VALEDICTORY ADDRESS mOIVBHEn AT THE NINTH ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT *v. HOMOEOPATHIC MEDICAL COLLEGE, OF PENNSYLVANIA, FEBRUARY 2>, 1857, J. P. DAKE, A. M., M. P., PROFESSOR OF MATERIA MKUIOA AN1> TIIF.RAPRTIT1CS. PHILADELPHIA: KING & BAIRD, PRINTERS, 9 SANSOM STREET. 1857. VALEDICTORY ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE NINTH ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT HOMffiOPATHIC MEDICAL COLLEGE, OF PENNSYLVANIA, FEBRUARY 27,1857, BY %•- . -■„ J. P. DAKE, A. M, M. D, PROFESSOE OF MATERIA MEDIOA AND THERAPEUTICS PHILADELPHIA: KING & BAIRD, PRINTERS, 9 SANSOM STREET. 1857. % OFFICERS OF THE COLLEGE. PRESIDENT. HON. A. V. PARSONS. RECORDING SECRETARY. WILLIAM A. REED, M. D. CORRESPONDING SECRETARY. WALTER WILLIAMSON, M. D. TREASURER. WILLIAM RHOADS. MANAGERS. HENRY P. LLOYD, S. DILLINGHAM, GEORGE PETERSON, W. G. E. AGNEW, HENRY HOMER, W. C. MILLIGAN. VALEDICTORY. Gentlemen Graduates:— We are happy on this day, and in presence of this vast assemblage, to welcome you from the retirement of your pupilage into the full fellowship of our brotherhood. Hitherto your days have been spent in study— quietly have you passed along through learning's pathway, unheeded by the busy throng. But you have here reached an eminence upon which the public eye beholds you; and henceforth, whithersoever you go it will be upon you. Shrink not from its steady gaze; but turn, and in its silent depths read the wants of a world. In tokens not to be mistaken, it tells of human sickness and suffering beyond endurance, and begs you to come with skill and ardor to their relief. If you heed the tokens, benignant will be its beam- ing, or moistened with the tear of sympathy as in the struggle you rise or fall. From the eminence you this day occupy, it is well for you to cast a glance back upon the pathway by which you have come, and to look forward over that which stretches away before you, in order rightly to estimate the nature and magnitude of the undertaking upon which you have entered. For years books have been your companions; and 4 you have met together in halls of instruction to gather knowledge. Under our direction you have studied the intricate mechanism and the yet more intricate functions of the human body,—the signs of health and the signs of disease,—and the nature and uses of cura- tive means. In short, you have pursued all the branches which constitute medical science. How faithful has been your pursuit is signified in the roll of parchment about to be presented you by the honor- able President of our College. A retrospect bringing to view your connection with us, imposes some obligations of which I must briefly speak. For ourselves, individually, we ask nothing at your hands but friendship as sincere as that which we have extended to you. But, for our Institution, we urge the debt of gratitude which you owe to it. Founded and built up by a few hands, against opposi- tion both open and covert, this College has at the coming of each winter, for nine years, opened its doors for the reception of those seeking medical knowledge. It has taught what other schools have taught—and more. It has exhibited the great therapeutic law— "similia similibus curantur." Its treasures, and all the advantages it could afford in itself and in this medical metropolis have been at your command. You have enjoyed them, and here finally receive its crowning honors. We counsel you ever to be mindful of these facts, and therefore true to the just claims of your Alma Mater. As you turn from the past, and eagerly endeavor to trace the scenes through which your pathway leads in the future, your emotions are those of joy and hope. 5 These emotions, so far as they arise from a view of realities,—of lives saved and health restored by your agency,—are in keeping with the noble errand upon which you go and are necessary to your perseverance and success. The scenes outstretched before you, in some re- spects, are like those through which all men of healing in their times have passed, and such as your cotem- poraries from the other Colleges in this City must also pass through. The range of human sufferings is not now essentially different from that presented in other days: nor will it be different, in the field where you may labor, from that presented to your cotempo- raries. As they, so must you meet with the commingling cares and joys of professional life. All alike are enlisted to battle with an enemy that may come at any moment, The cry " to arms," may break in upon the hour given to domestic or social enjoyments, or rouse you from the midnight slumber. It may come when the howling storm-wind, or the piercing frosts are abroad, and men and beasts, and all living things, save the physician only, are sheltered and at rest. Though enlisted against the same enemy, and com- pelled to endure similar deprivations and hardships, as those who from the other Institutions in this City, are marshalled out, yet you will differ from them in many respects. They are to be members in an ancient order, which rests upon its bloody trophies and its age—and claims by hereditary descent, the highest seats of orthodoxy. They are to be knights of the lancet, and what concerns you most, exceedingly 6 jealous of all competition in winning the honors of the world. On the other hand, you are to belong to an order, which, though young, disdains the bloody trophies, and the ancient arms and tactics. You are to be knights of the gentle similia. Though trained in the art of war, as well as they, and possessed of equal courage and readiness to meet the enemy, they will look upon you with assumed disdain; and, when side by side, in the battle with disease, they discover that you have skill and weapons not only equal, but far superior to theirs, the assumed disdain will turn to unrelenting hatred. Far be it from us to accuse them wrongfully, or to conjure up difficulties that you will never meet. If from our experience and the history of the past, we may safely anticipate the future, you will find your relations to the practitioners of the ancient order such as we have briefly pointed out. Dropping our martial figure, and looking forward, we say then, your career is to be not only that of medical practitioners, but also of medical reformers. As those who have received new light upon an im- portant subject, you are commissioned to spread its cheering influence where darkness reigns. This duty of extending the knowledge of a discovery, second to none in the scientific world, and superior to any in its benefits to suffering humanity, is not one which you may treat with indifference. You are to teach as well as practice your faith. But in all your teaching, be wise and courteous. It is not by a multitude of words, nor yet by harsh ex- 7 pressions, that you can persuade men to see and think as you do. Deal gently with their life-long prejudices, make plain your views, and then be patient while the leaven works their full conversion. If you encounter the abuse of some in the ancient order—if any call you " quack," or "knave," or " fool," turn away, that the venomed words may sting only the tongue that gave them utterance. But if they challenge you to an equal combat, in the discussion of medical topics, enter with them, fully assured that the " pebble " which you can hurl, will be more than a match for their " weaver's beam." In the propagation and defence of your views, re- member always the old motto— " Suaviter in modo, fortiter in re." Do you pause at the moment of our final separation, and ask us to sum up for you the elements of profes- sional success \ Without hesitation we answer—one is honesty of purpose, and the other, the exercise of common SENSE. From the exercise of common sense, will come a con- tinuation of the studies in which you have here been engaged, as well as the collection of a more diversified knowledge from the walks of practical life. It will teach you all the nice observances which characterize the true gentleman, rendering you free on the one hand from the senseless display of the fop, and on the other, from the grossness of the vulgar. No man gets wider the track of common sense than he who bids for patronage by fawning sycophancy or 8 " braggadocia." Could he read the description of himself into which the keen eye of the cultivated world translates his newspaper puffs, his flaming ad- vertisements, his open mouthed " swagger " and his ape-like gesticulations, he would look upon the paltry dollar filched from the suffering poor as .a meagre compensation for the sale of his manhood. And no one gets wider that track on the other hand, than he who seeks to distinguish himself by a neglect of the decencies of life. Could he trace his likeness in the visual orb of the most casual observer, he would start back in amazement at the picture of a goat, a bear, perhaps a swine. Honesty of purpose will beget a high and noble esti- mate of professional duties, as well as a determination conscientiously to discharge them. It will preserve you on the one hand from hypocritical pretensions, and on the other, from the disposition to profane that which is sacred: leading you always to a consistent, yet unoffending adherence to the principles which are acknowledged in the counsels of your soul. No man is more devoid of honesty of purpose, than he who, to gain the patronage of the world, turns his back upon the religion, or the politics, or the people commended by the silent influences of his conscience. If you cannot succeed in your profession without the surrender of your principles at the shrine of an intolerant bigotry, go and till the soil, and plant, the grain upon which a kinder hand will bestow sunshine and rain, whether you be Jew or Greek, Radical or Progressive. There is neither honesty or common sense in the policy of those who acknowledge the validity of the 9 homoeopathic law, and yet to catch or please a patient, administer random and heroic doses. The plausible pretext that they are not ultra, or on either extreme of medical practice, is not sufficient to cover their inconsistency, or save them from the just condemnation of a more enlightened public. In the effort to gain what they would call" a happy medium," the truth is left far out of sight, and they go stumbling in the dark. Honesty of purpose, will reveal to you in every suf- fering invalid, a brother to whom Providence has placed you under peculiar obligations. It will keep awake your sympathies and lead you to the bestowment of those kind and faithful atten- tions which light up the sick-room and make the physician a real minister of blessings. The union of the two elements which we have named, ensures the ability and the will to act the part of a good physician. In this lies the true and only secret of professional success. Gentlemen, do not misunderstand- us. When we speak of professional success, we refer not to an exten- sive ride, or to crowds flocking to an office: nor yet to newspaper fame, or a fortune of accumulated fees. All these may attend the charlatan who has minis- tered more to the credulity than to the physical suf- ferings of mankind. The measure of the success of which we speak, is found in the number of persons restored to health, or saved from impending death, by medical skill,—in the blessings of healing and comfort everywhere dispensed through marble palaces and mud-walled huts—and in the aid afforded the cultivation of medical science. 10 This kind of success puts its record on the tablet of grateful hearts, and sends the name of its worthy possessor down to after ages. Hippocrates, and Galen, and Hahnemann, doubtless had cotemporaries who visited more patients and amassed ten times more gold, in medical practice, than they. Yet, the names of those cotemporaries, passed not the limits of their own generation, while Hippocrates, and Galen, and Hahnemann, will never be forgotten. We counsel you so to live and labor, as to erect for yourselves monuments more lasting than brass or classic marble, which shall be covered with the bless- ings of suffering humanity, and guarded by the genius of medicine so long as the sick shall need a physician. But we must not keep you longer—the moment for our parting has come, and you await only our fare- well. Go then, brothers, to your homes—to the fond circles left at the call of medical learning—to parents and brothers, and sisters, and loved ones, who are now looking for your return. But linger not long with them,—the suffering and the dying anxiously call for you. Go not with reluctance to the stern duties of life. With the days of your boyhood have passed the sports and joys of boyhood—henceforth your highest happiness must be in duties well performed. Some of you have already been out upon the field, and have here returned for new and better armor. Go now with your experience and more certain 11 weapons to wage a more successful warfare upon disease. Some of you are from the provinces of the Queen on the north; some from the wide prairies of the west; some from the sunny south, and some from the land of the Pilgrim Fathers. Go then to your respective fields, and spread the benign influences of Homoeopathy till our country is redeemed from the reign of murderous drugging. One of your number returns to his tropical home in South America; another to the West Indies. May your labors, with those of your colleagues already there, light up the darkness, till the dreadful scourges of the tropics shall be subdued, and the true art of healing made triumphant all over our continent, and in the islands of the sea. One there is before us who goes far eastward, to the land of most ancient and classic renown—to Greece— so beautifully called:— " The land of scholars and the nurse of arms." We stagger under a weight of emotion as we com- mission you to bear this new philosophy, this " great- est good" in medicine, to the City of Socrates and Plato. No higher honor may you wish in this life than to be the apostle and successful propagator of Homoeopathy in such a place. Go now, one and all;—join the three hundred who have already received their commissions here and are now scattered over the world's wide field. If you meet with difficulties, be not discouraged. If you ex- perience the ingratitude or the hatred of some, remem- ber you have the friendship and the love of others. 12 Around your standard will cluster friends of the warmest, noblest character: for the earliest patrons of Homoeopathy, have ever been from the educated and thinking classes of society. Nor is this all—you will be sustained by an approv- ing conscience and the smiles of Heaven. The value of these you may not fully estimate till you are called to stand in places where the fearful epidemic rages, and " the pestilence walketh in darkness," and hu- manity is truly but as " grass before the mower." In such times to feel the support of an arm that is all-powerful, will be a boon more valued than any that earth can afford. It is our last farewell—that the highest success shall attend you here, and that you may finally triumph oyer your life-long enemy,—Death, through the beneficent skill of the Great Physician. FACULTY OF MEDICINE. WALTER WILLIAMSON, M. D., EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF CLINICAL MEDICINE, AND PROFESSOR OF HOMffiO- PATHIC INSTITUTES, PATHOLOGY, AND THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. J. P. DAKE, M. D., PROFESSOR OF MATERIA MEDICA AND THERAPEUTICS. I. M. WARD, M. D., PROFESSOR OF OBSTETRICS, DISEASES OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN, AND MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. MATTHEW SEMPLE, M. D., PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY AND TOXICOLOGY. JACOB BEAKLEY, M. D., PROFESSOR OF SURGERY. WILLIAM A. REED, M. Dn PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY. WILLIAM TOD HELMUTH, M. D., PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY. ROBERT J. McCLATCHEY, M. D., DEMONSTRATOR OF ANATOMY. WALTER WILLIAMSON, M. D., Dean, N. E. cor. 11th and Filbert Streets, Philadelphia. FREDERIC KING, Janitor. LIST OF MATRICULANTS, FOR 1856-57. Abbe, B. R., M. D......Massachusetts. Allshorn, George E., .... England. Angell, S. M.,......Louisiana. Bablot, J. L. Lorenzo V., . . . Cuba. Beakley, Henry,......New York. Beebe, G. D. W.,.....New York. Bilisoly, Antonio L., .... Virginia. Billingsley, J. H.,.....Keotucky. Black, James E.,.....Canada West. Bridge, J. H. A.,.....Pennsylvania. Brooks, Charles A.,.....New Hampshire. Brower, R. F., M. D., . . . . New Jersey. Brown, John, ......Pennsylvania. Brown, Samuel,......Massachusetts. Burroughs, G. W.,.....New York. Burt, William H.,.....Canada West. Davies, Alfred R.,.....Pennsylvania. Dennet, G. W.,......Massachusetts. Bowling, J. W.,......New York. Downing, J. C. C......New York. Durand, Joseph P.,.....Pennsylvania. Elwin, John F.,......England. Everts, Edgar S.,.....New York. Fetterman, G. W.,.....Pennsylvania. Forbes, G. F.,......Massachusetts. Foster, G. S.,......Pennsylvania. Foster, H. L.,......New Hampshire. Friese, Michael,......Pennsylvania. Gab, Jos. H.,.......Louisiana. Gardiner, David E.,.....Pennsylvania. Gause, Owen B.,......Ohio. Goodman, J. R.,......South America. Guernsey, H. N., M. D., . . . Pennsylvania. Harding, W. F.,......New York. Hawes, J. C,......Pennsylvania. Hayward, Milton P., . . • . Connecticut. Hill, C Judson,......New York. Hindman, David R., .... Pennsylvania. Houard, Louis I.,.....Pennsylvania. Houghton, J. Harrison, . . . Massachusetts. Hunter, H. M.,......Vermont. 15 James, Bushrod W., .... Pennsylvania. Kalopothakes, M. D., . . . . Greece. Keyes, A. E.,......New York. King, W. H.,......Canada West. King, W. N.,31. D., .... Georgia. Kirk, Isaac E.,......New York. Lancaster, J. J.,......Canada West. Lougee W. H.,......New Hampshire. Malin, W. H.,......Pennsylvania. Mason, C.H.,......New Jersey. McPherson, W. H.,.....New Jersey. Moore, Volney L.,.....Wisconsin. Nichol, John E.,......Canada West. Nichol, Thomas,......Canada West. Packer, Charles W.,.....Pennsylvania. Pearsall, S. J.,......New York. Petrie, W. J.,......Ohio. Piersol, J. M.,......Pennsylvania. Potter, Frank W.,.....New York. Putnam, Thomas,.....New York. Rankin, John S.,.....Pennsylvania. Rawson, Edward,.....Illinois Roberts, R. Ross,.....Pennsylvania. Sanford, E. W.,......Massachusetts. Shaw, A. R.,.......Pennsylvania. Shurick, C. G.,......Pennsylvania. Smith, John T. S.,.....New York. Southwick, David E., . . . • New York. Stehman, Jacob G.,.....Pennsylvania. Stearns, G. W.,......Massachusetts. Stiles, John A.,......Connecticut. Strong, D. 0. K., M. D., . . . New York. Taft, George H,......Rhode Island. Taylor, C R., M. D., . . . . Vermont. Thompson, W. L.,.....Massachusetts. Teague, James P......Canada West. Vansant, Monroe L., .... Pennsylvania. Von Tagen, C. H.,.....Pennsylvania. Wilcox, W. B.,......Pennsylvania. Williams, Alban......Pennsylvania. Williamson, Walter M., . .■ . Pennsylvania. 1 GRADUATES OF 1857. At a Public Commencement held in the Musical Fund Hall, February 27th, 1857. the Degree of the College was conferred by the Hon. A. V. Parsons, President, upon the follow- ing named gentlemen: Name. Samuel M. Angoll, J. L. Lorenzo V. Bablot, Heury Beakley, G. D. W. Beebe, Antonio L Bilisoly, James II. A. Bridge, Charles A. Brooks, Alfred R. Davies, George W. Dennett, John Wm. Dowling, George W. Fetterman, Henry L. Foster, David E. Gardiner, Owen B Gause, John R. Goodman, Wilbur F. Harding, Milton P. Hayward, David R. Hindman, Horatio M. Hunter, Bushrod W. James, M. D. Kalopothakes, Alvah E. Keyes. William N. King, Isaac E. Kirk, William H. Lougee, Thomas Nichol, Jeremiah M. I'iersol, Frank W. Potter, Thomas Putnam, Enoch W. Sanford, Alexander R. Shaw, Christopher G. Shurick, Dar id E. South wick, Jacob G. Stehman, Residence. Title of Thesis. Louisiana, Fever. [Fever. Cuba, Importance of Lachesis and Crotalus in Yellow New York, Pathological Andtomy. New York, The Circulation. Virginia, Yellow Fever. Pennsylvania, Bronchitis. New Hampshire, Puerperal Peritonitis. Pennsylvania, The Philosophy of Parturition. Massachusetts, The Physician and his Duties. New York, Hernia and its Treatment. Pennsylvania, The use of Ergot in Parturition. New Hampshire, Molities. Pennsylvania, Typhoid Fever. Ohio, The Type of the Human Race. South America, Functions of the Cerebro-spinal Axis. New York, Pericarditis. Connecticut, Kndosmosis. Pennsylvania, Pre-Hahncmannic Homoeopathy. Vermont, Development of the Human Organism. Pennsylvania, The Progress of Surgery. Greece, Hippocrates. New York, The Breast and its Diseases. Georgia, Homoeopathy. New York, Influence of the Mind on Disease. New Hampshire, Dysenteria, Canada West, The Homoeopathic Materia Medica. Pennsylvania, The Pathology of Tubercles. New York, The Heart and its Diseases. New York, The Physician. Massachusetts, The Physiology of Reproduction and the His- tory of the Corpus Luteum. Pennsylvania, Human Teeth. Pennsylvania, The Physiological Basis of Homoeopathy. New York, Uterine Hemorrhage. Pennsylvania, The Teeth and their relation to the Human Economy. Process of Digestion. Baptisia tinctoria. Vacc:nation, Intermittent Fever. Pneumonia. George A. Taft, Rhode Island, William L. Thompson, Massachusetts, Monroe L. Vansant, Pennsylvania, Joseph B. Ward, New Jersey, William B. Wilcox, Pennsylvania, Walter M. Williamson, Pennsylvania, Vaccination. SPECIAL DEGREE. George E. Allshorn, England. George W. Burroughs, New York. Joseph P. Durand, France. John F. Elwin, Englund. Joseph J. Lancaster, Canada West. John T. S. Smith, New York. HONORARY DEGREE. William S. Helmuth, M. D., Philadelphia. B. F. Joslin, M. D., LL. D., New York. HOMEOPATHIC MEDICAL COLLEGE OF PENNSYLVANIA, Located in Filbert Street, above Eleventh, PHILADELPHIA. The Lectures of the Regular Course will commence annually on th> second Monday of October, and continue until the first of March ensuing. s. 3V. Amount of Fees for a full Course of Lectures (invariably cash,)........iBIOO 00 Students who have attended two full courses in other Medical Colleges,......50 00 Graduates of other Medical Colleges. 30 00 Matriculation Fee, paid only once. . . . 5 00 Practical Anatomy.......10 00 Graduation Fee..... 30 00 or; *0 VV i,| lb In order to afford facilities to Students who are unable to pay the full amount of fees for a full course of lectures, five beneficiary Students will be received, and entitled to a full course oT lectures, by paying fifty dollars each. The application for admission to be made to the Faculty previous to the first of September in each year, and to be endorsed by at least two reputable Homoeopathic Physicians, testifying to the good moral character and worthiness of the candidate for such favor, and his inability to pay. 6iT The Commencement will take place early in March. WALTF.R WILLIAMSON, M. D., Dean. N. Yx. Corner 11th and Filbert Streets, Philadelphia. »w^ Ta i rJITL"! ii'-fi •"fff T' VS-