>t- • i--w,; AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE COMMENCEMENT MEDICAL DEPARTMENT (>K TI1K WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, Held at the Concordia Opera House, On the 22d of February, 1872, tf^Jh— H. OLAY DALLAM, Esq. PUBLISHED BY THE PACLLI) BALTIMORE: i HE SUN BOOK AND JOB I'RINIIM, HI I HE. 1872. AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, Held at the Concordia Opera House, On the 22d of February, 1872, BY t H. OLAY DALLAM, ESQ. PUBLISHED BY THE FACULTY* BALTIMORE: THE SUN gOOK AND JOn PR(NTING OFFICB. 187,2. PRAYER. BY REV. L. P. W. BALCH, D. D. Almighty God, who call'dst Luke the Physician, whose praise is in the Gospel, to be an Evangelist and Physician of the soul, may it please Thee to bless these Thy servants, now in Thy providence called to be Physicians of the body. Give them grace to be wise and faithful in the discharge of their high and responsible trust. Endue them with inno- cency of life, and enable them to minister successfully to the sickness and suffering of the afflicted, and so to live in this world that in the world to come they may have life everlasting, through Jesus Christ our Lord. O Lord Holy Ghost, sanctifier of the faithful, from whom all good thoughts and works do come, bless the Faculty and Officers of this University. Give them wisdom to devise, and grace to execute, the best measures for promoting its prosperity and usefulness, that, as Thy servants and ministers, they may increaee the welfare and happiness of mankind. We ask it for His sake who commanded that we should "heal the sick"—Thy Son, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen, 4J1AMTATES m 1873, JOHN DAVIS DABNEY, of Miss., President of Graduating Class. AYRES, JNO. L................Va. BAGLEY, CHARLES.......Md. BARTLETT, J. T............Md. BEST, W. L...................N. C. BRISTOW, J. P................Va. BROWN, R C...................Va. BURNS, R. K..................Md. BURTON, J. W............N. C. BURWELL, PHILIP.........Va. CLARKSON, DAVID........Mo CONN, WM. A.................Va. CONNOLLY, F. G............Md CROCKETT, H. S.............Va. DABNEY, J. D...............Miss. DASHIELL, R W...........Md. DUTTON, B. B.................Va. ELDERDICE, IRVIN H. .Md. ELLINGTON, J. H.........N. C. ELLINGTON, SAM'L.....N C FOLSOM, I. W..Choctaw N'n. GANNON, W. H........W. Va. GARNETT, A. H..............Va. GRESHAM, PHILIP.........Va. HARTMAN, GEO A........Md. HARVEY, ROB'T S......W. Va. HASSELL, ALONZO......N. C HOLLAND, N. G..............Va. IDEN, B. F..........,............Va. JARNIGAN, J. E.............S. C. JONES, E. H................N. C. LeBEAU, L. A...............La. LINTHICUM, JAS. S......Md. LITTLE, Q. M..............N. C. MANARD, S. A...........Tenn. MALONE, GEO. B.......Tenn. McLENDON, W. J.......N. C. OSMUN, C. J...................Va. PEED, J. S.....................Md. PUGH, E. W..............N. C. RAY, J. M......................Md. REDDEN, R. J.............Ala. REYNOLDS, GEO. B.......Va. RICHEY, R. A................Ga. RUTLEDGE, E. HALL..MD. SMITH, A. G..................Md. SMITH, D. M., M. D.......Va. STOVER, JNO. M. H.......Va. STRAIN, H. P............Texas. TAYLOR, WM. P...........Md. TEWES,WILHELM, Prussia. TILLOTSON, R. S........Miss. TONGE, S. D.............. Ga. WALLS, E. G................Md. WEAVER, H. B............N. C. WEDDELL, J. D............Md. WILSON, L. T................Va. WYSONG, D P..............Md. ZIMMERMAN, M. I........Md. Total...........................58. WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY MEDICAL DEP'T, ) Baltimore, February 23, 1872. $ H. Clay Dallam, Esq. : Dear Sir—It affords me great pleasure to comply with the unanimous wishes of the Faculty of this Institution, in requesting, for publication, a copy of your able and eloquent Address, delivered on the 22d instant, to the Graduating Class of 1871-2. The incontestible evidences of gratification evinced by the very nume- rous and brilliant audience who listened to you, and the satisfaction that we ourselves experienced, impel us to urge that you will not hesitate to •grant us the privilege of extending, by means of the press, that pleasure to others, and especially to all such as by reason of the great throng were precluded from its enjoyment. Very respectfully, and truly yours, Chas. W. Chancellor, M. D., Dean of the Faculty. Baltimore, February 24, 1872. Prof. Charles W. Chancellor, M. D., Dean, <5r»c, crv..- My Dear Sir—Your favor of the 23d instant, written in behalf of the Faculty of Washington University, and requesting me to furnish you with a copy of the Address I made on the 226. instant, for publication, is before me. I send you the Address, hoping that the general public may be as indulgent in their criticisms of it as yourself and colleagues have already been. I am, sir, yours truly, H. Clay Dallam. ADDRESS. Gentlemen of the Faculty■, and Students of Washington University—Ladies and Gentlemen : Five years ago, the gentlemen who surround me, the Faculty of the Washington University Medical School of Baltimore, with the aid and cooperation of some of the public-spirited citizens of our State and city, determined to resuscitate this Institution, which for many years had well- nigh slept the sleep of death, and organize a second Medical School in our midst. This effort was liberally encouraged by aid from the State and city, and to-day the School numbers nearly two hundred pupils, and graduates fifty-eight doctors of medicine. The growth of our city, the interests of medical science, and the needs of the South, all, abundantly justified this new enter- prise. It was not undertaken in any temper of hostility to the venerable Medical School of the University of Maryland, or, indeed, from any spirit of rivalry to it, other than the com- mendable desire, with it, to advance and promote the cause of sound scientific medical education. Many of the friends of this newly reorganized School are also the friends of the Maryland University; indeed, among its Board of Visitors are some of the graduates of the Uni- versity of Maryland; thus recognizing, as all the liberal disciples of science must recognize, that from its republic small jealousies and petty animosities must be banished, and that these two Baltimore Institutions—the University of Maryland and the Washington University—the one bap- tized with the name of our illustrious old Commonwealth, the other with that of the Father of his Country, must be forever friends, incited only by a generous rivalry as to which shall excel in promoting sound teaching, and in reflecting most credit upon the State. The time, too, for inaugurating this new School of Science was deemed highly propitious. With sympathies in common l 6 with our brothers of the South, who had recently emerged from the desolating and harrowing experiences of " grim- visaged war," we of Maryland believed, that under the benign rule of our constitutional Government, with peace and plenty within our borders, and freed from the vexations that ever wait upon the exercise of irresponsible authority, the end of which is the plunder of the State and the misery of the people—I say we believed that, in opening this new School at this time, we could arrest the tide that tended Northward, and offer to the young men of the South conge- nial homes, hospitable welcomes, and all the advantages for professional study that can be found in the most favored institutions of the land. These reasonable expectations were not without founda- tion, and the steady growth of this School, year after year, has vindicated the wisdom of the policy pursued by our State and city in extending to it a helping hand. The School has endeavored to recognize the obligation thus imposed, and it has organized, under the immediate charge and control of its Faculty, a Hospital, in which, from every district of the State and city, free patients are received and treated, thus, at once, by providing for the sick and diseased, removing the liability to contagious disorders, that so rapidly spread, from the small and confined hovels of crowded cities, and, at the same time, affording rare oppor- tunities for clinical instruction to the students, under the immediate direction of experienced teachers; for these hos- pitals, founded as they were originally from the humane motive to provide competent and scientific treatment for the poor and afflicted children of suffering and want, are, after all, the greatest schools of medical science; and no gentle- man, however gifted, or accomplished, is fitted for his profession, who has not the knowledge and experience that hospital practice can alone give. The distinguishing feature of our modern Christian civil- ization is the care that society takes of the afflicted, diseased and suffering; and I believe that it is to the medical profes- sion, more^than to any other agency, that this credit is due. The ancients, for the most part, neglected this great duty. For example, hospitals for lunatics were unknown among them, and, indeed, it was not until the fifteenth century that 1 a lunatic asylum existed in Christian Europe. Formerly, the poor demented was shunned as an outcast, or, being considered a witch and demoniacally possessed, was the subject of the Church's anathemas, was excommunicated, and not unfrequently put to death. But the cruelties of theological narrow-mindedness and superstition, after inflict- ing untold horrors on these poor unfortunates, were compelled to give way before the march of medical science; and Mor- gagni, in Italy, Cullen, in Scotland, and Pinel, in France, revolutionized and ameliorated the treatment of the insane. The effect of this scientific movement was twofold—the afflicted themselves, by being segregated from society, and placed immediately under the watchful eye of skilled pro- fessors, were much relieved, the whole phenomena of lunacy was most rigidly and critically examined, and cases of dementia, formerly deemed hopeless, were permanently cured; while at the same time, with the opportunities thus presented in hospital practice, comparisons were instituted, many of the obscurities heretofore incident to lunacy were dispelled, and a positive and permanent advance was made in that department of medicine, having for its peculiar object the treatment of nervous functional derangement. In entering upon your untried field of professional labors, gentlemen of the graduating class, you will find the sneers and jests at your profession quite as common now as in the olden time; and you will still hear the cry, " Fuge medicos et medicamenta, si vis esse salvus" (fly doctors and doctors' drugs, if you wish to be well); but you will not fail to observe that, laugh as it may, the world has always believed in the efficacy of medical skill. Indeed, the man who in health laughs most at the doctor, is generally in sickness the first to send for him; and many a poor fellow, when writhing in pain, would, I verily believe, take homcepathic or hydropa- thic advice, or even send for the herb doctor, rather than have no doctor at all; and if he had to decide between the priest and the physician, would prefer to take his chances with the latter. Although your profession is not one of the exact sciences, and " doctors will differ," it is nevertheless true that medical knowledge has been constantly progressive. A difference in 8 the treatment of diseases does not imply doubt that the de- sired result will be reached. Two mariners, equally skilled and experienced, may make the same point, in the same time, and with equal safety, although each runs a different course. The rich and exhaustless repository of the materia medica supplies numberless remedies, having similar properties, and, therefore, in the hands of the skillful practitioner, equally conducive to restore the patient to health. You can, gentlemen, boldly, and without fear of successful refutation, point to the fact, that where medical education has received most attention, there the average duration of human life has been most prolonged, and the percentage of deaths in infancy most diminished. A reference to the statistics of London shows, that there has been a constant improvement in the public health. Eighty years ago, the annual mortality was five per cent., now it is a fraction over two. In France, at the close of the last century, the mean ave- rage duration of human life was less than twenty-nine years; in 1853, it was thirty-three years. The number of deaths occurring during infancy has greatly diminished. A hundred years ago, seventy-five per cent. died before reaching the age of five; now only about twenty- five per cent. die. I do not stop here to discuss the many causes that may have contributed to this end, but certainly the steady pro- gress in medical science has had a most controlling influence. But notwithstanding what has been accomplished, I know of no field more inviting to the ambitious for discovery and fame than your profession presents. A forcible thinker* of our day writes: "Of all the branches of human knowledge, medicine is that in which the accom- plished results are most obviously imperfect and provisional, in which the field of unrealized possibilities is most extensive, and from which, if the human mind were directed to it, as it has been during the past century to industrial inventions, and especially to overcoming space, the most splendid results might be expected. Our almost absolute ignorance of the * Lecky, Hist. European Morals. 9 causes of some of the most fatal diseases, and the empirical nature of nearly all our best medical treatment, have been often recognized. The medicine of inhalation is still in its infancy, and yet it is by inhalation that nature produces most of her diseases and effects most of her cures. The medical powers of electricity, which of all known agencies bear most resemblance to life, are almost unexplored. The discovery of anaesthetics has, in our own day, opened out a field of inestimable importance; and the proved possibility, under certain physical conditions, of governing, by external sug- gestions, the whole current of the feelings and emotions, may possibly contribute yet further to the alleviation of suffering, and, perhaps, to that euthanasia which Bacon proposed to physicians as an end of their art. But in the eyes of both the philanthropist and of the philosopher, the greatest of all results to be expected in this, or perhaps any other field, are, I conceive, to be looked for in the study of the relations between our physical and our moral natures. He who raises moral pathology to a science, expanding, systematizing and applying many fragmentary observations that have been already made, will probably take a place among the master intellects of mankind. * * * * " Mind and body are so closely connected that even those who most earnestly protest against materialism readily admit that each acts continually upon the other. The sudden emotion that quickens the pulse, and blanches or flushes the cheek, and the effect of fear, in predisposing to an epidemic, are familiar instances of the action of the mind upon the body; and the more powerful and permanent influence of the body upon the disposition is attested by countless obser- vations. It is probable that this action extends to all parts of our moral constitution, that every passion or characteristic tendency has a physical predisposing cause, and that, if we were acquainted with these, we might treat, by medicine, the many varieties of moral disease as systematically as we now treat physical disease. In addition to its incalculable prac- tical importance, such knowledge would have a great philosophical value, throwing a new light upon the filiation of our moral qualities, enabling us to treat, exhaustively, the moral influence of climate, and withdrawing the great ques- tion of the influence of race from the impressions of isolated 10 observers, *o place it on the firm basis of experiment. It would thus form the complement to the labors of the historian." These, gentlemen are some of the grand unsolved prob- lems to which your scientific thought and analytic powers must be directed. Do not, I beseech you, turn away from them, because disheartened by their magnitude and profun- dity, and be content to pass through life, without having brought some additional weapons into the medical armory. Think of the discoveries of modern medicine and chemis- try. It was not until forty years ago, that, under the combined investigations, in these two departments, that boon to the human family, chloroform, was made known. Even the three chemists who discovered it had no idea it could be turned to any practical purpose, and it was in their labors of pure love, to extend chemical knowledge, that its properties were evolved. Then medicine took it, and applied it in pro- fessional treatment; and, if it had done naught else for the world, this alone should entitle your profession to the ever- lasting gratitude of mankind. What anguish and torment this panacea has relieved!—what composure has it brought to the racked and mutilated limb!—what tender ministra- tions it has given to the " mind diseased!"—and how, at times, with this wand in his hand, has the " beloved physi- cian," by the bedside of the poor afflicted, appeared indeed, like the ministering angel, before whose presence pain and distress were suspended, hope followed, and " death itself even dropped his commission !" Learn from this incident of the discovery of chloroform not to depreciate philosophical inquiry and experiment, even if it do not promise present practical benefit. Love science for itself; explore the mines, although the entrance seems dark and rugged. Be persuaded that the sincere inquirer shall not ask in vain, but he that truly seeketh, assuredly findeth, and his importunity shall be rewarded with that sat- isfying fruit that only grows upon the tree of knowledge. Remember, too, the dignity of your high vocation. In that curious old book, the " Anatomy of Melancholy," the dis- course thus proceedeth : " Of those diverse gifts, which our apostle Paul saith God hath bestowed on man, this of physic 11 is not the least, but most necessary, and especially conducing to the good of mankind. Next, therefore, to God, in all our extremities ('for of the Most High cometh healing.' Ecclus.) we must seek to rely upon the physician, who is Manns Dei, saith Hierophilus, and to whom He hath given knowledge, that He might be glorified in His wondrous works. 'With such doth he heal men, and take away their pains.' Ecclus. 'When thou hast need of him, let him not go from thee. The hour may come that their enterprises may have good success.' Ibid. " It is not, therefore, to be doubted that if we seek a phy- sician, as we ought, we may be eased of our infirmities; such a one, I mean, as is sufficient, and worthily so called; for there be many mountebanks, quacksalvers, empirics, in every street almost, and in every village, that take upon them this name, make this noble and profitable art to be evil spoken of and contemned, by reason of these base and illiterate artificers; but such a physician I speak of, as is approved, learned, skillful, and honest." But, gentlemen, in addressing to you, so feebly, these gen- eralities, I am reminded that this is not the time or occasion for an extended scientific discussion. Besides, he who speaks to you is not of your profession, though a member of that other profession, in which there are many trials, incident to yours. But as numberless as your trials, your rewards, if honest and faithful, will be commensurate with them. Surrounded by those who so recently were your accom- plished teachers, I feel it would be but a twice told tale to speak to you of the code of professional ethics that should govern you. I have often thought that the greatest of trials that beset professional life is the want of appreciation of pro- fessional services. Be not surprised, therefore, and do not lose your tempers, if, after a most skillful and successful treat- ment, you sometimes find a patient who utterly fails to recognize what you have done for him, or attributes what is directly due to your skill, to the fashionable quack of the neighborhood, who is called in when the crisis has passed, and the patient is convalescent, only to pluck the laurels that are rightfully yours. And, even when this is not the case, the recovery due to your treatment is often credited to the recuperative powers of the patient, and with his restoration 12 you are forgotten, and probably your bill disputed. For it is true, " God and the doctor we alike adore, Just on the brink of danger—not before; The danger past, both are alike requited— God is forgotten, and the doctor slighted." You, too, will have the experiences of the weary waiting for " calls." Be not discouraged at this. Sir Astley Cooper in the first year of his practice made only five guineas; in the second, twenty-six pounds; and in the third, thirty-four pounds; but in these weary waiting days he acquired that knowledge which, in after years, brought him boundless fame and fortune. As much as I have commended to you—and it cannot be too much commended—to love science for its own sake, regardless of the material rewards it may bring, still I quite agree with Junius, when he counsels a friend to direct his efforts to the establishment of a moderate but solid inde- pendence, without which no man can be happy, or even honest. And now, gentlemen, graduates of Washington University, it only remains that I shall say farewell, and bid you God speed. The world is your field; the contest for which you are enlisted is unceasing. Your place is not on the outposts, but in the very thickest of the fray ; where ignorance, empi- ricism, disease and death are most rife, there must you be found. And as you go forth, on this consecrated day—the children of this noble old Institution—its accredited agents, under its seal and Letters Patent—let me adjure you, to be ever clad with the breastplate of professional honor and integrity. WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, BALTIMORE, MD. The Course of Instruction in this Institution embraces a Wintek Session and a Summer Session. The Winter Session begins on the 1st of October, and terminates on the 22d of February. The Summer Session begins on the loth of March, and continues four months. Fees for Summer Session, $55. I*<^ . THOMAS E. BOND, M. !>., Prew'l. HARVEY L. ilVRD, M. D., Professor of Obstetrics. JOS. E. CLAGETT, M. D., Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics. JNO. F. MONMONIER, M. D., Prof, of Physiology. MARTIN P. SCOTT, M. D., Professor of Diseases of Women and Children. CHARLES W. CHANCELLOR. M. D., Professor of Descriptive and Surgical Anatomy. .IAS. E. LINDSAY, M. D., Professor of Chemistry and Pharmacy JOHN R.PAGE, M. D., Professor of Principles' and Practice of Medicine. GEORGE G. FARNANDIS, M. D., Professor of Surgery. N*. W. LITTELL, M. I)., Clinical Lecturer on Ophthalmology and Aural Surgery. ALFRED II. POWELL, M. I)., Demonstrator of Anatomy. The Cmnic.w. Advantages presented are particularly tine In addition to a Hospital crcU^rh/ under the control of the Faculty there is a Free Dispensary connected with the College, which affords Clinical material in great abundance. For Circulars, or any information in reference to the College address ° ' CHARLES W. CHANCELLOR, M. D., p « v i, . ., , I)e,(n °f the Fai-ultu. t . s.—hxcclK-nt Board can he obtained at from *4 to pi per week.