pure atmosphere, and all the fond endearments of home, for the close, heavy, poisoned air, and the hurried excitements of the city, constitutes but a fractional portion of the sacrifice you make by the exchange. Evil influences abound, and no one is certain proof against them. We have known some who up to their first entrance upon a city residence as students of medicine, stood aloof from those insiduous influences, which subsequently ruined them. Such influences will encompass you, which, if not resisted by the most determined vigilance, will lead you, ere you are aware of it, away from your duty, and cause you to make shipwreck of all that is valuable in life. Some of these are considered by many as innocent—others are, however, decidedly pernicious—destruc- tive, not only of time, but of health and morals. These should not only be avoided, but efforts for moral improvement should be assiduously made. It is a painful fact, that a large proportion of young men do not take a sufficiently elevated view of themselves as endowed with the noblest creature-powers. Some consider their studies in no higher light than as a means of acquiring the great art of accumulating property. Others yield themselves to the gratifi- cation of every depraved desire and feeling, and look upon the present life as the golden time for the indulgence of all the lower propensities of the mind. But others again, and these constitute a large class, exhibit true moral greatness by consecrating their time to higher objects; and in their pursuits pass by the indulgence of the desires and feelings which constitute the happiness of the mere sensualist. Evil influences being deceptive and insiduous, there exists the greater necessity for vigilance. Every vice has a name of honour, and every virtue an epithet of disgrace, with those who pander to evil and lay-wait for the unwary. But, gentlemen, there is no innocent way of becoming guilty, nor just method of becoming unjust. Names are not things, but their representatives, 10 when rightly used; and he will be most successful in resisting error who looks to ultimate results. Allow me then to direct your attention briefly to some of those influences which are inimical to intellectual and moral culture, that they may be guarded against. Beware of certain classes of books, such as are filled with scenes of folly and licentiousness, though veiled in attractive language and imagery. These will be offered to you daily on the streets and at your homes. Many of them are of a most pernicious character, and introduce a slow but sure and deadly poison into the moral constitution of the reader. Their subjects will not only preoccupy your mind, and thus close it against the knowledge which you came here to obtain, but fill the imagination with images which familiarize the mind with the most degrading vices, and prepare it for their indulgence. Again, you will best accomplish the object you have in view during the session, by avoiding all doubtful places of amusement. It would be enough to say, that you have no time even for such as are purely innocent; but most of the so-xalled amusements of cities contain dangerous elements. You cannot mingle in these with entire safety. They will dazzle and bewilder you ; they will fascinate and blind you, until, insensible and unresisting, you be- come shorn of your moral strength; and then only arouse to the terrible reality, to learn that your loss is irretrievable ; and to feel a shame and degradation almost too bitter for repentance. The theatre, with an exercise of charity that is blameworthy, is, by too many unsuspicious youth, considered a place of innocent re- creation. Young gentlemen of the strictest moral and intellectual habits, consider it proper to visit them, at least once, as they do the other curiosities of the city. But in this there is danger. I speak knowingly upon this subject; I could detail to you the sad condition and end of more than one thus ruined. The splendor of the decorations, the brilliancy displayed, the fascinations of the drama, unite in exciting the feelings, firing the passions, and in throwing over the inexperienced such a charm, that the desire to return is irresistible, unless endowed with a moral firmness of unusual power. We are too apt to overrate our abilities to resist this form of temptation, and hence yield, again and again, until the ima- gination becomes corrupt, the mind enfeebled, and the power of resistance brought into a state of complete abeyance. As this is neither the time nor the place to follow out the tendencies of this form of temptation, I will only add, that more than mere waste of time and the delusive tendencies of the drama itself is involved, since it may bring those who indulge in it, in close proximity writh doubtful characters, and expose them to their contaminating in- fluence. 11 It seems almost superfluous, and may be regarded as too com- mon place, to mention the temptation of young men to use intoxi- cating drinks; but I should hold myself inexcusable were I to omit it. I am aware that we live in an age that is highly distin- guished by its reform in temperance—that most of you have grown up under its mid-day influence, and occupy the front rank in the temperance army—that you have all had " line upon line, precept upon precept; " and that you are conversant, as medical students, with the toxicological character of alcohol in all its forms, as well as the pathological ravages resulting from its use, in the healthy system. All these safeguards are yours. Know- ledge so plain, so self-evident and so indisputable, should, in your case, so quicken and call into active exercise all those powers of the soul, over which the great law of self-preservation presides, as to place you above the reach of every form of temp- tation from this source. But intemperance still maintains its bad pre-eminence in this whole land. The hand of hospitality may be extended to you.even in this city, bearing in a most inviting form the fascinating draught, and you may yield and be ruined as others have been. It is comparatively easy to resist the very beginnings of this evil habit. The appetite is not one of nature s planting. But during the excitement of companionship, and the hilarity ot social intercourse, watchfulness and decision of character are necessary, or else you may lapse into the power, and be made to love the alluring excitement of the cup. There is a species of enjoyment in the use of intoxicating liquor, but it is sensual, there is a certain amount of pleasure, but it is anima . Dr. Samuel Johnston, on being reminded that he once admitted that abstinence from wine would be a great deduction from life, said, It is a di- minution from pleasure, but not of happiness ; for there is more happiness in being rational." You, who have made the human system and its delicate and intricate functions, a subject of study, know that the use of alcoholic drinks impairs its healthy relations -that it weakens its restorative powers-that the organsof'nu- trition cannot perform their functions, normally, in elaborating he new, and the organs of waste in separating and casting off the worn out matter? But its disintegrating ravages are not confined To the physical machinery; the mental faculties become impaired, and lose their accustomed vigour in the exercise of herJunc- tions ; and as the capacity to acquire knowledge is thus diminished he desire for it declines also. The mind loses its accustomed clearness of perception; and hence does not comprehend with accuracy and precision those nice distinctions which the medical students so frequently required to make in investigating the undamental principles of medical science. In short, this vicious 12 habit does not cease in its destructive tendency, until all the powers, physical, intellectual and moral, are prostrated, brutalized! It beclouds the judgment, stimulates the passions, creeps insidi- ously into the heart, perverts the affections, and carries the whole man into the most ignominious captivity. Be vigilant, therefore ; guard assiduously against the initial encroachments of this habit; exercise an intelligent fortitude ; entertain exalted views of your ability energetically to resist; touch not, taste not, handle not; and you will deprive the tempter of his power, and retain the purity of soul and vigour of intellect, with which a beneficent Providence has endowed you. The last form of temptation which I feel myself constrained to mention is impurity leading to licentiousnes. It is melancholy to know that many incentives to impurity abound, to which young men are constantly exposed. It requires no slight vigilance to guard against the lusts of the flesh and the lusts of the eye. The avoidance of the companionship of the unchaste, and the full oc- cupation of the mind by your appropriate studies, which exhibit no corrupting images, present the only safe path. You should not only avoid, but look upon this vice with the utmost abhorrence. I blush at the necessity of holding it up to you in all its loath- someness ; but it exists; and very many, once as free from its power, and as innocent as you now are, have suffered its dread- ful penalties. Such perished prematurely, disgracefully, ignomi- niously; having, for years, robbed life of all its value, being destitute of all moral sensibility, and totally unfitted for the re- ception of the common enjoyments of life. If we would comply with the requisitions of chastity we must govern our thoughts, feelings and actions, and guard rigidly against temptation. The Hebrew sage, 3,000 years ago, knew how necessary it was to guard against the incentives to this vice, when he uttered the following warning, which, from the immutability of human nature, is quite as applicable in the present day. " With her much fair speech, she causeth him to yield.*** He goeth after her straight- way, as an ox goeth to the slaughter * * * as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life. Let not thine heart incline to her ways, go not astray to her paths, for she has cast down many ; yea, many strong men have been slain by her." How true to nature are the pencilings of this picture. Trust not to any supposed innate power to resist the seductive influences and vile arts of the unchaste; for one impure look from a woman's eye, or one impure word from a woman's lips, will do more towards pol- luting the imagination and destroying the heart of a young man, than any amount of temptation from his own sex. The extent to which this vice prevails; the amount of temptation which assails 18 young men in large cities; the fearfully thoughtless readiness with which they yield, exceed our powers of computation. Nor can we describe the awful fate of the victims; the amount and malig- nity of physical disease; the numbers that die annually; or the fearful weight of the curse which will inevitably be visited on the guilty, through all time and through all eternity. Apprehend then the most imminent danger—do not regard yourselves as proof against the insidious movements of the depraved panderers of this iniquity, without the most rigid vigilance, and a most de- termined warfare to resist them ; and thus, not forgetting to in- voke the aid of a higher power, which is always ready to be vouchsafed, you may apply your time to its appropriate objects, and escape the odiousness, the wretchedness, the guilt, the dis- grace, the remorse, the loathsome disease, the death spiritual and the death temporal, which inevitably pertain to a licentious course of life. In urging upon your attention the necessity of guarding against these evil influences, and specifying their main sources, I have been actuated by a knowledge of cases. I have in my mind's eye a wreck here and another there upon the great ocean of life, and'these are even now suffering the dreadful penalties due to transgression. They teach most impressively how much pain of body, and how much personal comfort, is sacrificed at the shrine of vice—how many of the gentler associations of life are sundered, and how much bitter remorse has to be endured. Feelings of melancholy arise irresistibly, as we contemplate the palpable evidences of approaching constitutional decay. Sharp misery impressed upon every feature, the lustreless eye, the lean form, the listless movement and uncertain step, tell too plainly that the remaining course of life is marked for suffering. All that had been bright and joyous in existence is gone ; the elasticity of spirit, the vigour of body, the keen sense of pleasure springing from " Mens sana in corpore sano," lies buried in a mass which is undergoing physical decay and moral putrefaction. Or we may turn to one whose vices have not taxed the physical powers so heavily as yet, and our pity is excited, equally, in seeing him an outcast; committing the most atrocious crimes upon society whenever an opportunity presents itself. He has long ago turned his back upon friends and familiar places, he is dead to every dear association in life, and has visited grief of the most corroding character upon parents and friends; he sculks in dark and heinous lurking places where vice revels upon husks which swine refuse. In this way unsuspicious youths may be,—have been, led on from what are called innocent indulgences to profligacy and debauchery, by imperceptible steps; and such is sometimes the magnitude of 14 their power over the soul, that though a mysterious finger should write its condemnation in letters of flame it would still deliber- ately barter the world, if it could, yea, all hope, present and future, for a cup whose dregs it knows to be death. What a use this to make of the immortal mind ! How disreputable to the mind itself! How dishonoring to its Divine architect! But, whilst the way of the transgressor is hard indeed, quite another aspect is presented when we comtemplate the course and destiny of him who travels the path of duty, of obedience, of diligence and of moral rectitude. In him, together with intellec- tual improvement, the moral affections, by careful vigilance and proper culture, are developed and strengthened; the sentiment of personal dignity is increased ; the whole character is invested with consistency and moral beauty; and the smiles of a constantly approving conscience are enjoyed. What on earth so lovely as such a character! To him the simple purpose of rectitude is more than the echoings of fame for ages; and the single self-poised feel- ing of integrity, more than the wealth of kingdoms. It would re- quire the pencilings of the most brilliant imagination to depict the lofty character of such a man—pure, calm, self-subsistent; de- pendent neither upon fashion, fortune nor fame, and under the in- fluence of the purest motives. In all his actions exhibiting "Spotless reputation, that away, Men are but gilded loam or painted clay." I have now directed your minds, very briefly, young gentlemen, to some of the sources of mental distraction and temptations to vice which you must avoid, during your sojourn here, if you de- sire to maintain the integrity of your mental and physical powers and return to your homes, at the close of the Session, in possession of the rich stores of knowledege which the medical institutions and hospitals of this City are ready to impart. I might have pointed out to you other forms and sources of temptation, but the limits of an introductory lecture do not allow it. These, however, require no special notice, because they are, in a greater or less degree, associated with, and collateral to those designated, which are the most prominent, and most important to be known and avoided. Your safety and success consist in repudiating the entire category of influences, which are in any way calculated to occupy your time or lead your minds away from the acquisition of medical knowledge. Guard with incessant vigilance the pre- cious hours of the approaching session—improve your time— resist allurements—lay foundations broad and deep for a virtuous life and an unsullied character; and you will meet the fond hopes of friends, and possess the delightful consciousness, through life, of having fulfilled the duties incumbent upon you as students. 15 Your studies are of an elevated character, and when rightly pursued under the influence of proper motives and correct feel- ings, are calculated to improve the heart as well as the intellect. They comprise, as their subjects, the most sublime truths of nature, derived from the same all-wise Being, whose Word and works are, and necessarily must be, the same. Attention to your studies, therefore, will not only preserve but favour the cultivation of the moral powers of the soul. These are to be enlarged— improved. Of this they are susceptible, precisely as are our physical and intellectual faculties. In the cultivation of these, our responsibility is greatest. The ten talents here make it obligatory upon us to get ten other talents, if we would deserve the welcome plaudit of " well done, good and faithful." It is in this way only that man can rise to the true dignity of his intel- lectual and moral nature, in any sphere of life. Such moral culture will lead him to yield to the ameliorating, purifying, ele- vating, and restraining influences of Christianity, which is the only true basis of a virtuous character. Its influence quietly restrains every vicious propensity, and noiselessly undermines and ulti- mately overthrows every social and civil evil. It is this that confers upon us every blessing of life. " We too often forget that our civilization, our laws, our freedom, our science even, are mainly due to Christianity. Blot its all-pervading principles out of man's history and what would his laws have been,—-what his civilization ? Christianity is mixed up with all that is valuable in our very be'ing and life ; there is not a familiar object around us—there is not a single duty in life, which does not wear a different aspect because the light of Christian love is upon it— not a law which does not owe its truth and gentleness, not a custom which cannot be traced in all its holy, beautiful parts, to Christi- anity." It is this that gives virtuous stability to men and to nations. As to its influence upon nations, we need no other illustration than France. How often, in her history, do we find her upheaving and convulsed, although her gigantic intellect has investigated every department of science ; yet where no Bibl'ehas taught the truth of God, and no early education has engrafted the knowledge of the Most High ; as a nation, she is asking and seekino- for a refuge from revolution and bloodshed, that it is impossible for her to discover. Thus it is with individuals; and it is through individual character that its influence is shed upon -the world. Let us then yield ourselves up to those propi- tious influences which emanate from our common Christianity and which abound so plentifully in this city. These, pervading all her institutions, are her crown jewels, and constitute her in fact what she is in name—the city of brotherly love. Her churches 16 are all open to you; their goodmen invite and urge you to worship with them. In their benevolence they appoint special services for you ; and will you not gratefully and devoutly accept the proffered kindness, and show them that you entertain a proper appreciation of their disinterestedness ? They may not, whilst you sojourn here, have visible evidence of the benefits which they thus confer; but they will enjoy the glorious consciousness of having done their part towards your moral and religious improvement. Consider carefully your high destiny, and weigh well the responsibilities imposed on you. These are to be met by every individual for himself. Others may lure you astray but you will have to endure alone the consequences of transgression. Keep your mind and heart upon the path of rectitude; it is the only safe one. Influence exerted upon you favourably never dies; it will swell in ever widening circles throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity. And thus it is with unfavourable influences—they never die. How transcendently great your privileges ! how infi- nitely weighty your responsibilities! Before every one who heeds the counsel offered in behalf of the Faculty, on this occasion, there are flowery paths, and over his head bright constellations of stars. That one beaming so brightly is the star of health. It has risen unclouded hitherto, and already culminates in its glory, and promises that he shall walk through life with a step that is vigorous, elastic and buoyant. Just above the horizon is the star of domestic love, bright as a gem, in the firmament, and promising all that love has to promise. Beyond that is the star of professional attainments, clear and sparkling, and captivating to the eye, and apparently able to throw a clear light and bright prospects on his path. And then the star of moral rectitude flashing its beams all around, and promising that his path shall never want that star to illuminate it; and yonder is a mild star that looks like a shock of corn fully ripe for the harvest; and still lower, just in the verge of the distant horizon, is the star of hope, kindling a mellow ray there, and throwing its beams far into eternity, beyond where the eye can follow. ''All these can the eye of every young man, as he comes to stand on the threshold of manhood, see at a single glance. If now you come on the stage of professional life and act well your Part, obeying patiently and fully the physical, intellectual and moral laws which God has imposed, each star will grow brighter and brighter all the way during your course, till the last one, the. star of hope, that maketh not ashamed, shall melt away beyond the horizon of life, and be lost in the light of eternal day." 7T u 2 J-'"6