AN 
INTRODUCTORY LECTURE, 
DELIVERED AT THE OPENING 
OF THE 
OF THE 
COLUMBIAN COLLEGE, 
Nov. 4, 1839, 
BY 
goijH jprmrtcft iHan, 1H. D., 
PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 
WASHINGTON: 
PRINTED BY PETER FORCE. 
1839. Washington City, November 11, 1839. 
Sir : We, the undersigned, have been appointed a Committee on the part 
of the Medical Class of Columbian College to request a copy of your 
Introductory Lecture for publication. 
Entertaining the highest opinion of its merits, we ardently wish and 
sincerely hope, in behalf of the Class, that our request may be complied 
with. 
We remain, with the highest respect and esteem, your, &c., 
J. H. MINOR, 
A. N. BALCH, 
J. F. SCOTT, 
Committee. 
Dr. J. F. May, Professor of Anatomy and Physiology. 
Washington, November 13, 1839. 
Gentlemen : I have received yours of the 11th instant, requesting a 
copy of my Introductory Lecture for publication. 
As it was not written for the press, I should, if I consulted my own 
feelings alone, refrain from making it public, being aware of its defects. 
Desirous however at all times to comply with the wishes of the gentlemen 
composing the Medical Class, I do so on the present occasion, regretting 
only that the Lecture is not more worthy their acceptance. 
With sentiments of much regard, I am truly yours, &c., 
JNO. FREDERICK MAY. 
Messrs. J. H. Minor, 
A. N. Balch, 
J. F. Scott, 
Committee. LECTURE. 
Gentlemen: 
In accordance with the custom which, at the commence- 
ment of the scholastic session of a medical institution, conse- 
crates, by publick lectures, the inauguration of its studies, it 
becomes my duty to address you. We have this day assem- 
bled for the purpose of commencing our labors in the extended 
and interesting field of medical investigation. We are about 
entering its various departments, in each to separate the glow- 
ing truths of scientific research from the erring theories and 
false hypotheses which have been mingled with them; to 
unfold to your admiring gaze the beauties and the wonders 
of the human organization; to explain to you the aggregate 
of those phenomena which constitute life, and the admirable 
perfection and harmony of the laws which preside over and 
govern them; to make you acquainted with the perversion 
of these laws, and the various diseases which are consequent 
upon their derangement; to bring before you the numerous 
remedial agents by whose means these same laws may be 
readjusted, and the integrity of the organization be restored ; to 
expound to you those conservatory principles by a knowledge 
of which the hand may be safely carried through parts where 6 
lesion would be fatal, to stay the aneurismal flood, or extir- 
pate the forming seeds of death; and to demonstrate to you 
the beautiful truths of that science whose laboratory though 
the universe itself, yet draws renovating principles from even 
the sponge of ocean's depths, or the fragile weed which is 
borne upon its billows' foam! 
The occasion, then, gentlemen, which has called us together, 
is one of deep and peculiar interest, inasmuch as by the recent 
organization of a medical school in this city it is the introduc- 
tion to these multiplied and important studies in which we are 
about engaging, and which, from their magnitude, are to call 
forth our best exertions in imparting to you that information, 
which may enable you to enter with confidence upon the dis- 
charge of the various and responsible duties of the medical pro- 
fession. I embrace the opportunity thus offered me to pledge 
my humble yet best efforts to the support of the Chair which 
I have the honor to fill in this Institution, and to assure you, 
that my exertions, though feeble, shall yet be undivided in the 
discharge of its duties, and in the advancement of your medical 
education. 
Though a trite, it is nevertheless as true a remark, that the 
age in which we live is one of improvement; that its great 
characteristic is the rapidity with which the human mind is 
advancing in the various departments of knowledge. It re- 
quires no deep research, no philosophical analysis, in order to 
be convinced that the spirit of improvement is abroad, and is 
steadily working great and salutary changes in the general face 
of affairs; and it would indeed be evincing great ignorance of 
the present state of medical science not to perceive that it has 
most deeply felt the influence of this spirit, and most exten- 
sively participated in these changes. Within less than half a 7 
century its whole aspect has been revolutionized. Branches 
which formerly were unknown, have been in this short period 
created; and others which, although in existence, exercised 
but little influence over the progress of medicine, have assumed 
the highest importance, and become the very basis of its ad- 
vancement. Physiology is no longer a useless collection of 
imperfect theories and fanciful hypotheses, or Pathology a 
meagre account of post mortem appearances. Materia Medica 
no longer consists in a " mere botanical and chemical account 
of drugs, with formulae for their administrationand the prac- 
tice of medicine at the present day is something more than a 
simple routine of measures, subject to the visionary and ever 
fluctuating theories of the imagination. It has assumed in 
" the circle of the sciences " a high and independent station. 
It has become a profound philosophy, whose principles can be 
determined and understood only by rigid induction and untiring 
investigation, and which can be put into successful practice 
only by means of close observation, extensive information, and 
a well disciplined and discriminating judgment. 
Do not suppose, however, that I mean to assert that medi- 
cine, as a science, is near perfection. It is far, very far from 
it. There is yet much work to be done, for there still " re- 
maineth much land to be possessed." There are many of its 
most important principles still involved in the deepest obscurity 
and doubt. There are many diseases over whose treatment 
the dark cloud of empiricism still hangs, and there are many 
opprobria yet to be combatted and overcome. Notwithstand- 
ing the labor that has been devoted to it, and the time that 
it has been cultivated, it is yet far in the rear of that more 
certain condition which, in the course of time, it will attain ; 
which it must attain, if the great principles of deductive phi- 8 
losophy continue to be applied only to facts derived from 
careful and minute observations of disease; if those who 
come after us are true to their duty, and persevere in the 
advancement of the work, which is yet in its infancy, and is 
not yet sufficiently appreciated or properly cultivated in the 
schools of our country, and yet upon which are based the true 
and rational principles of all disease. This work, gentlemen, 
is the study of Pathological Anatomy, and linked, as it neces- 
sarily is, with the important branch upon which it is my duty 
to lecture in this school, and neglected as it has been, and yet 
continues to be, in most of our institutions, it may not be alto- 
gether a work of supererogation in me to endeavor to call 
your attention to its importance; to point out to you the influ- 
ence which it has already exercised, and must continue to 
exercise, over the destinies of our science, and to indicate to 
you the light which a knowledge of it sheds over nearly all 
the branches that are deemed essential in the formation of a 
sound medical education. 
Forty years have not yet rolled by, since the immortal 
Bichat published his treatise on the membranes, and delivered 
his lectures on pathological anatomy. Prior to him its study 
had only been prosecuted at intervals, and in the most vague 
and irregular manner. Bonetus, it is true, at the close of the 
seventeenth century, endeavored to collect, in a systematic 
manner, the imperfect anatomical observations which had been 
made up to his time, in regard to the causes and seat of dis- 
eases. But his work was filled with erroneous theories; for 
all that existed of Pathological Anatomy in his time were a few 
isolated facts, almost lost in the voluminous works of theory 
and error to which they had been occasionally consigned. His 
labors however formed a point of departure for Morgagni, who, 9 
entering more profoundly into the views contained in them, 
and multiplying autopsic examinations, has transmitted to us 
a work replete with sound pathological remarks, drawn from 
the most exact observations of nature. After Morgagni, we 
find Walter, Sandifort, Lieutaud, Portal, Vicq D'Azyr, Baillie, 
and a few others, contributing, by some useful discoveries, to 
augment the knowledge relative to Pathology. But their 
works, as well as those of Morgagni, can scarcely be con- 
sidered more than memoirs-the disjointed fragments of the 
foundation scattered about promiscuously, which it required 
the hand of a master to collect and cement, before the grand 
and systematic structure could be raised. Bichat saw this 
deficiency, and his vast mind, guided by the torch of physi- 
ology and inductive philosophy, classified the tissues accord- 
ing to their analogies, and having thus created General Ana- 
tomy, he sought, by continued examinations, to elucidate their 
pathological states. Thus he may in truth be said to be the 
founder of the system with whose importance I wish to im- 
press you. What had been done before him was disjointed, 
uncombined and vague. His genius breathed upon the com- 
mingled elements, and system and order were produced. Like 
the solar lens, it drew together the few and scattered rays 
that were visible in the horizon, and adding to them the cor- 
ruscations of bis own mighty intellect, it converged the whole, 
until, from the intensity, light, and truth, and form and harmo- 
ny burst upon the profound obscurity. But how often has 
science been called on to lament the evanescence of genius, 
and its extinction in its maturity! Why have its brightest 
luminaries so often been extinguished in the zenith of their 
usefulness and glory ? Nature, alas! in the language of his 
biographer, sometimes " seems to take pleasure in putting 10 
boundaries to the progress of human intellect, and condemns 
to a premature death the inquisitive minds of those who follow 
her steps too closely and with too much ardor in the prose- 
cution of her wonderful works." Bichat, worn out by intel- 
lectual labor and the dissecting-room, at the age of thirty 
years, fell a martyr to his enthusiastic devotion to a science 
which he only lived to found, and has bequeathed to his 
disciples to perfect. 
" T'was his own genius gave the final blow, 
And served to plant the wound that laid him low; 
So the struck eagle, stretched upon the plain, 
No more through rolling clouds to soar again, 
View'd his own feather on the fatal dart, 
And wing'd the shaft that quivered in his heart- 
Keen were his pangs, but keener far to feel 
He nursed the pinion that impelled the steel; 
While the same plumage that had warmed his nest 
Drank the last life-drop of his bleeding breast! " 
Such was the untimely fate, and such too its cause, of the 
devoted founder of Pathological Anatomy. I could not call 
your attention to the importance of the system without first 
endeavoring at least to bring my feeble tribute of homage to 
the shrine of the immortal genius of its gifted projector. 
Let us then examine in succession the application of Patho- 
logical Anatomy to the various branches that are deemed 
essential in the formation of a sound medical education ; and 
of these, there is none of greater magnitude, of more para- 
mount importance, and which demands of the student higher 
considerations, than Descriptive Anatomy. It is the basis of 
his medical studies-the keystone of the arch, upon which 
the entire temple is founded, and on which every column bears ; 
deriving from it strength in its construction, and symmetry in all 
its proportions. And can you for a moment doubt the light 
which a knowledge of Pathological, reflects upon Descriptive 11 
Anatomy ? They have both for their object the investigation 
of the organization, the one in its healthy state, and the 
other in its diseased conditions. And if you admit the com- 
mon axiom, that any subject is so much the better under- 
stood in proportion as it is viewed and considered in the 
various features that it may present, it is at once evident, that 
a knowledge of the morbid or pathological, must assist you 
in forming a knowledge of the healthy state. And the in- 
fluence is reciprocal; for it is in proportion as you are ignorant 
of the normal condition of a part, that you will find the diffi- 
culty increased in ascertaining when it is diseased. To give 
you an example of the truth of what I advance : How would 
you be able to distinguish the tint which is often produced by 
death, in the lining membrane of the heart and arteries, from 
the redness which might be occasioned by inflammation in 
these parts, if ignorant of its appearance when inflamed, and 
when in health ? 
You are not really students of medicine until, with the 
scalpel in your hand, you seek at every opportunity to obtain 
that information which may enable you to discriminate between 
the dissimilar appearances which healthy and morbid structure 
present. ° Nocturna versari manu versari diurnal But, 
independent of the utility of such studies, apart from their 
connexion with our profession, they are, of all others, those 
which are best calculated to enlist our zeal, and to arouse our 
admiration. If science can excite tfie energies of some by 
the display,of structure as existing in the vegetable kingdom, 
or even by the exhibition of dead inanimate matter; if the 
curiosity of the mineralogist or botanist is aroused in investiga- 
ting the composition of a stone, or the structure of a flower; 
if enthusiasm for their pursuits awakens their feelings by the 12 
discovery of a pebble, or the classification of a plant, what 
ought not to be our ardor in studying the derangements of the 
organization of man, the master-piece of creation, whose form- 
ation is so perfect, evincing " so much harmony in its union, 
so much beauty in its details!" Which caused Galen to cry 
out, that " a work of anatomy was the most beautiful hymn 
which man could chant to the honor of his Creator I" 
Would you inquire if the study of Pathological Anatomy 
can enlighten us in regard to Physiology ? Physiology makes 
us acquainted with the various actions and uses of those organs 
whose structure has been revealed to us by Anatomy. It is the 
natural history of the different functionsand vital relations of the 
diverse parts of his organization in a state of health. Although 
a knowledge of this important science is principally obtained 
by an acquaintance with human and comparative anatomy, and 
by attentive observations of the various functions of the economy 
as they exist in man and the inferior races of animals, aided by 
vivisections, yet by these means alone, unaided by Pathological 
Anatomy, but one portion of the veil that hangs before many of 
nature's most interesting physiological laws, can be raised. It is 
this last, assisted by clinical observation, that informs us of the 
mysterious relations which are developed between the differ- 
ent organs of the system, by the influence of disease, and 
which tells us how far they may be changed by anormal 
action, and still be able to carry on their functions, and when 
they must cease to act. If an important organ is suddenly 
and violently attacked by disease, how frequently does the 
whole system become deranged, and appear to be under the 
influence of new and inexplicable laws ? Healthy, or phy- 
siological functions, being replaced by those of a pathological 
nature, and parts which, when in health, gave no sign of their 13 
existence, evincing in a short time, the most exquisite vitality. 
A series of new phenomena and connexions are thus suddenly 
developed, and symptoms which are caused merely by sympa- 
thy, become the most striking, and thus obscure from us the 
organ which is really suffering from disease. It is in the midst 
of this trouble and commotion, when nature is wandering from 
her beaten track, that the physiologist should seek to discover 
the effects which are developed by a departure from order and 
health; and afterwards, by his autopsic examinations, should 
endeavour to trace these effects to their proper source. It is 
by such means that the truths of physiological medicine must 
be made known : a structure which, though still obscured by 
the scaffolding that always precedes the new and rising edi- 
fice, rests upon the deep and firm foundation laid by the gifted 
genius of Broussais. 
The practice of medicine, and every rational theory in 
regard to disease, must be derived from the cultivation of 
Pathological Anatomy, aided by clinical observation. Select 
any disease that you please, and what does it present to you ? 
A problem, placed before you, which you are called upon to 
solve; and as data to enable you to do this, you have symp- 
toms, some of which are perceptible to yourself, and others to 
the patient only. These symptoms are nothing more than 
iC an expression of suffering on the part of the organ which 
is diseased." But in the animal economy one diseased part 
will frequently, by means of sympathy, produce a train of 
symptoms, in various and more important parts: sympathetic 
symptoms, which, as I have already told you, are often so 
prominent as to obscure those which emanate from the 
true seat of the disease, and thus completely blind you 
as to the nature of the affection you are called upon to 14 
relieve. What will guide you in this chaos of symptoms, if 
I may so express myself, which are so confusedly blended, 
and which nevertheless, it is so necessary that you should 
understand ? Will you rely upon your anatomical inform- 
ation for obtaining this knowledge ? However precise and 
perfect this may be, and however important, as I have 
already declared, it is but a history of the relations of parts 
as they exist in the inanimate frame after the vital spark has 
fled the tenement: it is the science of the dead inanimate 
machine merely. It does not explain to you one single phe- 
nomenon of life. It tells you of the position, the size and the 
texture of the various component parts of the human body, 
but it does not present to you these parts acting. It does 
not show them to you animated, and fulfilling the various 
functions whose aggregate constitutes life. Perhaps then you 
will call physiology, or " the science of life" to your assistance. 
It is certain, that physiology in explaining the functions of 
the various parts of the economy of man, and their relations 
with each other, does throw light upon many important mor- 
bid phenomena which we could not otherwise comprehend; 
and thus sheds great and important light upon the practice of 
medicine. But it is not necessary that 1 should tell you that 
a knowledge of healthy phenomena will not always explain 
to you morbid phenomena. "There is a pathological life, as 
well as there is a physiological lifeand too surely you will 
find, that the truths of the latter will mislead you, when in 
the presence of disease. You may however think you 
will be able to understand the nature of the affection when 
apprised of the cause which has produced it; or deem it 
sufficient to essay your therapeutic agents, and observe the 
effects produced by treatment. You will find that the most 15 
dissimilar diseases often emanate from the same causes, and 
you will find too, that there has always been not only discre- 
pancy of opinion in regard to the causes of disease, but that 
their agency is frequently involved in the most perplexing 
obscurity. Etiology, or the history of causes, may often pro- 
vide for you " prophylactic indications," but it will as often 
mislead you, if it is your only method of ascertaining the 
nature of disease. And if you rely upon the other means 
that I have mentioned, the therapeutic indications, or the 
effects of treatment, 1 have only to say that you descend at 
once to the level of the miserable empiric, who at hazard ad- 
ministers his nostrums, and blindly relies upon chance. Thus 
descriptive anatomy, physiology, etiology, therapeutics, and 
the history of symptoms will fail in a great majority of cases 
to inform you of the seat of disease, or the kind of lesion which 
has produced it. It remains for Pathological Anatomy, aided 
by clinical observation, to enlighten you; and let him who 
would doubt in the practice of medicine its indispensable 
necessity, its superiority over every other means of explor- 
ation, compare the mere theorist-the reasoner about morbid 
excitement, with the pathologist of the present day. The 
former creates explanations in his own mind, or from sho- 
lastic and exploded dogmas forms them. The latter, with his 
scalpel, goes directly to the organ or viscus that is diseased, and 
it is only after he has ascertained the actual seat of lesion, that 
he feels authorized to draw his inductions, or to form his hy- 
pothesis. The one raises a structure, whose parts may ex- 
cite our admiration from the ingenuity with which they are 
combined, or captivate the fancy by their finished and elegant 
proportions; but its foundation is upon the sand, and it crum- 16 
hies before the breath of inquiry : the billow of one age passes 
on, sweeping it forever from recollection, like " the baseless 
fabric of a vision." The other builds upon the adamantine rock 
of nature's eternal laws; his edifice may be less striking in its 
appearance, its form may be heavy and its architecture severe, 
but the changing blasts of hypothesis may roar around it, and 
the ever rising storm of theory may be poured upon it; yet as 
the beacon light to the mariner, it will stand unmoved amid 
the war of such elements, defying in its strength the devas- 
tating surge of time! 
If a knowledge of Pathological Anatomy is so important 
to the physician, it is not less indispensable to the surgeon, 
whose object is the study and treatment of mechanical inju- 
ries, or those of an organic nature, requiring operations. Al- 
though a familiarity merely with normal descriptive anatomy, 
might be sufficient to enable him to perform operations on 
healthy parts of the body, it would in many cases be but a 
fallacious guide to his knife when the arrangements of nature, 
by the action of disease, have been changed. How would he 
dare to undertake a difficult operation, if ignorant of the ex- 
tent of the affection, its character, its connexion, as it might 
be, with another complaint, or the change of position of tex- 
ture or of form which may have been caused by disease ? 
Refer to your books and see who have been the individuals 
that have thrown most light upon the intricacy of any surgi- 
cal point, and you will find that they are those who have 
most thoroughly investigated its pathological conditions. 
Who, when the admirable and precious mechanism of the 
organ of vision has been impaired, and the light of Heaven, 
and the beauties of nature, have ceased to leave their impress 17 
on its walls, have recalled its influence, and thus demon- 
strated the beautiful, I might almost say divine triumphs of 
science over disease ? Is it not the Scarpas, and the Beers, 
and the Wenzels, and the Wares? or, in other words, those 
surgeons who have been most zealous in examining its patho- 
logical states? What has inspired modern surgeons with 
that happy boldness, which has induced them to carry the 
hand through parts where lesion would be fatal, even into the 
splanchnic cavities, and there arrest the inevitable mandate 
of death, by preventing the aneurismal flood ? Is it not 
pathological knowledge, founded on anastomosis, and the 
dilatation of collateral branches ? What has explained to us 
the wonderful restorative powers of nature in the reproduc- 
tion of bone and the formation of callus, and thus thrown 
light over the immensely extended and important field of 
fractures? It is still Pathological Anatomy. And you may 
thus, gentlemen, pass over the entire range of surgical science, 
and at every step you will find that this great light has ever 
been the constant pioneer to the development of correct 
principles and successful practice. In studying surgical ana- 
tomy itself, we have in fact nothing more in view than its ap- 
plication to pathology and surgical therapeutics. If such was 
not the case, what interest would such points as the crural 
arch and the abdominal rings present to us ? Why study so 
minutely the disposition of the fascia lata, or trace so closely 
the meanderings of the epigastric artery, if from this study 
we did not draw practical results of the greatest importance 
in diagnosing and operating for hernia ? Points apparently 
the most trivial become the most attractive, and are the most 
profoundly and carefully treasured, whenever they are con- 
nected with pathological considerations. 18 
Legal medicine, or medical jurisprudence, must necessarily 
be cultivated by every conscientious and well educated physi- 
cian, for on his word may hang the happiness of families, the 
peace of domestic life. Life and death may turn upon it, in 
the acquittal of innocence or the conviction of guilt. Daily 
is be called on to say, whether lesions which have been dis- 
covered after death, have been the result of disease, or have 
been caused by poison, or other external agents capable of 
destroying life; and unless he is versed in Pathological Ana- 
tomy, his testimony may be the means of condemning to an 
ignominious death an innocent and valuable member of 
society, or of casting loose the shackles of the law from the 
crimson hand of the assassin. The innocent mother, ar- 
raigned on accusation of having riven nature's holiest and 
strongest ties, of depriving helpless infancy of the breath 
which she bad cherished and brought into being, may by his 
evidence be transformed into the most hideous and unnatural 
monster of crime. Character, reputation, as pure as the 
breath of morning, and as unsullied as its limpid dew, may 
be rendered as foul as the blackest infamy can make it: " a 
fixed figure for the hand of scorn to point his slow unmoving 
finger at." Who that is familiar with the annals of medical 
jurisprudence can recall, without a shudder of horror, the re- 
collection of the trial in which medical ignorance had con- 
signed to the scaffold an innocent individual on a charge of 
poisoning, and who was actually snatched from beneath the 
flashing stroke of the guillotine by pathological information, 
communicated by Chaussier? And those who are conver- 
sant with these annals, will find that too often the courts of 
law have been disgraced by the presuming ignorance of medi- 19 
cal testimony, and that too often by its worthless weight the 
scales of justice have " kicked the beam," and guiltless blood 
been shed. 
Chemistry, by deriving from Pathological Anatomy the 
solids and fluids of the body, changed in their properties by 
disease, may extend its already diversified and beautiful do- 
main, and at the same time throw light upon some of the most 
intricate points of medical science. Already have the powers 
of chemical analysis been applied, in order to discover the 
alteration of the blood in icterus and diabetes, the coloring 
matter found in melanosis, to test the presence of albumen in 
tuberculous matter and pus, to ascertain the ingredients en- 
tering into cancerous and other formations. And when animal 
chemistry shall have attained the same degree of perfection as 
mineral chemistry, we may look forward to facts, to be drawn 
from its application to morbid alterations, still more satisfactory 
and still more certain in their result. 
Thus, gentlemen, would time allow it, I might go on, ex- 
tending the application of this important study to almost every 
ramification of medical science, but I forbear. I cannot doubt 
that you are fully convinced of its paramount utility, and that, 
by your assiduous cultivation of it, you will prove it. Our 
profession has felt too long, and too deeply, the retarding in- 
fluence of " false facts," based upon theoretical delusion ; and 
even at the present day it numbers many minds who are never 
at ease unless they are in the world of abstractions: who are 
inspired with the pen, but lost when in the presence of dis- 
ease-generalizers, who are unable, or unwilling, to endure 
the slow and patient march of observation, finding it easier to 
invent for nature, rather than to learn from her teachings. 20 
For them an idea a priori is a point of departure, " and one 
induction, a principle demonstrated." They are in truth the 
poets of our science, and though their theories may dazzle by 
their brilliancy, or excite the admiration from their ingenuity, 
their practical influence in our profession is as evanescent as it 
is visionary. Like the phosphorescent spangles that are turned 
up by ocean's wave, they glitter in the track of the noble bark 
as it courses on, but emit no ray to warn her of the sunken 
rock-no light to guide her onward to the destined haven of 
her voyage 1 Let me caution you against following in the 
footsteps of such spirits, or of being captivated by their doc- 
trines. Let me tell you that such are the minds who have 
ever been the great clogs to the advancement of our science, 
the incubi who have ever weighed it down. What lessons may 
the student of medicine read in the volumes of theory and 
error, which in former ages have successively risen and fallen 
under this wild spirit of speculation; teaching the principles 
of our science at one time by the absurd dogmas of the various 
schools, and at another by the physical doctrines of mechan- 
ics, or the visionary labors of the alchymists; giving rise 
alternately to the absurdities of humoralism, solidism, and 
vitalism ; or, aided by superstition, seeking explanations in the 
wilder regions of theosophy, magic, or astrology ! 
Chaos of Ruins ! who shall trace the void, 
O'er the dim fragments cast a lunar light, 
And say, " there was or is," where all is doubly night ? 
Though thanks to the influence of Pathological Anatomy, and 
the inductive character of the age, this speculative tendency is 
fast wearing away, its spirit is not yet crushed, and perhaps 
never will be in our profession. It is indeed too often manifest 21 
in the thoughts and works of those who stand forth as the 
teachers and expounders of its principles; and the student too 
often through mere reverence for great names is accustomed 
to bow blindly, like the followers of the veiled prophet of 
Khorassan, and receive alike the good and the evil, the truth 
and the error, which is placed before him. For authority, 
gentlemen, when emanating from the experience of those 
whose labors and researches have thrown light and truth in the 
path which you are journeying to the attainment of your pro- 
fession, you cannot feel too much gratitude, you cannot culti- 
vate too much respect; but at the same time never worship 
authority, to the exclusion of your own reason, for mere au- 
thority's sake. Recollect that the language of nature only is 
oracular in medicine; and whatever principles you may see in 
books, whatever theories you may hear in lectures, whatever 
precepts you shall find advanced here in this school, test them 
by reflection, by experiment, by the light of your own reason ; 
and if you cannot comprehend them, do not receive, but 
reserve them for closer inquiry, and for future investigation. 
The advancement which is continually going on in medicine, 
and the reform which is taking place, will demand of you 
active exertions to keep pace with these improvements. 
From the slight requisitions which are necessary in our coun- 
try for obtaining a medical degree, it is but too plain that 
public confidence has been shaken in regard to the education 
of physicians. The spirit of empiricism walks openly abroad 
throughout our land, scattering her delusive seeds, not only 
among the ignorant, but among the intelligent and educated 
of the community. Doctrines as absurd and wild as ever 
were promulgated in the darker ages, when astrology and 22 
magic held their sway, are openly advanced and boldly main- 
tained among us. By means of the magnetic fluid it is pre- 
tended that our bodies may be rendered diaphanous, and vision 
made perfect without the aid of eyes. Diseases are combat- 
ted by the same causes that engender them, and death flies 
before the atomic infinitesimal charm of the homoepathy of 
Hanneman. 
" Dark tangled doctrines, dark as fraud can weave, 
Which simple votaries on trust receive ; 
While craftier feign belief, till they believe." 
Our profession must be rescued from the degrading rivalry of 
such a spirit, and there is but one way of effecting it. In the 
language of a celebrated lecturer, " Physicians must cease to 
make merchandise of physic; medicine must be taught and 
studied, as an inductive science, rather than as a mysterious 
medley of antiquated jargon, and disease must be studied and 
treated more in the spirit of enlightened philanthropy, than 
with the mercenary views of a hireling." It is for the 
devoted and ardent lover of truth to effect this change. It 
should be a part of the duty of every member of our profes- 
sion, to see that it comes not in contact with this degraded 
spirit of charlatanism, but that its standard is borne aloft above 
the influence of its empirical atmosphere, unblemished by its 
miserable pretensions, and untarnished by its dangerous effron- 
tery. 
Gentlemen, you are, some of you, now about commencing 
the study of one of the most important, and at the same time, 
when properly estimated, one of the most difficult of the 
practical sciences. Your aspirations are directed towards a 
high, a most gifted position ; for you seek to become disci- 
ples at the altar of medical science; whose duty it is to exa- 23 
mine, and comprehend, and regulate the delicate and intricate 
machinery of life. Need I tell you the responsibilities you 
will incur in assuming this trust are of a deep, aye, of a fearful 
character; for they emanate from the best interests of socie- 
ty, and from its tenderest relations. They spring from the 
hopes of friendship, from the love of parents, and from the 
holiest and purest affections of the domestic circle. They 
may be seen through the gloom of the sick room, and through 
the shades with which disease and suffering are encompassed. 
They may be heard in the awful throes of expiring life, and 
witnessed in the still cold features of death ! 
Enter then not lightly, I entreat you, upon the preparatory 
labors of this school, which are to qualify you for the faithful 
and honorable discharge of this high trust; but come fully 
impressed with the magnitude of the contract which will be 
created by it between yourselves and society, and with the 
determination to lay now, well and deeply, the basis of those 
studies which may enable you to meet these responsibilities 
calmly and conscientiously. Come with a deep sense of the 
high and noble nature of the profession you have chosen, and 
with an ardent thirst for its truths, and by patient investigation 
and zealous research you will obtain them : and come too in 
the spirit of humility, ever mindful of the immensity of Na- 
ture's works, and Man's feeble powers to comprehend them; 
for it was this spirit that tempered the vast and philosophic 
mind of even the great Newton, and taught him to say at the 
end of a life of toil after knowledge, that he felt like a child 
wandering along the shore of the mighty ocean of Truth, 
picking up the shells and pebbles that lay scattered at his 
feet. 24 
Guided by such principles you will uphold the honor of 
your profession, and be rendered worthy of entering its temple: 
principles which glowed in the mind of the eloquent Roman 
when he uttered that beautiful, yet just sentence, " Homines 
nd Deos nulla re proprius accedunt, quam salutem hominibus 
dando." Let your aspirations be elevated like the sentiment 
contained in it, and your reward will be commensurate.