3S
ADDRESS.
 Gentlemen of the Medical Class:—
                                In making my bow before you
 as speaker of the evening, it would be nothing but justice to my-
 self, that I should acquaint you of the fact of my having but limi-
 ted  experience in the business ; therefore you need not expect
 much from me  in the way of oratory.  I have visited this city to
 see  once again the proud old University;  to walk through its
 halls;  to greet  its professors, who  will ever be dear to me; to
 meet my brother students, of whom I shall ever cherish a lively
 recollection; and to feel  those  fires of enthusiasm  that we felt
 together when we  toiled manfully and vigorously up the hill of
 science!  My daily duties have, for some time, been performed
 with the sick.   I aspire  to  no  higher dignity or destiny in life
 than that of being, what each of you are aiming to become, a phy-
 sician ; since it is a vocation in which the fondest, truest, purest,
 and  gentlest sympathies of our nature can ever find the most deli-
 cious food for developing our minds and hearts, for enlarging them,
 for ennobling them with the best attainments of humanity.   From
 scenes  of my boyhood's home I come, leaving a people,  rejoicing
 in health  and  happiness, on the coming in of a " bright new
 year."   I come to offer a willing and grateful sacrifice  at the
 shrine of my medical creation !   That offering must be the tribute
 of a loving son to a great and  good mother in a science upon
 which the health and well-being of the world in a great measure
depends.   I promise you no beautiful  flowers  of  rhetoric, no
splendid imagery to  dazzle  the  fancy and lead the  imagination
captive, for I am, as you see, " a plain, blunt man." 
[2]
   Near two years have  passed since I left this " Temple," and I
 now return  to it with all the affection that a child would  feel for
 a parent.   And what shall it be when years have flown by on the
 unceasing billows of time ?   Though this frail bark shall be waft-
 ed to unknown and far distant seas, I will steer to it like a "star
 in the mariner's heaven."   I will bless it from the depths of my
 soul,  and  in my every action will strive to honor it.   I shall ever
 look to it as the birth-place of my present responsibility and future
 usefulness, and never lose sight of its  teachings.  Animated by
 such  sentiments, I appear before you this evening with an assu-
 rance of an ambitious feeling for the common good, of interest and
 brotherly kindness for you and for the whole profession.   Profes-
 sing to be guided  by no principles of narrow-minded  selfishness
 to those who have gone before me in the subject of present under-
 taking, I would  say,  that I have no desire to pluck one  feather
 from  the cap of  him who has made one step toward the accom-
 plishment of what I deem a glorious cause for one to be engaged
 in.  I stand here for the purpose of publicly  advocating a new
 order of things with  ourselves.   Not any new " pathy,'' which
 may  consist in the farther decern multiplication of  remedies, or
 any one idea system,  as regards the way to  catch popular favor,
 and propagate humbuggery.  No, gentlemen, not any of these!
 It is in behalf of the union of scientific medicine that I would be
iheard and considered.   This is the question  of the most consider-
able importance to us, as science loving and  humane physicians.
  The announcement of  my theme may have startled some of
you,  caused others to impute to me Utopian schemes, Quixotic
enterprises,  etc.   To  those of you who  will go  along with  me
 and look  at what  we may find, patiently and kindly, and with
 a disposition to enter, with me, into the project of bringing about
 a complete union  and consolidation of our  school  all over  the
 land,  I promise to deal  in plain  and stubborn facts which  may
 all redound to our  benefit.  To " croakers," and  those can't-do-
 anything kind of persons, who infest every community and every
 quarter, we shall at present feel indifferent,  knowing  at length
 that we will gain even them with us, when  we are  beginning to
 reap  the  benefit of our labors.  For  the present we shall find
pleasure  enough in advocating  the  cause, and shall wait confi- 
                            [3]

dently and surely for the ripening harvest to our vast medical pro-
fession.  The elder, and the more honored lights of  the science
that we have the honor to represent, we will, if they choose, leave
in their  old  ways, with their private  bickerings, jealousies and
petty animosities.  These have become part and parcel of their
nature, and  it is  hard, indeed, to separate " Ephraim and  his
idols."  Envyings and strifes among a people stationed as guards
and sentinels on the watch-tower of universal welfare, bitterness
and slander between those who amputate the dead limbs and those
who tie the bleeding arteries !  How lamentable that such is the
fact!  How much is it to be deplored that such a state of things
exist in every town, in every city, and  upon  every thoroughfare,
among those professing to spring from the  same school and advo-
cating radically the same  notions.  The scoffs and bitter jeers,
sneering remarks and sly, insinuating,  detractive inuendoes, or
mysterious,  non-committal  winks, blinks  and  nods, when  the
name of a brother doctor is mentioned as having had connection
with some case that turned out unfortunately,  or ended fatally, or
was kept a long  time in sick bed.  So well is this spirit known,
that it has grown a trite and truthful  saying that  " Doctors will
disagree."  This expression is in the mouth of every one.  It has
become one of the fixed facts of  medical history, and is, I verily
believe, most generally sustained with this simple reason—that
doctors will  to disagree in a majority of instances. • The passion
for originality is so great, or for having the  reputation of being
original, that many of us consider it  highly  derogatory to  our
standing  to carry out  the doctrines  and practice of our medical
brother even, however successful he may  be.  If we douse his
means it is done in some form  of disguise, and at the same  time
we may be  dropping  some remarks  calculated to detract  very
greatly from the character of the man under the wings of whose
good treatment we are riding into power and authority ourselves.
In the greater number of cases where we have, upon consultation,
the least bit of room for a slight difference of opinion,  by which
we may display a little individuality of judgment, do  we ever fail
to do so ?   Questions of the poorest and most insignificant moment
prove  " a split" between us.   The difference  may arise from the
consideration  of the proper kind of  cathartic required  in the 
[4]
patient's case; or whether he should take ten or fifteen grains of
this and that preparation ;  whether a blister should be put on this
place,  that  place, and the other place;  or whether the  patient
should drink cold water or not.   Hundreds of the most diminutive
circumstances  prove subjects of angry contention, animadversion
and unfairness.  He who temporarily triumphs in the  estimation
of his charge has but  a slight and  transitory  glow of victory; by
and by it comes his turn to be demolished, and so it goes on from
alpha to omega I   Now does not every one, of kind disposition
and candid  mind,  deplore  this state of things; even while he
may be compelled, from  self-defence, in  some degree,  to engage
in it ?  I think so.   Are we  not all  aware that so alarmingly has
this disgraceful spirit pervaded our ranks that we frequently hear
persons advise others not to employ  doctors, for " they abuse
each other so much that it is not reasonable to put confidence in
any of them."  Why  is it that so many pathies have gained foot-
ing and favor in civilized and educated lands ?  Would you pre-
tend to say that  if scientific  medicine had been always united in
the great purposes of  experiment, observation and practice, with
Jesuitical  fidelity,  had taught  each  other,  helped  each  other,
cheered and comforted each other, and exhibited to the world a
faithful and devoted band of conscientious, liberal and high-mind-
ed enquirers after truth in its essence in  regard  to the treatment
of the ills to which flesh is  heir, that these  crazy, new-fangled,
one-idea notions, would have gained patronage at all ?   No, gen-
tlemen, I verily believe they would not.   We alone are to blame
that many persons are propelled by steam across the dark waters
of the Styx, many  swallow diminutive doses and die, and others
find a " watery grave."  Our disputes, our abuses, our own short
comings in point of unanimity, have caused these catch-traps to be
received  and followed, have caused quacks to root out of house
and home, bread and  bed, those  individuals worthy of confidence,
but who, from an unfortunate state of anarchy in  our own  body
did not receive it.
   Our own abuse of potent  remedies has done much  against us
we must admit.  The rule of one particular system of  treatment,
from terrible salivation to that of bleeding our patients to death,
one species of sangradoism and another, have all given,  I fear, very 
                            [5 j

just cause of complaint;  but when we come to investigate these
practices that have been so destructive to human  life and health,
we shall find that they become  prevalent from a blind, infatuated
compliance with the doctrines of new and distinguished theorists.
Their followers were lost to principles of common sense,  were mere
automatons, and acted from the dictates of the, so-styled, best au-
thorities, (?) without  considering for a moment the actual results
of their own experience.   Hence the vast amount of records tri-
umphed against us by our enemies.  Hence it is that  the public
has acquired a taste for something new, and embrace any novelty
in  physic with  all the  fondness that charlatans  could  desire.
Patent  medicines spring up " whose name is legion," for their
victims  " are many."  In the  very sanctum of our own  private
study we can frequently find a bottle of  Dr. Catchem's Cordial,
Dr.  Cheatem's  Liniment, and  a box of Dr. Killem's Compound
Universal Vegetable Pills, also a bottle of Dr. Humbugall's Pana-
cea, that, according to the certificates of many distinguished indi-
viduals, has never been known to fail in curing any disease.  In vis-
iting the sick it not unfrequently happens that when we are consid-
ering what would be most likely to benefit our patient, he may just
have strength enough to suggest that some of this, or that, " adver-
tised in the papers," might prove of service.  From the force of cir-
cumstances we may yield to the request of our charge; he gets well,
" the great discovery " has done all, in the estimation of his friends,
and doctors  are anathematized for ignorance.  Now, for these
things,  too, I am bold enough to assert that our school, in a great
measure, is to blame, for  it is by our influence that these baneful
elements first obtain  power over the people, and when fairly let
loose they are  as  withering  and blighting as the  blast of the
dreaded simoon, or the shade of the deadly upas tree.   It is, I say
again, alone by the recommendation of  a few M. D's.,  real or
counterfeit, that the first doses are taken  of this, and that, lately
fledged  nostrum, and a whole  country is deluded  into the belief
that the arrant knave who produces this potion for poor mortality
is a modern saviour.  Physicians, high in medical  authority, are
continually  appending their names to  introduce these articles;
others seeing their approval, are not deterred from using and  pre-
scribing them; and carrying out this principle, who will feel sur- 
[•]
prised  at  the  extent  to which  patent medicines  have not only
monopolized the very cream of our support, but rendered hundreds
and thousands incurable subjects of our poor charity.
  My fellow students, I am aware that these remarks about these
trifling preparations "are as tedious as a twice told tale," but the
fact is they have  grown too  familiar.  We are indifferent as to
their  merits,  for  they have  none.   Kelying upon the intrinsic
deserts of  the  good  system we advocate, we are lulled into feel-
ings  of security,  from a total  absence  of fear, while they  are
striving to sap the very foundation of our science—substituting a
race of blood-sucking, rapacious, money-gathering pretenders, that
go fillibustering upon the constitution and pockets of mankind—
to the exclusion of those who are worthy of trust,  and who have
devoted their whole lives to the study of the healing art.  Would
any man of common sense presume to say that if scientific medi-
cine was united in putting down these remedies, by precept and
example, that  they would  long persist in preying upon the vitals
of the public?  Could we not, by uniting in feeling, sentiment and
action in this enterprise, bring about a state of things unequalled
in the annals of physic ?  Add to this an association of ourselves,
where  a choice of a doctor would be as from  among a body  of
friends, in the  happy  communication of kind offices toward each
other, and union  to drive quackery  and  humbuggery from  the
face of the earth ;  then, and then only, we will be  willing to give
up and  forever renounce those loathsome envyings with us, that
men  in every  other  vocation  are free from, and we shall mingle,
freely,  openly, fairly, kindly and candidly in our duties, that may
ever redound  to the  common good, and  in the light and heat of a
national brotherhood.
  I have not  made  the foregoing  admissions  with the intent or
purpose of making  a  wanton display  of  our  own weaknesses.
These have all been used against us,  time and  again, by the new
theorists and their  followers, that  have  sprung up all over  the
country, to prove  the instability of our school, to demonstrate as-
sertions that its votaries are torn  asunder by anarchy and bitter-
ness, and  on the  other hand, that the followers of this and that
sett of notions are united to a man.  We must  confess that there
is indeed great room for the  charges  preferred j for in our lack of 
                            [7]

brotherly consideration for each other, and our  positive absence
from good  feeling, our  opponents find  enough weak  points at
which they can hurl the most disgraceful epithets that scandalous
tongues can invent.   I have been candid enough to place the
secrets  of my own house out to be gazed upon as a public exam-
ple.  From what I have said, if there is any one present who de-
sires to make of them against the elect of medicine, we shall have
the satisfaction of knowiug that it will not be the first time they
have been  thrown up to  us, and will gladly give them other
reasons, that they themselves may whip us  into reform.
   Students, to you my remarks are  more particularly directed.
With you rest the power of removing all the evils of the present
of professional policy.   With the  present  facilities for  acquiring
medical education, and the number of practitioners to be turned
out every year, it will not take long to place a new doctor in every
nook and corner of the United States ; and  if each is imbued with
the  ideas I shall advance  in reference to  his  relations with his
brothers in  the cause, before many years have passed, we can see,
from Maine to Florida  and  from  the Atlantic  to the  Pacific, a
great heart and  soul  union of us all.  Gentlemen, union is the
watchword, union is everything.  The kind, private and public,
interchange of individual opinion and experience, by this means
forming a correct standard of our duty, is the best means of accom-
plishing the common end for the general benefit, in discharging
our  mission of science  and  mercy,—unity of design, union of
states, union of churches, union of scientific medicine!   Union is
"my living sentiment, and by the blessings of God, it shall be my
dying sentiment."  In becoming an humble member of this body
I wedded it.  It became my bride, and  hence it is my  idol.  Its
improvement unto perfection is my sole ambition, and  for which
every effort of my life shall  tend.  My mind, heart, voice and pen,
I have dedicated them  all to it, with it and  its destinies will I live
or die.   My practice will be to purge it, until its whole system is
purified of the noxious ingredients  within, so that a free and
healthy circulation of the influences of universal, brotherly, profes-
sional love, may present a sublime moral spectacle to coming gen-
erations.  For let it not be denied that we have been, and now
are, the  great conservators of science.  Take the  discoveries of 
[8]
chemistry from the world, how dark would it be!   Perhaps New-
tonian light would dimly illumine a vast unbroken waste of gravi-
tating ignorance  and superstition !  Deprive us of a knowledge of
the established doctrines of physiology, the blood would still flow
on as deeply mysterious in its currents as the unseen, unknown
channels of the streams that flow hidden in  the gloomy depths of
subterranean  caves.   Thousands  and  tens  of thousands of the
great practical arts  of life have sprung from and been  nurtured
on the bosom of our great mother science, and  in reviewing all
these facts, is it strange that we  should feel proud of the moral
grandeur and scientific sublimity of our beloved profession ?  Its
aims are lofty—its accomplishments wonderful.   Its temples have
been reared with the mighty arm of  its own innate virtue and in
spite of all obstacles.   Orthodox medicine, with all the innovations
and empiricisms it has suffered, is yet the fruitful matrix of uni-
versal enlightenment; and to bring  about  a  speedy fruition of
world-wide beneficence its orthodox followers must be united.
  Now the question may  be asked,  "Is it not perfectly natural
for men to disagree ?"  And following this  query, " and for doc-
tors,  because they are men ?"  This we grant,  but it does not fol-
low, if we do differ  in opinion, that the standard of good feeling
should be disturbed, which you  know is too often the case.  In
entertaining our  individual ideas and honest differences of senti-
ment  with reference to diseases and remedies, it should not incur
the disgust of our brother because we will have our own particu-
lar notions.  E very-day-experience in the management of diseases,
when we are thoroughly acquainted with general principles,  does
more  to inform  us than  attending lectures, or  reading  medical
books, in regard  to the maladies of our own particular  latitude.
Each  physician's experience  is a book,  to  himself, of  practical
observations, and if, in a private  and public manner, we should
exhibit  the work to  our brethren, the records  in cases, the treat-
ment, etc., at all  times, there would  be more union and  harmony
with us  in our daily walks, a more united  system of the " Ars.
Medendi," and less quacking;  for the reason that the community
perceiving the beneficial consequences of our new order of things,
would frown down every  attempt of pretenders to supersede us.
If there was a free, prompt and general interchange among us, 
                            [9]
of what we see, feel and  think, in reference to this malady and
that, and  such in an open and candid manner, open to public in-
spection and criticism, our school would soon whip out the new-
fangled notions in physic from the face of the earth, and ride still
higher in the estimation of mankind.  Since, from a former con-
dition of selfish personal interests, it would be changed to one of
wide principles, of benevolent, professional consideration for each
other.   Now with such a state of medical  polity, what could we
not accomplish in the glorious empire of our merciful vocation ?
  The formation  of medical societies  on honorable pledges of
friendly conduct, under all circumstances, would conduce greatly
towards effecting this most happy result.  These I recommend to
you, my fellow students, as  being perfect " Love feasts," when
rightly  governed.  You will soon go  forth upon your errand of
benevolence, will  soon  be scattered  through thirteen or fourteen
States, and your practice and example will be seen and felt.  In
each town, city or neighborhood in which you may cast your lot,
try to diffuse among the brothers of the " healing art"  a disposi-
tion to develop the most affectionate  professional relations.  Form
these clubs on sure and solid  bases, create medical libraries, meet
frequently in the exchange of kind offices and mutual instruction.
Investigate together the striking peculiarities of your own particu-
lar locality, getting light  in  treatment, and a thorough acquaint-
ance with what you have to deal in  making extensive researches,
by these means forming  an  elevated  standard  of your common
duties, in  which your career may prove a blessing to your patients
and to the profession.   If you compare  your experience with that
of your neighbor,  you can easily arrive at better conclusions than
if you rely entirely upon your own.  In no country does this rule
hold so  good as in this variable climate of ours.   A knowledge of
the marked peculiarities of different latitudes in this respect can
only be gotten from those versed  in them ; and you may be the
fortunate recipient of such information.   We may think it will be
sapping the very foundation  of our  own  prosperity to communi-
cate our proficiency to others, but in this we are mistaken, for we
owe it to our fellow-creatures, and to the honor  of the profession,
to be the means of circulating such information as is calculated to
save life and health; and he who disseminates  the most good in 
[ io]
this line of Heaven's own benevolence will be deemed the greatest
benefactor of mankind !   Who that has a warm heart within his
breast, would not rejoice at the thought of being a benefactor to
his race !  In our cause  we have room to be in the most extended
signification!  Our actions may be such, while we move in this
sublunary sphere, that when we have  " passed away," hearts will
leap up at the mere mention of our names, and a grateful people
will place their loving benediction on the dear  ones that we may
leave behind.  The humane, intelligent physician who goes  forth
to relieve the pain and anguish of his fellows, who watches by the
bed-side of the sick and  dying, and feels each pulsation of forlorn,
distressed and aching hearts, who sees the quickening, vital spark
come back to the once pale cheek, and light it up with life, health
and animation, and who feels  the consolation and sublime satis-
faction that his hand,  through the  instrumentality of nature,
brought restoration to  his patient,  should be a happy man indeed,
if there is any truth in the philosophy that " happiness consists
chiefly in making others happy."  These desirable points success-
fully attained, at  first we become a benefactor  to one, then to a
few, and finally, by extending our usefulness, a whole community
will encircle us with their gratitude.
  There  are many ways  in  which   by unceasing  labor and
perseverance, we  can  secure  nobly beneficial results to  our-
selves  and  to  those  by whom  we  are surrounded.   If we
have a union of our  common purposes, philanthropy will  then
become a  subject of emulation amongst  us.  We will  then be
foremost in all great and good  enterprises ; in  all those general
provisions to be  made for  the sick, disabled and afflicted.  We
would inspect every dark, benighted hole of poverty and distress,
and be ministering angels to light every  gloomy recess of human
misery.  Our breasts would be fired with enthusiastic charity and
sympathy for those whose lot it is to suffer and to weep.  We can
swim  in an ocean  of delightful  self-satisfaction,  formed of the
gushing joy-tears of gladdened fellow-creatures ; for  our actions
may be such for the amelioration of  our species—each day that
we live in the future—that admiring generations  would direct
their wanderings to our profession, bathing itself in a sea of glory !
It would spring from the union of correct medical sentiment; a 
                            [11]
 valid  and practical code of professional ethics; a prompt, noble
 self-sacrificing adherence to the well established  doctrines, for the
 observation of all ; a proper standard of action, treatment, &c,
 in every circle, however small  or large ; a perfect understanding
 amongst ue of whole-souled unity of feeling.  If we attain to this
 point, our school will be the proudest the world has ever known.
 The many ways in which we  can  accomplish great  things and
 good ones, will seem to  us  the unbounded  sympathy and  aid of
 charitable people.  The formation of asylums in every commu-
 nity, for the invalid and the destitute,  will then  become a matter
 of fashionable consideration, and remain so.  While our beauti-
 ful,  new system would  rob even epidemics of half their fatality,
 for the reason that no one, however poor, would feel the chilling
 and killing influences of neglect.  Society itself would feel eleva-
 ted by our new order of brotherly professional love and kindness.
   Now, I would  ask you just  here, is not  this "Union "  a glo-
 rious  object for  us  to  labor  for ?  So perfectly am I  enam-
 ored with the  idea, that if I  get ten of you to  unite with me
 in the enterprise of sowing the seeds  of such sentiments  in the
 minds of others, I shall feel my present pains much rewarded and
 shall " press on," in precept and the force of my poor example,
 until a complete millennium in our ranks shall  be most happily
 arrived at.
  Gentlemen :   We have everything to work for !   It is impossi-
 ble to gain great celebrity or great usefulness unless we labor.   I
 do  not mean to watch and pray for  money  only, but for those
 things richer and brighter than gold, to the  immortal  and  subli-
 mated sensibilities of our nature.   Let us show the world that we
 are unwilling, turtle like, to keep our heads in  our shells, and only
 stick them out when we have a paltry  fee to bite at.  Let us all
 enter into this Union project at once, and as we go out to encoun-
 ter the difficulties and privations of our arduous vocation, let  us
 take the high position,  that we can gain more  headway for our
 cause in being united, than by  any other way.  If we are of nec-
 essity compelled to have some divisions, strifes and bickerings in
 our  family, for heaven's sake, let us  keep them to  ourselves.
Don't let them be exposed that they  may weaken public confi-
dence in us ; for under all circumstances we have enough blame 
[12]
attached to us now.   Why should our wranglings make it appear
that difference of treatment is another way of killing our patients,
as a matter of individual medical pride ?   My  fellow students,
such things are  abominable  and disgraceful,  and detract  more
from us than everything else with which we  have to contend.  In
proposing a simple,  uncomplicated remedy for  those evils, I have
briefly spoken, and but little  remains to be said.  The formation
of professional love clubs and societies, and  in having a general
bureau of local transactions—the frequent meeting of the brother-
hood (not  secretly, but openly)—making  acquaintance with each
other—we will soon begin to reap the  benefits of such a system.
In such associations the  dullest may be enlightened  and made
competent, in some degree, to take charge of a man's  health and
life.   Or he may be convinced of his utter unfitness for so respon-
sible a trust, and go to ploughing or some other industrial pur-
suit.  The brightest may diffuse his light to those less  favored by
opportunity, and  by  this means counties, then States, may be
speedily brought up to the most honorable  and  respectable alti-
tude in point of medical standing.  These conferences would soon
teach  the people on  whom to  rely; quacks, and the new-fangled
pathies would be  read out of existence ;  patent  remedies  would
be laid forever on  the shelf,  and a  sensible people would open
their eyes to the intrinsic worth and  appreciate the good school.
If there is any value in these suggestions of your  humble speaker,
do not consider the humility of their origin, but let us all take
bold of them, " With a long  pull, a strong  pull,  and a pull alto-
gether," and it will  need no  prophet to foretell our success to be
inevitably certain.
  It is said that the  hope of  reward sweetens  the  pain of labor,
and true it is !  We will be rewarded !   By whom  ?  By a grate-
ful people; the  loving benisons of beings  yet unborn, and that
calm, sweet rest of the spirit when  it puts on its rich garments of
light  and is  wafted off to scenes  of immortality.  Gazing from
that lofty height, from out heaven's own  pure  azure dome, we
can see enduring monuments of what we done, gladdening every
hill and valley of  our beloved land !  Though it  may be  in  no
splendid  pageant that our deeds will be commemorated, we may
hear the praises of  our silent triumphs  sung  upon  the  tuneful 
                            [13]

 " harp of a thousand strings."  Our  names may not be written
 in the history of our country; but  they are engraven upon the
 blessed tablet of human gratitude.  They may not become  em-
 balmed in the sweet concord and harmony of melodious verse, yet
 every pulse may be a note of the grateful music of nature.   The
 blood, as it leaps out in health and  joy from the heart, to the re-
 motest vessel, and warms  the whole system with glowing vitality,
 tells the parts who it was that cleansed its currents and removed
 the impediments to  its free and healthful flow, and mantles the
 cheek with radiant glow of admiration and love for its benefactor.
 When the deep hidden currents  that cause the life  principle to
 smile in the  body, seem to rise up to  thank us,  who  would not
 strive to be a benefactor ?  Our profession, it is true, is an ardu-
 ous one.  It  has  its many trials and sorrows ;  but the conscious-
 ness of having saved life, the  next thing to creating it, is fraught
 with  the sublimest feelings of  self-satisfaction  that ever entered
 the human breast.  It is worth a whole life of patient study and
 application, in  the end to die  triumphing in the knowledge that
 we came and were felt for good.  Deep  seated indeed is the love
 that we bear to  the old  doctor whom  we consider to  have our
 lives.   I think I  see him now.  His head is as white as snow.
 His form yet erect, and noble  in its  bearing,  although so many
 years have fallen  upon him.   His countenance, the picture of be-
 nevolence, and o'er  his dear  old features, radiant  with wisdom
 and intelligence, the wrinkles show the many trials through which
 he has passed.   Men of his  age seek  and love his society.   The
 young men and young women  reverence him on every side.   The
 children run and jump into his arms.  He blesses them, kisses
 them, and passes on.   We come now to the last sad chapter.  We
 close the reverend father in medicine in the tomb, from which he
 has prevented so many prematurely entering.   He is gone.  Will
 we forget him ?   No, never.  His name has become too sacred to
 be forgotten.   In the most holy chamber of our heart we have al-
lotted its habitation.  His faults and short-comings  are all for-
gotten.   We  only remember him as our blessing  and our bene-
factor.  Who of you that is endowed by nature with all the pleas-
ing attributes of manly nobility; with that largeness of soul and
warmth of kind, genial sympathies for  the lovely and beautiful 
[14]
features of our existence here—would  not strive to lead  such a
life ?  Such  relations with your  patients, with whom you are so
closely and  intimately  associated in all their joys  and sorrows,
that it would be impossible  to  separate you from  tbem.   They
first learn to become attached to  you from an appreciation of your
youthful and growing merit;  and as years flow by,  that affection
becomes a habit,  pure  and filial.  They crown you in your old
age with a radiant halo of grateful memories of a life spent in do-
ing what  proved  a  happiness to all that came  within reach of
your influence.   In  consideration of a career so surpassingly hon-
orable in the estimation of the best and holiest of the earth—who
can reject it ?  That every sentiment and emotion of kindness and
tenderness should be lavished upon us individually—how much
have we to  show us the necessity of  brotherly love!  That  we,
from intrinsic moral ind mental  deserts, should be placed in the
very sanctum of  the purest attachments—how much have we to
encourage us to be united in the common  and glorious purposes
of our professional destiny !  To  unite in every quarter upon tho-
rough-going principles  of orthodox medical  fealty, and  as  our
country is an exception in patriotism, good government and nearly
everything else, let  us exhibit to  the medical nations of the world
a solid compact of scientific enquiries and practitioners, acknowl-
edging  right and brotherly love.  In  consolidating such  a  con-
federacy among ourselves, the death-warrant of charlatanism would
be written, and a discerning public would execute it.   Let us all
become resolved  towards bringing about these happy results.  It
is for  the common good we will labor—for the  good of human
kind.   Those who mingle and work together for such holy  pur-
pose will have written upon their tombs a most enduring epitaph.
   In conclusion I would state that  there is one  subject to which
I would briefly allude.   That is, fidelity to the institution out of
which you have  your permission to practice Medicine. Its hon-
orable position is as much yours  to enjoy, or nearly so, as its own
professors.  Its defamation  is your shame.  In proportion to the
progress it makes in the estimation of the people—with other like
institutions of the country—so can you  with the more honor claim
your professional birth and acknowledge your fathers in medicine.
When you take your leave of here as  graduates, think not  that 
[15]
all obligation between the school and the students is discharged
with the simple sum of your ticket fees.  No, my fellow students,
there are higher debts than  those that can  be  paid with  money,
and  nobler motives than a temporary respect to the  teachings of
high professional authority.  This house should be  dear to you
all along your journey through life.   You should never loose sight
of it, and you should never let it loose sight of you.   You should
never permit these honorable professors to be ashamed of their
work in making you " Doctors of Medicine."
  To those of you who have yet to pass through the interesting
rooms  up stairs, I would say, " press on,"  hot in the pursuit of
medical knowledge.  Go through triumphantly, and afterwards
be ornaments to the cause.   When you  have been labelled  " All
Right," come,  enter  with  me in disseminating the  project of a
great union in scientific medicine, in body, soul and heart, and
Heaven will bless us in the enterprise.
  In looking around at my esteemed professor  friends here, deem
it not  strange that I should confess that  they all  occupy deep
places  in my most ardent affections.  You must pardon me for so
public a declaration.  They are  all  here but one, who, being far
away from us, I hope will not forget his  " Kentucky home."  He
was a  kind, noble,  talented gentleman ;  deeply versed in the
sciences he so beautifully taught.  He has gone back  to the scenes
of his boyhood  home, to take the place of his father in chemistry.
His place is now filled by our esteemed friend, Prof. Smith, with
honor to himself and this Institution.  I  can  but hope him a long,
peaceful and happy residence amongst us, and that  thousands of
intelligent pupils in his line  may attest his high qualifications. Of
those whom I have the honor to claim as my medical sponsors, I
have a few more words to say.  It is one of the chiefest  desires of my
heart that Providence may lend many years of graceful attractions
to their lives and characters.  That they, in this Institution, may
continue to dispense the light and heat of this  glorious science of
ours and be felt for good by thousands and tens of thousands yet
to come within their reach.  That their names may become the
pride of the profession of the western hemisphere, and be known
and felt all over the world.  It is one of my most ardent wishes
that this dear old pile may ever  retain its present position—gain 
[16]
ing strength, reputation and  usefulness each successive session,
until it becomes so thoroughly interwoven in the medical and sci-
entific literature of the world, that it will be impossible to sepa-
rate the one from the other.
  Gentlemen, I might  individualize ; but it is useless.  Here we
have the material, out of which  their admiring countrymen, feel
confident that their most sanguine expectations will be  built up,
realized, in the  noblest attainments of  medical philosophy.  I
leave them, with  my poor benedictions, and turn, my fellow stu-
dents, to you.   If we would  follow in the footsteps of their illus-
trious example, we  must work (  Work together !  Shoulder to
shoulder.  We must make them proud of what they have done,
and are going to  do for us.   Though circumstances may scatter
us to the four corners of the earth, this should  be the spot from
which we must make all our calculations; and  our career should
be one that  may reflect credit on  the school, its  professors and
everything connected with it.
  To conclude, I must express the hope that some of us may meet
again next  winter,  and often afterwards; that our course  may
prove a blessing to  the  profession, the country, and  to the Uni-
versity of Louisville.