VALEDICTORY ADDRESS 
DELIVERED AT THE 
(Ewcntij=Jfir';t Jltmunl ammmcement 
OF THE 
4 | 4 
laipiiMtaa Medical piiiiila, 
w • 11 ♦ 
31 a r c h 91 h, 1 H 7 1, 
BY 
C. D. CRANK, M. D. 
PUBLISHED BY THE INSTITUTE. 
PHILADELPHIA: 
A. Hull & Co., Printers, No. 46 North Ninth Street. 
1871. VALEDICTORY ADDRESS 
DELIVERED AT THE 
OF THE 
HI1EMMI MEDICAL Mill, 
March 9th, 1871, 
By C. D. CRANK, M.D. 
PUBLISHED BY THE INSTITUTE. 
1871. OFFICERS. 
SESSION OF 1S70-»71. 
PRESIDENT, 
GEO. H. HACKETT, M. D 
VICE-PRESIDENT, 
A. ABBOTT, M. D. 
SECRETARY, 
W. F. EDMUNDSON, M. D. 
TREASURER, 
C. H. LAWTON, M. D. 
The Hahnemannian Medical Institute, an association of the students in 
attendance at The Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia, Pa., con- 
ducts a curriculum of medical examinations—systematic reviews of the 
lectures of the College Faculty. The quizitorial chairs, corresponding to 
the professorial chairs of the College, are filled by members of the Insti- 
tute, the “ quizitors” being chosen at stated monthly elections. 
Diplomas are conferred upon graduating members at the annual com- 
mencement, held at the close of each session. 
Geo. H. Hackett, 
D. H. Bradley, 
W. K. Williams, 
Committee on Printing. VALEDICTORY ADDRESS. 
Mr. President, 
Members of the Hahnemannian Medical Institute, 
Ladies and Gentlemen :— 
The object which brings us together on this and similar 
occasions is one which time-honored custom has hallowed, ren- 
dering peculiarly agreeable the exercise of thought—as it 
leads the mind to themes which form a bond of union only less 
tender and enduring than that of kinship. Five months ago 
we convened in “ The Hahnemann Medical College,” asso- 
ciated in this Institute to prepare ourselves for the great issues 
of medical life. Five months, did I say ? It seems but yester- 
day since we were welcomed on board the “ old Homoeopathic 
ship, raised the anchor, cast loose her cables, and spread her 
sails, with earnest purposes and high hopes, to favoring gales,” 
each heart bounding with joy, exclaiming, as hand grasped 
hand, “Here we are for our winter’s voyage !” To-night we 
assemble in this hall to celebrate the Twenty-first Annual Com- 
mencement of our Institute, and exchange that saddening word, 
“Farewell!” What a commingling of thought and feeling 
stirs the heart at this hour—an hour which divides the past 
from the immediate future—the receptive student life from the 
active, aggressive, practical life! How the mind glides back, 
living over again those happy hours—hours of pleasure and 
profit, and how many, many pleasing reminiscences are treasured 
in the archives of memory! 
Looking around us this evening, how many familiar faces 
meet our gaze—faces which we have learned to love, not alone 
for their smiles of friendship which we have enjoyed, but whose 
presence in yonder halls told us that our aims were one, each 
and all striving for Ihe same great purpose; with hearts throb- 4 
bing under the same mighty impulses, soldiers enlisted in the 
same cause and tenting on the same field, thus endeared to 
each other by a mutual sympathy and united by a common tie! 
Here a face reminding us of some pleasing event, there a 
countenance which awakens some happy remembrance, and 
there they are in the old amphitheatre—can you not see them, 
each individual in his accustomed place, waiting for the pro- 
fessor ? Here he comes! Down go the feet with a merry 
applause. The professor acknowledges, the lecture commences. 
Will you ever forget them ? Ah, no. Such are the incidents 
which make up the happy hours of college life, around which 
the tendrils of the heart entwine, the flowers which never die, 
but increase in fragrance with the flight of years. 
Our meeting to-night tells us they are past. Heart which 
has responded to heart, and words of kindness reciprocated 
by deeds of affection, brighten as they take their flight. And 
as we realize that never as now shall we meet again, a weight 
of sadness burdens the soul. Yet other feelings pervade our 
being. The star which has led us on and onward over rugged 
paths, and through long years of study, rests over the object 
of our search, and the hopes which heretofore buoyed us up 
have now ripened into fruition; thus feelings of joy animate 
our being, for success affords the greatest of joy. 
Amid this conflict of thought and feeling, of joy and sorrow, 
other considerations press around us for recognition and ex- 
pression—considerations of a higher import; and if possible let 
us forget the present, and as in the past we have advised, coun- 
selled and cheered each other, so let us once more, ere we sepa- 
rate, unite our thoughts in lively sympathy as we anticipate 
the duties awaiting us only a little way ahead. Already the 
eager eye peers up along the vista of the opening future, re- 
plete with stirring indications of duty, and Hope, still ready now 
as in the past, lends her charms to clothe them in the garb our 
hearts would have them wear. 
“ Hope, sweet bird, while thus the heart can fill, 
Let earth be ice, the soul hath summer still.” 
And it is right,.for success is the object of us all, and hope in- 5 
spires, to noble deeds. Yet let us not forget the midnight hours 
of toil, the firm, unyielding spirit which has brought within 
our grasp that success which gladdens each heart to-night, and 
here, while the mind still smarts under the lash of the task- 
master Necessity, let us know that the same close application 
and determined spirit are necessary for the faithful discharge 
of those duties soon to be ours. Let us fully realize that to 
attain the success which our hopes depict, there is work to he 
done, great life-problems to be solved—problems demanding 
the power of intelligent thought and the hickory of determined 
will. Thus early in our studies has the great essential truth 
been pressed home to our minds, that “ all the dews, sunshine, 
and balmy air of heaven cannot impart life to inorganic things,” 
cannot give force to unwilling recipients. It is individual mind 
that unfolds, perfects, and becomes great, and individual force 
must he present, or all is useless. 
“ He most lives who thinks most, 
Acts the noblest, does the best.” 
Precept and example may show us the way, but effort—self- 
effort, can give us power to act—act wisely— 
“Lifeless things drift with the tides”— 
and the position which we assume in the field of strife makes it 
ours by every consideration of life and death, time and eternity, 
to grapple facts with intellectual vigor, and co-ordinate results 
with logical accuracy. 
As the world’s wide theatre just lifts its curtain upon the 
stage of which we are to become practical actors, as we look 
out amid the elements with which we have to contend—elements 
to he focalized and utilized by our efforts—what do we observe ? 
We behold a world of improvement, and we are inspired with the 
mighty truth that we are acting in the current of an endlessly 
progressive humanity. Progress is the word, for we see it 
everywhere; it is in every heart and on every tongue. All 
the elements are agitated; all the mental, moral, and physi- 
cal activities are at work; and the one all-pervading thought 
that it is the genius of our age to utilize them, animates every 6 
being, and directs all action. As we catch the inspiration, 
instinctively we turn to the profession of our choice, the 
chosen Avork of our lives, and the mind glides back step by 
step, reviewing the darkened pathAvay of medical science, 
thickly .streAvn with the dogmas of men, each in their turn 
weighed in the balance of human experience and found Avant- 
ing. We ask, Is there to be no progress here? Shall this 
noble science continue to don the intellectual wardrobes of the 
musty past; to Avear the ragged, worn-out garments of long ago, 
while all other arts and sciences are dressed in the living truths 
of the nineteenth century? What wails are these which come 
up from the baptismal pools of Error ? Listen to the language 
of men honored for their medical knowledge, gained by study 
and large experience—men who are recognized as authority by 
the profession at large: “ The science of medicine is founded 
on conjecture and improved by murder.”—Sir Astley Cooper. 
“We have assisted in multiplying diseases, nay, more, Ave have 
increased their mortality.”—The eminent Dr. Rush. “I de- 
clare it to be my honest conviction that if there were not a single 
physician or drug in the world, there would be less mortality.” 
—Dr. Johnson. “ The science of medicine is a barbarous 
jargon; it has destroyed more lives than war, pestilence, and 
famine combined,” was the experience of Dr. Good. 
As these wails of disappointment, from minds eminent in that 
school, break upon our ear, we exclaim, How can such things be ! 
Is there to be no progress here ? “ Is there no balm in Gilead?” 
The science and art of medicine, having its origin in the neces- 
sities of human nature, based upon the highest considerations of 
man, even that of life, shall it forever rest on conjecture, multi- 
ply disease, and increase the rates of mortality? Shall it fail to 
meet the end for which it Avas created ? We answer, No. Right 
struggling against Prejudice, and Reason battling against time- 
honored Absurdities, cry, No ; suffering Humanity cries, No; 
and all Nature proclaims a far more glorious day for this drug- 
cursed world. Here then do we find an ansAver, and Duty 
points her imperious finger to the work. Shall we, can Ave shrink 
from its performance, however arduous the task ? The cries of a suffering world as they reach us from every side, say, Never ! 
Every beacon along the shores of Life’s troubled sea beckons us 
forward to the work. Let us enter upon this labor manfully, 
with our efforts governed by intelligent convictions and com- 
prehensive aims. And as we take our position, it is well for 
us, as it is best for all who enter upon fields of conflict, where 
foes are to be met, to fully realize that however earnest the 
attempts made to parry the missiles of the King of Terrors, 
while made in obedience to the blind dictum of untenable 
theories, we find Death the victor, and Man the vanquished 
victim of the forever dreaded foe; and as we go out to battle, 
we should not only consider this foe in all his protean forms, 
hut we should be certain that we rightly estimate our ability to 
cope with the enemy, and that the logical formula with which 
we proceed to grapple with conditions, wrestle with facts, 
aggregate and co-ordinate results, is unmistakably correct. 
All along the way, with eyes fixed on the history of human 
progress, we discover the skeletons of worn-out theories, each in 
turn a subject for the faith of man. Turn to the pages of 
Broussaism. Where are the theories of iEsculapius, Galen, 
Stahl, Hoofman, Cullen, Paracelsus, Sydenham, Haller, and 
hosts of others ? Stranded on the shores of Time by human 
progress. Thickly strewn indeed is the battle-field with the 
skeletons of the ruined and exploded theories of the past in all 
departments of science and of civilization, but nowhere are there 
presented such ghastly sights as the ghosts of time-served 
theories of the medical profession that still haunt the experi- 
ence of its practice. The student is not slow to observe this 
all-important fact, that only as theories have become the ex- 
ponents of nature and art have they outlived their generation. 
The observing mind discovers that the progressive strides 
of humanity, and the progress which marks this age as com- 
prehensively vast, are based upon the utilization of Nature’s 
laws and forces to the necessity of mankind. Men failed in 
other ages to comprehend these relations, and when the sun of 
truth would cast its rays of light into the darkness of a heathen 
night, they barred the door, preferring to grope in ignorance, 
that the opinions of men might reign supreme. 8 
All great and fundamental truths are based upon natural laws, 
and when over-zealous men endeavor to undermine or to operate 
contrary to these laws, they are fighting the God of Nature, and 
must suffer defeat. Here, then, is a starting point—a standard 
by which we may rightly measure our belief and weigh its utility 
in the necessities of life. But as we remember that freedom 
of thought has been visited with violent condemnation, the right 
to reason boldly denied—human experience, observation, and 
the revelations of science distrusted, aye, smothered—we should 
not be surprised to find, even in this enlightened age, minds 
eminent in the works of life adjudging Nature and declaring 
her a profane teacher. They once pointed the finger of Scorn 
at that band of noble thinkers who dared to differ and to do, 
but to-day are proud to acknowledge their works, for they are 
the glories of the nineteenth century. The children of those 
who exiled Hahnemann have erected a monument to the memory 
of his greatness, which now stands in the public square of his 
native city; and why should not the same illiberal spirit de- 
nounce his followers in our land, and the next generation claim 
our truths as their own ? Nay, are they not doing so already ? 
God never permitted a truth to dawn on earth through the 
agency of one man’s mind that did not arouse the bitter enmity 
and opposition of other men, who should have espoused the 
truth and become the disciples of him through whom it was 
revealed. The revelations are first regarded as absurd, im- 
possible ; then as nothing new; finally accepted as but the self- 
same experience of the past—but facts are facts, and the demon- 
strations of experience must be the conclusive arguments of 
acceptance. 
We should learn lessons of wisdom from the history of the 
past, that we may avoid the stumbling blocks of those who have 
travelled before; keep fixed in mind that the laws of Nature 
are immutable, and the volume from which we are to take our 
instructions lies open before us, and that by no ingenuity of 
man can those laws be twisted from their purpose in the 
economy of nature and art, however ingenious the effort, or 
hoary with antiquity the theory. Though a hundred, yea, ten thousand medical theories exist, the laws governing life, health, 
and disease remain the same. Theory never changed a natural 
law, and never will. It is only when men act in harmony with 
these laws that any reform is consummated. In the art of 
medicine this is unmistakably correct. Any theory or formula 
which is not founded on this rock will be found to rest upon 
the sand; and when the winds of investigation blow and the 
rains of experimentation beat upon it, it will surely fall. Then 
let us look well to our formula; view it in the light of Nature’s 
law, try it by the light of Nature’s truth, test it by observation 
and experience. 
This we have done. We have added our investigation and 
experience to that of thousands of others, and have ever found 
it, like the Author of all truth, without variance or shadow of 
turning. Where it has seemingly failed, we must attribute the 
failure to our ignorance, not to the law; for the laws of Nature 
are as infallible as their Author, and for one of us to deny the 
results of this experience is to prove false to our manhood, to 
our humanity, and to our God. 
Who will have the temerity to assert that the God of Nature 
has required of man a course of action Avithout the guiding 
light of law ? That we possess that law, none, without impar- 
tial investigation, have a right to deny. And who, by investi- 
gation or observation, is qualified to deny the truth of that 
great law discovered by Hahnemann ? It is this law which we 
will present to human reason as the exponent of the forces at 
work and of the laws that govern them in the cure of disease. It 
presents the formula by which the internal eye is governed in 
its rational activities, as the external is guided by the micro- 
scope in the examination of the invisibly small and intangibly 
minute objects in the outer world; and while this physical aid 
of human reason has lighted up the pathway of man in search 
of physiological and pathological truths, it has also carried 
the torch by which time-honored errors have been displaced, 
leaving the gilded theories of masters in scientific pursuits 
among the records of long ago. 
Where is the microscope in therapeutics ? Where is the cor- 10 
responding improvement here, save in Homoeopathy. Where 
is the torch to light up this darkened avenue of the profession, 
which is acknowledged to he founded on conjecture, and which 
its own works condemn. It was Hahnemann who unbarred the 
gates of Darkness, disenthralling an Angel of Light, who, as 
she sped Heavenward, dropped her mantle of healing upon the 
earth. Though possessing a correct formula, we find but par- 
tially surveyed the great empire of Medicine; but with this 
compass to direct, it is our destiny to labor for the completion 
of the survey, and bring together material for the building of 
Medicine’s grand temple. 
This is our work—a work which distinguishes us from all 
other medical schools—a work broad as human necessities amid 
the ills of life, and high as Heaven whence it came—a work 
demanding minds of enlarged views and elevated purposes, 
the magnet of whose soul is truth. Such character, living 
under the immense uplifting forces of this progressive age, can 
never be weak, is progressive, must be creative; it was New- 
ton’s Apple, Fulton’s Motive Power, Harvey’s Circulation, and 
Hahnemann’s Similia. Let it be our guide. 
We start out with an unerring guide in our therapeutical 
law, pointing with emphasis to the manifold agencies sustaining 
disturbing relations to the vital economy. Not until they are 
thoroughly understood, will the necessities of man, lashed to 
fury in a world of pathology, find a curative response in our 
Materia Medica. Nor is our labor in this direction confined to 
crude drugs, for we find forces at work capabld of effecting a 
wider range of modification in vital phenomena than is ordi- 
narily comprehended, and never embodied in any Materia 
Medica—forces of which we know comparatively nothing; and 
a complete understanding of their nature and action will open 
new fields for study and research in their application little 
“ dreamed of in the world’s philosophy.” 
Let us then read Nature’s volume; study well each page; 
carefully observe her operations ; patiently, conscientiously, and 
thoroughly investigate each law, that reason may be perfected 
and the heart kept pure. Then shall we be in the best man- 11 
ner prepared for action. Thus stimulated to exertion, we shall 
act in concert in the noble work of life; and thus, as true 
success is obtained, the sun shall stand above us, rolling its 
tide of glory along our way. As we enter upon this work, let 
us remember that persistent and rational inquiry, so far as pos- 
sible free from prejudice and bigotry, has been the passport to 
success in all the useful enterprises of man ; let us remember also 
that individual interests of men have ever been in conflict with 
the common good as computed by them; and however unbend- 
ing the laws of Nature, we shall find the spirit of liberality 
conducive to the triumph of truth, so long as we in nothing 
compromise the laAv of the God of truth. 
We should remember that minds aspiring to nothing higher 
than fame or position can never be truly great—never forget- 
ing that there is a difference between ignorant zeal and intelli- 
gent earnestness. No one in the profession has travelled far 
its rugged paths without realizing the necessity for co-operative 
sympathy atid its priceless value in the work of life. As we go 
hence to our several fields of activity, may this truth illumine 
our minds, that in many respects our interests are common, 
and that whatever injury is done to one affects us all by a com- 
mon sympathy, admonishing us to a common jealousy for the 
rights, the character, and the interest of each and all. There- 
fore let self-abnegation be the crowning virtue of our profes- 
sional lives, that the dignity and best interests of the profes- 
sion may be maintained, and the demands of suffering humanity 
responded to legitimately and in consonance with enlightened 
reason. 
Yet the benefits to be derived from this co-operation would 
be but imperfectly met if confined simply to the medical profes- 
sion. It behooves us by a conscientious and intelligently di- 
rected assiduity so to demean ourselves as to secure the hearty 
support of the laity, for without your charitable indulgence and 
feeling co-operation, ladies and gentlemen, we must move on to 
the performance of our duties as a comparatively onerous task ; 
and in proportion to that mutual sympathy will be the blessings 
conferred by the medical profession. That you appreciate the 12 
blessings of Homoeopathy and its great work amid the ills of life? 
your labors attest. Yonder Homoeopathic Hospital is a noble 
expression of that appreciation, and stands as an honor to the 
Homoeopathic ladies of Philadelphia, and the blessings which it 
may dispense can only be computed by Him who holds the 
records in His hands. This lively co-operation evinced by you 
strengthens us for a faithful discharge of our duties, and we 
shall leave your midst believing that here, as elsewhere, is 
Homoeopathy not only sustained by wealth and intelligence, but 
by noble and generous impulses. 
As we now separate, we go forth with common occasion for 
cheer. Our winter’s voyage has been replete with matter of 
interest, thrilling and truly all-absorbing. The great law of 
Homoeopathy has been presented for our examination, arid as 
we have explored its works we have found new beauties to 
attract our admiration, and greater truths for our study. 
We go forth firmly believing that all minds must acknowledge 
these truths, for the world is fast coming to acknowledge that. 
Homoeopathy is no will-o’the-wisp hovering over the swan&p 
of Allopathy, misguiding the already suffering, nearly blinded 
victims into a mire of empiricism. The world must soon re- 
cognize the sun, now high in the heavens, dispelling the dark- 
ness of the night which held the minds of men in the pro- 
tracted sleep of ages, from which our antiquarian brethren 
come forth wiping from their eyes the mist which long darkened 
their vision and bewildered their understanding. We go forth 
firm in these convictions, our faith based upon God’s eternal 
laws. Coming years may alter the channel, enlarge the scope, 
but what is really and fundamentally true ever lives, to keep 
step with the march of ages. 
With its original and essential truth, Homoeopathy has nothing 
to fear, everything to gain, by the progress of events, for it 
will unfold its beauties and bring to the world’s comprehension 
the law of Similia similibus curantur. With this truth before 
us let us go, not as bigoted adherents to theories, but as men 
living in the light of a progressive age, willing to grasp the 
hand of Truth wherever found, however humble the garb in 13 
which she may appear—proucl of our insignia, for it means 
truth in science, and progress in medicine. 
Let us then be free in thought, noble in purpose, determined 
in action, and along our walk shall bloom the flowers of life, 
their fragrance full of joy and inspiration ; around our arduous 
toil shall cluster the blessings of relieved humanity, and about 
each effort shall crystallize success approved by Heaven. Thus, 
as one by one the events of life are brought to view, as the pano- 
rama of time is unrolled by the hand that guides the ship and 
rules the storm, we shall be best prepared to meet and appre- 
ciate each unfolding duty. Now, farewell! With faith in the 
one God, hopes in the same heaven, with these duties performed 
and life’s record complete, we may join in the same glories, 
and together move on and on in the spheres of spiritual activity 
marked out for us by the God of mind. 
Honored Professors of the Hahnemann Medical 
College :—To you, in behalf of the Hahnemannian Medical 
Institute, it is my duty to say farewell. Words seem inade- 
quate as vehicles of thought for the expression of those 
emotions that well up from the fountains of the inner life in 
search of an avenue for the play of mutual sympathy. Be 
assured that your kind words, which have made cheerful the 
midnight hours of toil, the patience which you have exercised 
toward us, surrounded as you have been by professional cares 
and arduous duties, your expressions of kindly sympathy for 
our welfare and usefulness have not returned from the moral 
auditorium without leaving their impress—an impress that will 
go with us, actuating our motives in our intercourse with the 
victims of disease as subjects of our professional care and 
solicitude, until we in turn shall require the same tender minis- 
tration of comfort in the struggle for a little longer life. 
We go from you with the abiding impression that we go 
with your sympathy, to cheer, to aid, and, if necessary, to vin- 
dicate us in the right against “the zeal not according to know- 
ledge,” shown in opposition to our progress by the illiberal 
devotees of antiquarian medicine. We go from you with a 
task to perform—a task comparatively easy contrasted with 14 
the difficulties that opposed you aud your co-workers as you 
came out from the long night of Allopathic reign. You have 
familiarized our minds with the elements of the same truths 
that enlightened your own in the science and art of medicine; 
have labored hard and brought to bear every means to acquaint 
us with the science in all its various branches, while we in turn 
have endeavored to bring receptive minds to the task. We 
go forth richly laden with instruction, and shall ever refer to 
our Alma Mater with feelings of pride and spirit-chastened 
gratitude. 
How shall we reward you ? Our firm adherence to the 
principles of truths which you have advocated may occasion 
hours of joy; our success as practitioners may be to you a 
source of pleasure; turning to your records in after years, and 
there finding names which are engraven on the scroll of honor, 
may be to you a source of pride; but that cannot reward you. 
When the elements of life, now broken and discordant by 
opinions of men, shall be united in the harmonies of the after 
life; when there shall be no stranger, and minds striving for 
the same great truths shall be as one, each heart glowing with 
fraternal love; 
“ When all things shall be righted, 
The whole world shall be lighted 
As Eden was of old 
—then and then only may you receive your full reward. But 
you are not all here. lie who laid the corner-stone of this In- 
stitute—one who ventured forth as a standard-bearer in the 
march of therapeutical reform—is absent; no longer fills his 
chair in yonder halls of learning. Walter Williamson, M. I)., 
our Emeritus professor, from the summit of his ambition, in 
the ripeness of years, in the fullness of experience and benevo- 
lent sympathy, rich in the elements of science, has been borne 
away by the mandate of that messenger whose grasp may not 
be parried by any of us. 
It is of less importance at what period of life we leave the 
field of vital and moral activity, than how we have met and dis- 
charged the duties devolving upon us in the chosen field of 15 
action; and it is well for all to emulate the virtues of those 
who have faced and performed manfully the duties of life, and 
to endeavor to shine in the light that sheds its lustre upon the 
memory of the worthy departed. Such men compel, however 
reluctantly, the tribute of respect from opponents and the heart- 
felt sympathy of co-workers in the rugged ways of reform, by 
which is sought the correction of time-honored errors. 
Prof. Williamson is no longer with you. He has gone from 
the busy walks of men, but his deeds remain, and the works of 
his heart and hand shall ever remain as enduring monuments 
of his soul’s ideal, and his words shall continue to echo along 
the future, while memory acts in its integrity in the long 
rtisumd of after years. And thus as one by one you are called 
upon to resign the works of life, it shall be ours to perpetuate 
the truths of your teachings, and, duly capacitated to fill your 
places in the work of reform, to leave, as you shall have done 
to us, to our successors Homoeopathy not only unimpaired, but 
improved.