ADDRESS
   if
GRADUATES
MEDICAL INSTITUTION OF  GENEVA COLLEGE.
Delivered January 85th, 1842.
4*-
              BY C. B. COVENTRY, M. P.,
DEAN OF THE FACtJLTY AND PROFESSOR OF OBSTETRICS AND MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE.
3
     BUBUSHED BY REQUEST OP tfHE CLAS!».   —

              :.XJklJ.i.i-


              U T I C A
* DEMOCRAT OFFICE, 113 GENESEE STREET,

                1842 
                             Geneva  Medical College, January 25lh,  1842.
PROF. COVENTRY,
    Dkar Sir,—At a meeting of the members of the Graduating Class, this day held, Mr. Joseph P.
Dunlap was called to the Chair, and a resolution unanimously passed that we request of you a copy
of your very able valedictory address for publication.
    Allow us, therefore, as a Committee, by them appointed, to say that it gives us great pleasure to
comply with their request.
                          Yours very respectfully,
                                  *                 ALFRED BERGEN,  "I
                                                   DELASKIE MILLER,
B. L. HOVEY,        ^Committee.
O.S.PATTERf"
E.N.CLARK,
O. S. PATTERSON,   I
                                                 Geneva,  January  25th, 1842.
    Gentlemen :—I had the honor of receiving your note of to-day, and though the address was not
intended or prepared for publication, I do not feel justified  in refusing the polite request of those for
whom it was delivered. I will, therefore, furnish a copy for publication at my earliest convenience.
    Please to present to the Class, and accept for yourselves, Gentlemen, the assurance of respect
and esteem.                                           Most respectfully yours,
                                                                C. B. COVENTRY.
    Messrs. Bergen, Miller, Ilevey, Patterson, and Clark. 
ADDRESS.
Gentlemen:
  The period to which you have looked forward with so much solici-
tude has at length arrived, the dreaded ordeal is passed, your pupilage
is ended, and henceforth we stand as brethren in the honorable pro-
fession which you have chosen.  In behalf of my colleagues and my-
self, in behalf of our common profession, permit me to welcome you to
its ranks, and to congratulate  you on the successful termination of
this  first stage in your professional life.  At such a time when you
are about to enter upon  the responsibilities incumbent on your new
relation to the profession and the  public, it cannot but be a matter of
interest to inquire how far the profession you have chosen is calculated
to ensure that happiness which must be admitted to be the end and
aim of all human exertion, and in what manner, and with what views
your profession should be practiced in order to attain this great end.
Man is  endowed by his creator with certain  physical, moral, and
intellectual faculties, the exercise and gratification of which (when
restrained within due bounds)  is attended with pleasure, and that pro-
fession or occupation which calls  into activity the greatest number of
these (unless  counterbalanced by some  other  cause) must be most
promotive of individual happiness. Of the instinctive desires implant-
ed  in the constitution of man, some are  essential to his health and
continued existence ; some to the well being of community and the
happiness of others.  Whilst  some would seem to be given to add to
man's individual enjoyments and happiness.
   Muscular exercise is essential to health, and when confined within
du»  limits is attended with pleasure.   This is  particularly the case
with the young, when exercise is attended with enjoyment and con-
finement the severest punishment.  The  desire of food is imperative
and  impels the individual to every exertion for its gratification, and
this gratification may be ranked among the rational enjoyments of
life.  Connected with this is the desire  of  accumulation,  which
0 
4
  prompts us to provide against future want.   This is not, a«j  might be
  imagined, the result of reason, for wc^find it strong where there is but
  little power of reasoning, and feeble  where this power is strongest.
  Again, reason would dictate  that when there  was an ample supply
  against future want, the desire should cease.   We however find it not
  only existing in full force, but almost uncontrollable where there is
  least necessity for its exertion.
    It  would then seem that any profession that did not  promise to
  furnish what is essential to our physical comfort, and gratify to a cer-
  tain extent the innate love of gain or accumulation, must be deficient in
  some of the essential  means of happiness.   It is true our profession
  does not promise the accumulation of wealth.  Nay, more, we may say,
  its proper exercise is usually incompatible with the accumulation of a
  large fortune, and  although  a  Dupuytren,  a Cooper, and a Physic
 may have realized  fortunes from the practice  of  their profession,
 the number is small, 'and there is  scarce  a  reputable occupation
 which, in proportion to its numbers, could not enumerate a larger num-
 ber of fortunes than  the practice of medicine.   If then we hare  no
 other or higher motive than to grow rich and fatten on the misery and
 suffering of our fellow men we have mistaken our calling, and would be
 wise to abandon it for the more lucrative lap-stone, the plough, or the
 anvil.   If, however, our aspirations are confined to what is essential to
 our physical wants, and our desire of accumulation limited within those
 bounds which reason would seem to dictate, no profession promises
 it with more certainty than that of medicine.   Disease and death are
 confined to no age  of the world, to no country, to no state or condition
 of society; and wherevei disease is found, the services of the intelligent
 and educated physician are required to avert death and to  sooth and
 assuage the pangs of disease.  Whether among the untutored tribes of
our own native forests, the Arabs of the desert, the savage inhabitants
of Central America, the arrogant Chinese, or the most polished circles
of Europe, your profession is at all  times and in all  places (where
mankind are  found)  in  demand,  and its exercise will command the
necessaries of life when all other resources fail-where even gold be-
comes valueless.   We  have this  truth beautifully illustrated,  in the 
account given by Catlin, of the respect every where paid even among
the wildest tribes of Indians to 'he medicine man ; the account given
by Stephens of the importuntty of the Bedouin Arabs for prescriptions;
the frequent  application for medicine among the ruins of Copan ; the
success  which  has  attended our missionaries, Parker in China, and
Grant among the Nestorians  in Persia, from the practice of their pro-
fession as physicians.  But perhaps no incident can illustrate it more
strongly than one connected with the fate of the unfortunate Latncr. In
one of the skirmishes with the Indians, in Florida, Dr. Latner, who was
a surgeon  in the army, was wounded and taken prisoner.  At a time,
and under circumstances when no other lives were spared he was car-
ried thirty miles on a litter by his savage foes, treated with every at-
tention and kindness,  with the view of preserving his  life ;  unfortu-
nately one of the company, who had lost a brother in the engagement,
more vindictive than the rest, watched his opportunity and when un-
observed, shot him.  But there are higher and nobler asphations in the
constitution of man  than the mere gratification of his  physical wants,
the satisfying of which are not essential to his existence, but necessary
in order to attain the highest degree of happiness of which he is sus-
ceptible.  The  feeling of benevolence, like all the other  moral and in-
tellectual  faculties,  is strengthened by use,  and its exercise in acts
of kindness to the  destitute  and helpless  constitute  6ome  of the
noblest and purest enjoyments of life.
    One of the greatest advantages resulting  from the  possession of
 wealth is the means which it furnishes  of ministering to the suffering
 of our fellow men.   If you do not possess wealth, in the practice of
 your profession you possess a  power of  ministering  to suffering hu-
 manity, often more valued than money.  Even Doctor Samuel Johnson,
 though  he speak sneeringly of the profession, is compelled to admit
 that  " every man has found in physicians great liberality and dignity
of sentiment, very prompt effusions  of beneficence and.willingness to
 exert a lucrative art where there was nohope of lucre."
    The desire of the approbation of others, or of our fellow men, is often
 one of the strongest and most active impulses of our nature. We find it
 in all situations, from the puny school-boy who strives to reach the
4 
6
headoi his form, to the hero who on the ensanguined plain lays down
his life to obtain the mre.l of glory.  Implanted in man by his Creator
for useful  ends, when prompted by the principle of benevolence and
guided by reason, it becomes one of tho noblest of our desires; but to
secure the approbation of the wise and good (whose  approbation  is
alone worth possessing), we must so conduct as to secure their confi-
dence and esteem.  In no profession does this feeling operate with more
force than in that of medicine.  It is indeed given to but few  to live in
the memory of after ages, but if we trace the historic page,  we shall
find that onr profession has contributed its full quota to tho illustrious
names not doomed to die.  It is, however, in their own particular cir-
cles that it is most operative. It has been said, and perhaps with truth,
that no man is so  apt  to become vain as the country practitioner of
medicine who has acquired some reputation in  his profession ; cut off
by the pressure of business  from an extended intercource  with the
world, every where received with a cordial welcome, almost a dictator
in his little circle, his mind must be strong indeed if it is not sometimes
thrown from its balance and betray that egotism which is often a weak-
ness of truly great minds.  We  find that man in  a state of cultivation
has an inherent love of the sublime and  beautiful, and that all nature
is adapted to its gratification.  No feeling is more improved by cultiva-
tion ;  and none is calculated to furnish  more pure and unalloyed en-
joyment, or contribute more to individual happiness ; this is almost the
only instinctive feeling which seems to  have been created purely  to
contribute to intellectual enjoyment.  Nearly all the  others—whilst
their gratification contributes to  the happiness of the individual—are
made subservient to the preservation of life, the well being of commu-
nity, or the happiness or comfort of our fellow beings.  In all this we
cannot but admire the wisdom and goodness of the divine author of our
being, who has so constituted man  that the fulfilment of his  duties to
his Creator andto his fellow man should at the same time constitute his
highest enjoyment.  Aside frd'hithe evidence of  revelation, one of the
strongest evidences of a superior and superintending power, is, that
there is implanted in the constitution of man a disposition to  venerate
and worship such a power, and that in the absence of all knowledge
% 
7
of the true God, they worship the 6un, the moon, and stars, or wood and
stone, in the forms they imagine the Deity to possess.
  Man is not only created with physical wants and moral sentiments
but with intellectual faculties which long and thirst after knowledge  ;
without their gratification his  happiness must be imperfect, and he
almost necessarily becomes the sfave of bigotry or superstition.  It
has been found that solitary confinement, where none of the moral or
intellectual faculties are exercised, produces a species of imbecility
somewhat analogous to the effect  of confinement on the muscular
system, and that in those mechanical employments where there is a
constant repetition of the same act without requiring any mental effort,
the operative in time approaches the other parts of the machinery in
point of intelligence.  It is then susceptible of demonstration that as
perfect  physical health  cannot be enjoyed without the exercise of
every part of the physical organization, so tho highest degree of moral
and intellectual perfection cannot be attained  without  the exercise of
all those faculties with which  his  maker has endowed him, conse-
quently no profession or employment which is incompatible with this
cultivation can lead to man's highest happiness.  How is it with the
profession you have chosen ?   The objects of study places it among
the highest branches of philosophy ; it is  indeed the study of nature
and of those laws which God has written on his works, and as mani-
fested in the  noblest of his works—man himself.   Whilst its practice
calls into constant exercise and activity the moral sentiments.
  If men were left to the unrestrained and unguided influence of these
impulses it would not only lead them into excesses inconsistent with
their own welfare, but to trample on the rights of others and the gene-
ral interests of community.   We find therefore  an internal monitor
whose voice is in  accordance with the  divine injunction '• do unto
others as you would that they should do  unto you."  Man is  also en-
dowed with reason which teaches him from his own past experience
and the experience of others that an unlimited indulgence of any of
tho innate propensities, destroys the proper harmony of the system
cither physical or moral and ho suffers the penalty imposed for all
violations of the natural laws..  These however are not always sufficient 
s
 10 it strain men uithiti the bounds ol right, and another principle  is
 added, viz :  that of self-respect.   We may for the moment be pleased
 and flattered by the admiration ol" others, but if it is  attended with the
 conviction that it is undeserved or unworthily bestowed, it soon ceases
 to afford any gratification and every mark of respect  adds an addition-
 al sting to our own sense of unworthiness.
   If then we would secure and enjoy the respect and esteem of our
 fellow men we must so live that an approving conscience will tell us
 it is worthily bestowed.   Is there then any thing in your profession in-
 compatible with the highest degree of happiness granted to man whilst
 on earth ?  It  is believed not!  Your happiness or misery must then
 depend in a great measure on the use you make of the means .placed
 within your reach ; remember that where much is given much is re-
 quired,  and if you have received ten  talents a proportionate return will
 be demanded at your hands.
   r ou are, young gentlemen, about to enter upon a  new and to  you
 untried stage of duty; one which you will find beset with many thorns,
 and temptation* :  you are henceforth to take your stand in society not
 only as citizens, but as members of an arduous and responsible profes-
 sion. Muchas it regards your luture happiness, your prosperity and use-
fulness will depend upon the resolutions you may now form,  and the
 views with which you enter upon the  discharge of your  new duties.
 If, disregarding the promptings of benevolence and the whisperings of
 conscientiousness, you propose to yourselves no higher motives than to
 minister  to your own necessities  and the accumulation of money,  you
can scarcely hope for,  as you certainly can never deserve success : but
should your most  sanguine  anticipations be realized, you will find or
feel the profession to be what it has sarcastically  been  represented,
" a melancholy attendance on misery, a mean submission to  peevish-
ness and a continued  interruption to pleasure."   If  on the contrary
you consider your piofession an instrument in the hands of Providence
for diffusing blessings  to other* at the same  time that you minister to
 your own wants—if you consider nothing degrading that has  for its
object the relief of the suffering of your fellow men,—if you feel that
to confer happiness on others is the purest and noblest of  all pleasure, 
i
it* you  agree with the old Roman, who declared  " Homines ad  Deoe
nulla se proprius accedent qunm salutem hominibus dando," youmay
reasonably hope for, and anticipate success.  Let me then advise you
on  commencing your professional career, to calmly, deliberately, and
after a full survey of all your responsibilities, determine on your fu.
ture course and conduct; having once established your course, adhere
to it as a land-mark,—leave it not to be settled on every emergency;
assailed by temptations from without and within, seduced by pretend-
ed friends, or harrassed by want, or the pressure of avocation.   With
a constant repetition of the same trials and temptations, no man can
be  always  prepared to weigh  deliberately the propriety or advisa-
bility of a course ; and if he has no fixed principle, no  polar star by
which at once to decide every question, he will be constantly harrass-
ed with doubt and uncertainty,  and fortunate  indeed  will he be if he
does  not in some  unguarded  moment yield to temptation and make
ship-wreck of his own hopes, and the fond expectation of his friends.
At no  period of life will you find yourselves more competent for such
a duty than the present.  Wait until temptation assail and it will be
too late.  Having established your principles of conduct let them be
inviolate,—stop not to enquire  whether there  may not be  sufficient
reason or excuse for their violation, or how it will affect your busi-
ness or  your popularity.   If  it is a violation of principles you have
deliberately  adopted, it should be sufficient.
   In the  prosecution of your profession guard against becoming wed-
ded to any particular theory or doctrine.  Nothing has tended more to
retard improvement in our science than this devotion to authority. Re-
member that medical science is founded on observation, and consists
of the recorded observation of several successive ages ; that the ft : '.y
of medicine is  simply  the sr!udy of nature; that no theory of medicine
 founded  on any other principle can be true;  and that  any  theory or
 doctrine  subversive of established principles, (even though professing
 to be  founded on observation), should require as long  a test, and an
 equal number  of facts to have  equal claims to your confidence.  No
 man can pretend that the science is perfect: far from it:  on  the con-
 trary  all admit its imperfection ; it is not therefore against improva-
                                 B 
10
   Kients in practice, or diseoveries in physiology, or the introduction  of
   new articles in the Materia Medica we  would caution you, but against
   doctrines and theories subversive of the very foundation of our science.
   Be not, however, too ready to adopt pretended improvements ; remem-
   ber that wh^re the life or health of a fellow being is at stake, nothing
   should be hazarded by experiment.  On the other hand, we  should
  not be so strongly wedded to modes of practice as to reject improve-
  ments that come sufficiently  authenticated, merely because  they are
  new.  Modesty would seem to dictate that we should treat with respect
  the opinions  and views of others, who are, (even  when measured by
  our own  estimate)  quite as competent as' ourselves to judge, and
  whose opportunity for examining the subject has been far greater.
    Far be it from mo  to recommend you to sacrifice your own  honest
  convictions to the mere opinions of  any  man.  We should, however,
  treat the opinions of  others with the same charity we ask for our own,
  and to  speak  contemptuously and sneeringly of the views of others
  under  the circumstances  we have  enumerated, r.nless sustained by
  evidence which will carry conviction to  every honest and unpreju-
 diced  mind, will be very apt to rebound on our own heads.
   Be not discouraged from the want of business when you first enter
 upon your professional career.   No period of life is more trying than
 that which  intervenes between the  termination of  pupilage and the
 successful establishment  in business, and in no profession or occu-
 pation is this probation more irksome than in medicine.   It is a  pop-
 ular opinion, and one which to a certain extent is founded in truth,
 that of all professions  in none is experience so indispensable as in the
 practice of medicine, and as a  corollary that in the physician grey
 hairs are necessary to wisdom.   If, therefore,  you find, on offering
 your services to the public, they do not meet that  demand you had
 reason to expect or fondly imagined they deserved; be not discourag-
 ed.
   The  results of the moral laws of creation  are  not less certain,
 (though not so apparent), than those of the physical, and with almost
the same certainty  that time will bring the  grey hairs, will proper
tertificatione, with industry and application, aided by  even moderate 
11
talents, bring employment.  No person when he first  commences hi$
professional career can be qualified to enter at once upon an extensive
practice and sustain it;  if the misjudged  partiality of  friends  should
place him in such a situation, it is doing him an actual injury, for it is
inevitable that in tho effort to sustain himself, he ruins his health and
breaks down under the weight of toil a:id care, or he fails in fulfilling
the expectations of his  friends  and  the public, ami sinks into noglect
from which it will be difficult to arise.  Let it not  be  implied that be-
cause the  young physician is not constantly  occupied  in  busi-
ness  he  should be  idle ;  the oldest and wisest have much to learn
—how much more the young practitioner. Besides, as a member of the
profession he  has other duties than those  of attendance on the sick.
He should endeavor to contribute something to the accumulation  of
facts and observation which constitute the science of medicine.  Let
not the  young practitioner, because he is remote from large hospitalsi
and with a limited library,  imagine  that he can  contribute nothing to
the   stock of medical  science.  What we want  is the study of na-
ture,  not of books ; and the country practitioner, with  a mind properly
prepared, is of all others best situated for this purpose.  True there are
certain parts of the profession which can be best studied in large cities.
But if we wish to investigate the "fans ?t cr't^or't^o" of disease, the
secret poison which springs from the marsh, and is so destructive  to
our pioneers, to trace its efleets, and watch its operation upon consti-
tutions  unmodified by the  thousand causes operating in large cities,
we must go to the country..  It was  observations on the endemic fever,
which was so prevalent and fatal in the early settlement of this place*
that elicited from tho talented editor of the Med. Chir. Review the fol-
lowing  remarks  : "A solitary  rustic,  ' pent up in  Utica,' not Cato's
Utica, but Utica in the backwoods of America, has published a paper*
in  a trans-atlantic  periodical,  which is republished in our respected
cotemporary of the north, and which contains, in our humble  opinion
more rational and just  doctrine than some of those  propounded by
certain  self-supposed Savans of Europe."—Med. Chir. Rev., No. 9.
* On th» conugioui Dtttur* of Yellow Fever, by Alexander Cjver.'.:y.
%
 t 
12
     It is a limited and unjiiit view of our profession to suppose the only
   or even the highest duty consists in attendance upon the sick.  True
   this is sufficiently important;  but the  medical profession is the guar-
   dian of the  public health.   All our civil, political, and most of our
   social regulations for  guarding against disease are founded upon the
   advice and direction of the profession.  The amount of suffering thus
   prevented, is far greater than  from the  immediate prescription for
   disease; even in our own day we  have seen some of the most des-
   tructive and  pernicious customs overthrown by the persevering efforts
   of the profession.  Time was, even within our remembrance,  when a
   taper  waist was  deemed a mark of beauty, and comfort, health, and
  even life was sacrificed for its attainment.   But a few years since and
  the philanthropist was often made to shudder, at  seeing youth, beauty
  and worth, promenading the streets on a winter's day, in prunell
  slippers, laying the  foundation of  that fell disease, which hurries so
  many of our loveliest to a premature grave.   Thanks to the persever-
  ing  efforts of the  profession, the prunell has given place to the india
  rubber; and the taper waist is esteemed by those who would be con-
  sidered fi' I unable, (as it  is), a deformity.   In the great temperance
  reformation which has  done, and is doing so much for the health, com-
  fort, reputation, and happiness of our country, the medical profession
  have not been inactive.  Mr. Delavan, the apostle  of temperance in
  this  country, bears the following willing testimony to their influence,
  —he says : " The influence  the physician  has had in every  stage of
 the temperance enterprise has been vast; he has  in all cases spoken
 out decidedly." But there are other evils  in our country to be reme-
 died, one of which is only second to that of intemperance.  I refer to
 the sale and use of nostrums and. quack medicines :  few persons who
 have not been attentive observers can form any conception of the extent
 of this growing evil, or  the mischief which it produces.   The man
 who,  without chart orcompass, commits his vessel to the ocean wave,
 trusting to a favorable wind's wafting it to its destined port, is wise in
 comparison with him who hazards life and health by  tampering  with
medicines of which  he is  ignorant;  better, much better to  abstain
^rorn food, keep quiet, and trust to nature for the result, than resort to
inctru'rents vhich unless used by  a careful  and discriminating  hand 
13
 are mueh more liable to do harm than gooJL  'Po form some idea of the
 amount of money paid  for medicines of this kind, we have but to look
 at the amount which must be expended for advertising.   The propri-
 etor of one of the most popular nostrums of the day, showed me the re-
 ceipt, under the hope that I  would  permit him  to use my name as a
 reference, it consisted  of articles in every day use by the regular prac-
 titioners ; valuable when properly applied, but totally improper when
 indiscriminately administered.  Some  time after I saw  him and en-
 quired how he came on, he replied that he could sell much more than
 he could manufacture, and that he wanted to get a partner with a few
 thousand dollars capital. When I observed that  the medicine was not
 expensive, he replied the bottles were far  the most expensive part.—
 Community are both poisoned and robbed by these preparations,for the
 cost to the proprietors  bear no proportion to the price paid by the con-
 sumers for the privilege of poisoning themselves.  In some cases tha
 foundation of incurable diseases is laid by their use,in other cases and
 in acute diseases valuable time is lost tampering with nostrums until the
 time is past  whfcn it could have been arrested in its course. ' To take
 arms against this passion for empiricism  would be more absurd than
 Don Quixotte's fighting the wind mill.  We have seen 30,000 petition-
 ers to the Legislature—and  one House of the Legislature two years in
 succession  passing bills to legalize a pretended system of Medicine
 which discards every  principle upon which the science of Medicine is
 founded, and which was justly described by the observation of Mr. Hoff-
 man, that if correct, the more ignorant a man was, the better was  he
 qualified for the practice of his profession.
   The acknowledged leader and head of which says, in reply  to the
 question, •■ Do you think the study of Anatomy or Physiology of the
'Lt use to  the Thompsonian Doctor."   "We  do not." In  answer
 t0 the question "Do yon use  any thing in Medicines except vegetables
 he  says: "One of our apothegms is that the  metals  and minera s
 ^  in  the  earth,  and  being extracted from   the depths of the
    th have a tendency to carry all  down into the  earth or in other
 wo ds  the grave, who  use them.   That the tendency of all vegetables
 "   pring up fom the earth.  Their tendency is upward,  their ten, 
14
 dency is to invi^rate, and fructify, and uphold man from the grave."
   Sums experience and much reduction on the subject has long since
 produced the conviction that this is an e^il which can neither be corn-
 batted by reason nor suppressed by legislative enactments.  We would
 suppose that education and the diffusion of general intelligence, would
 correct it, but past experience, contradicts the supposition, our papeis
 are filled with the nanus of men of education and talents attached to
 recommendations of nostrums,of the composition, and effects of which
 they are perfectly ignorant.  One mode, and only one remains of cor-
 recting the evil, if this fails it is remediless.   Let medical men divest
 the profession of all the mystery in which it has unfortunately  been
 enveloped—too long has the  physician  been considered the  rival of
 the Juggler.  Let them demonstrate that like every other science it is
 founded oil careful observation, that it consists of the accumulated and
 recorded observations of successive ages, that no man is born a physi-
 cian, but to acquire this knowledge is the labour of years  of unremit-
 ting toil.  Teach men the functions of their own system,  how admira-
 ble in design, how complicated in  structure,  and yet how beautifully
 adapted in every part to the performance of its own appropriate func-
 tions.   Then ask them if they are willing to trust   the correction  of
 derangements of this beautiful machine, to  persons entirely ignorant of
its several parts, when a single error may cost them their lives.
  To guard against quackery and empiricism out of the  profession
 would not be the only  good accomplished by the general  diffusion of
 this knowledge. It would qualify community to judge as to  the actual
and comparative  merits of members of the profession.  The  modest
and unassuming physician would be  elevated to his proper station,
whilst presumptuous ignorance,  whether  with or without a diploma,
would be consigned to deserve J contempt.   A knowledge  of their own
system would enable mankind to guard against many causes  of disease
to which they  are continually  subject.  To accomplish this as far
 as possible has ever been a favorite object with the founders of this
institution.  It has been urged upon her  graduates to improve every
opportunity of giving popular  lectures  on Anatomy, Physiology and
 Hygiene.  There are few places where an audience could not be collecj 
r>
ted to listen to a lecture on those, interesting subjects, and few physi-
cians are so fully occupied during the first years of their practice but
they could find ample time for their preparation and delivery.  Permit
me to repeat to you young gentlemen the recommendation; your lei-
sure hours could not be more profitably employed either for yourselves
or the public ; and we ask for our Institution no prouder  distinction
than that her graduates shall be  every where known as the pioneers
in the great work of reform.
   Young Gentlemen, having given satisfactory  evidence that you
have complied with the requirements  of the law, and successfully sus-
tained yourselves under a scrutinizing examination as to your qualifi-
cations, you have this day received as the reward of your exertion the
highest honours  of our  Institution.  If the acquisition of  mere literary
honours is of so  much  moment as justly  to be considered an ambition
worthy the noblest minds, how much is its importance enhanced  when
it places in the hands of the recipient—who is  clothed by  the sover-
eign authority, through its appointed  delegates with the power of us-
ing it—an instrument which is to carry healings on its wings, with all
the blessings of  life and health, or by an improper use be  converted
into an instrument of disease and death.   In this recommendation, for
the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and with it^dl the rights and priv-
ileges of practicing  your profession,your  instructors in  a measure,
guarantee to the public  not only your capacity and attainments, but your
integrity and moral worth.  Hitherto they have endeavoured in gran-
ting the honours of the Institution,  faithfully and  discreetly to dis-
charge the responsible  duty committed to their charge, to  guard well
the portals of the profession, so that no unworthy member be  permitted
to enter, and I am happy to say that with very few exceptions, the  grad-
uates of this school have proved themselves worthy the confidence re-
posed in them.   You  too, gentlemen, are now about to leave the In-
stitution, perhaps for the last time; imagine not however that the tie
which binds the literary offspring to  his  Alma-Mater ceases with the
termination of his pupilage;  true, the  relation of instructor and student
has ceased, but think not that this brief parting, this  parchment and
these testimonials, are to 6ever the  last tie that binds you to the  Insti- 
                               16

rution—on tho contrary, you this day become children by adoption.-*-
Henceforththe reputation, the honour, the  dignity of  the College.is
identified with your welfare,—think not when you leave these halls that
you are forgotten, but remember, if it will be any stimulus to exertion,
any solace in the hours of trial, remember, wherever you may be, that
the eyes of your professional parents are upon you, rejoicing in yom
prosperity and sympathising  in your sufferings.
   Then go persevere in the high and honorable career which you have
commenced, remember the sacredness of the  trust committed to your
charge, and ever practice  your profession with a view to that great
day when all must render an account of their stewardship.  May pros-
perity and happiness attend you—may the blessings of those who were
ready to perish rest upon you,—may the widow and the orphan even
in their bereavement.bless you for your benevolent exertions, and above
all, may an approving conscience assure you that you have not lived in
vain.