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ADDRESS
THE  GRADUATES
©nsyuvA WMmwi&t toimmi®3i<
DELIVERED IN THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, GENEVA, JANUARY 26, 1841.
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           fcY JAMES \vEBSTER, M. D.,

Prqfeitor qf Anatomy and Phytiology, Corresponding Member qf the Medical Society qf
                   London, $c Jj-c
PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OP THE GRADUATE*  ScCMl »
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ROCHESTER t
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SHEPARD  it  STRONG'S PRECIS.


             1841. 
  At a meeting of the Medical Graduates of Geneva College,  held immediately
after the Commencement, on January 26, 1841, ASA TUPPER was appointed
Chairman, when the following resolutions were adopted:
  Resolved, That whilst we cordially respond to the sentiments contained in the
able  and interesting parting Address of Prof.  J. Webster, we  hope to profit
from his admonitions.
  Resolved, That a copy of his Address be requested of Prof. W. for publication.
                                           ASA TUPPER, Chairman.
                                      f 
ADDRESS.
Gentlemen—
  This day the interesting associations which have  so long
bound us together, are to be forever broken; we are now to
part, many of us to meet no more this side the grave, and on
this pleasing but melancholy occasion it becomes my duty,
on behalf of my colleagues, to offer you a parting word of
admonition, and to bid you a hearty God-speed in the great
object of your mission.
  This day, the interesting relations in which  we have so
long stood to each other, are dissolved—preceptor and pupil
no longer, you go forth upon an equality with us ; as the re-
ward of diligence and industry you carry with  you hence,
the highest honors of our profession to gladden the hearts,
and to cheer the hopes of parents and friends.   Whilst we
rejoice with you in your  rejoicing; whilst we  sympathize
with you in your hopes, and whilst we offer up our warmest
aspirations for your professional success, and your personal
happiness,  we cannot allow the parting moment to pass by
unnoticed  and unfelt—we look back through the long vista
of the past and many old and kindly remembrances spring
up before us in their original freshness, casting a not unpleas-
ing gloom over the parting hour.  You go hence in the buoy*
ancy of youth; the allurements in the  paths to fame and
-fortune are beckoning you onward; your hopes and expec- 
4
 tations are raised, and you are anxious and eager for the time
 when you may act your part on the great stage of life—yet
 you cannot leave us without one parting tear  of  kindness,
 one sigh of fond regret, for old  preceptors  and cherished
 friends.
   Standing in this relation, then; surrounded as you are by
 these numerous witnesses of your  triumph; the  smiles of
 youth and of beauty,  and the presence of the wise and the
 aged,  shedding a soothing  influence over the scene around
 you—on this  sacred spot, consecrated to the worship of the
 living God, listen now to the last, the parting admonitions of
 those who feel a deep, and  an abiding interest in your pros-
 perity here, and your welfare hereafter.
   The period  of your pupilage has terminated;  you have
 completed the education of manhood; an eventful epoch in
 your lives has arrived, and henceforth your position to socie-
 ty assumes a new and most important aspect.  To say that
 we share in your anxieties, is but to  say that we feel account-
 able in a great degree for your future professional career—
 we have this day invested you with high honors, and as you
 may bear them for usefulness and distinction, so will your
 professional parent reap a rich reward in the approving ver-
 dict of the community.   Thus you perceive that your re-
 sponsibilities  to us, do not  cease when  you  leave the pre-
cincts of the College—we are part and parcel in the bond—
and  in giving our endorsement to  your  competence for the
discharge of  the important duties which may be entrusted
to your care, we do so with a confidence in your unceasing
devotion to your profession, in  your high and  honorable
bearing to your fellows, and in the hope, springing from our
knowledge of you, that our  anticipations may be fully real-
ized, and that in whatever section of our wide-spread coun-
try Providence may cast  your lot,  we shall  have cause of 
5
exultation in the character,  the  standing, and the profes-
sional success of our Alumni.  Remember, gentlemen, that
you now go forth as the defenders of the  Medical Depart-
ment of Geneva College;  you  are the  champions  upon
whom we must mainly rely in an honorable warfare with
rival Institutions; to you is entrusted in some degree, the
charge of our skill and reputation as teachers,—we ask you
but to persevere in the course you have so well begun; to
gird  your  professional  armor  tightly  around you; to
strengthen your weak,  and to  guard  your strong points,
and we have no fears for the issue on sending you forth to
the encounter.
  You are now about to enter upon the practical duties of
your profession, and you have no doubt closely scanned its
requirements for their faithful performance.  The duties of
the Physician are of the most interesting, and sometimes of
the most painful kind :  from the very nature of his profes-
sion, he is compelled to enter into the arcana of the domestic
concerns of families; to watch over the bed of sickness, and
to minister to the wants and to the necessities of the afflic-
ted;  to keep alive the  drooping  spirits of friends and rela-
tives, and when  the pale horse of the Conqueror tramples
over the dying,  to mitigate the sufferings and to soothe the
anguish that precede the passage to the dim sepulchre of
death.   Our profession,  in some form, is co-eval with the
sufferings and the sorrows of the  human race: it is a glori-
ous privilege to minister to a mind diseased ;  to pour the
healing balm into the bleeding wound ; to lull the pangs and
to assuage the sufferings of humanity—Divinity himself has
set his seal upon it.
  Thus reflecting upon his duties and responsibilities, then,
the conscientious physician moves in an atmosphere pecul-
iarly his own—constantly exerting all  his energies for the 
6
alleviation of human suffering; selecting from the vast store-
house of nature, the varied resources for the due exercise of
his art; necessarily engaged in a wide and extensive range
of scientific inquiry ; daily witnessing the  afflictions of his
fellow men—at one time cheered by the successful applica-
tion of remedial means, whilst at another he is compelled to
mourn over the failure of his best directed efforts, he learns
to cultivate a feeling of dependence on that  Almighty Being
in whom he moves and lives, and without whose aid he
could accomplish nothing.
  Just entering as you are upon the busy world, to partici-
pate in  its cares, its pleasures and its anxieties, may I ask
you to tairy with me a little, whilst I admonish you of some
of the dangers which, even at the onset of his career, beset
the paths  of the young professsional man—and when you
remember how many cherished anticipations are raised, how
many cheering hopes are entertained for your prosperity,
and how many an anxious prayer this day ascends the throne
of Grace in 3'our behalf,  from those who nourished you in
infancy, solaced you in youth, and now cherish you in man-
hood, surely }^ou will give me a patient and a listening ear
at this our parting, and mayhap will profit, feeble as may be
the effort to direct you in the paths of virtue and of honor.
  At this late  period you need not be reminded of the many
trying situations in which you are likely to be placed ; of the
numerous class of cases which will demand prompt and im-
mediate aid, and which will admit of not an instant delay—
these cases, embodying all the varieties of accidents and in-
juries, are more or less urgent; all require  instant  attention,
and generally there are by-standers who are eagerly looking
on, and noticing the conduct and bearing of the practitioner:
if he be at all at a loss, they do not fail to observe,  nor are
they slow to publish it to the world, thus inflicting an injury 
7
from which he can scarce hope to recover.   If on the con-
trary, he is prompt and efficient in the hour of danger; cool
and collected in the midst of scenes which are appalling to
the feeling heart;  for the moment heedless of all  around
him, even the lamentations of family and friends, and intent
only on the safety of his patient, he builds a reputation  on
the instant,  and is borne in triumph along the current of pop-
ular favor.   It is on such  occasions as these, gentlemen,
when the life of a fellow being is hanging by a single thread,
then it is, I say, that you will require the clear eye, the cool
head, and the steady hand.
   In this connexion, then, what need I say in reference to the
necessity of the strictest temferance ?  It is not my  in-
tention to read you a homily on this subject, but I feel it an
imperative duty now to warn you of the snares which may
be laid for  you,—of  the  temptations which, in a  thousand
ways, may be thrown across your path,  and of the impor-
tance of early and decisive  action on thi i point,  to guard
against consequences which cannot be otherwise  than de-
 structive to your  moral,   as well as your intellectual and
physical being.
   Time was when the physician could scarce enter the house
of a patient without  being invited to partake of the hospi-
talities of the bottle ;  it was  difficult to resist the importuni-
ties of well-meaning friends, and thus the habit of indulging
was acquired by many a valued and even brilliant member
of our profession who little thought, when thus acquiescing,
that he was destined to die the drunkard's death, and to fill
the drunkard's grave!
   Thanks to the progress of an improved morality, and art
enlightened and just philanthropy, a change has come over
the. spirit of the times—and to the members of our profession,
as much as to any other class of the community, is the world 
s
indebted for the onward march of a cause which bears " heal-
ing on its wings ;" which is calculated to elevate the tone of
moral feeling; to close the avenues of vice and immorality;
to give to virtue its own reward, and to nerve the arm and
to animate the breast of the patriot and the philanthropist.
  T*hus we have  seen a cause feeble in its infancy, com-
mencing by small beginnings—-at first only under the influ-
ence of individual effort  and personal example—next en-
gaged in with vigor and perseverance by communities—fi-
nally  spreading its benign' and  happy influence,  until we
have lived to  see a whole nation uniting, almost as one man,
in the high and holy emprise—and if  " the harp that once
through Tara's Halls" resounded, has long been hushed,  it
now sings sweetly, and every note vibrates on the ear, as it
is borne upon the wings of the wind, accompanied by the
glad voices of millions of freedmen uniting around the ban-
ner of temperance, in one grand chorus, of Erin regenerate
and disenthralled  I
  It becomes you, then, in setting forth upon the voyage of
life, to lend the influence of your names and your example,
in a cause  so intimately blended with your personal happi-
ness and prosperity, and having so important a bearing upon
your future professional success.  Let me exhort you, gradu-
ates of Geneva College, at this, the last opportunity which
will ever be  afforded me of addressing you collectively as
your friend and adviser—let me earnestly and most affec-
tionately entreat you to ponder deeply and thoughtfully upon
this momentous subject.   By the  solemn obligations you
have now assumed—by the duty you owe to those who have
trained you up from  infancy to manhood—by your venera-
tion for the memory of departed friends—by your hopes and
aspirations for the future—by your obligations to yourselves 
9
and to society, and as you hope for the glorious immortality
of God,—I charge you,—now and ever—shun the intoxicat-
ing draught!
   Let us turn now  to the consideration' of other matters
which will demand your  constant attention,  if you would
pass through life with the respect and esteem of the commu-
nity, and if you would be sustained by your own conscious-
ness of rectitude of action and of principle.  It is barely pos-
sible that, some among  you may regard this as the day which
is to free you from the trammels of laborious study—that in
the associations which  rise up to your view, you may see al-
ready in store for  you, a  rich and luxuriant harvest which
requires only the reaping  to repay you for years of toil and
labor—if such opinion  be entertained by any of you, believe
me, my friend, you are doomed to bitter and unceasing dis-
appointment;  such antic'pations will,  ignis-fatuus like, lead
you far  astiay from the true line of duty, and before your
frail barque has fairly entered upon the bosom of the ocean
of life, she will present an unmanageable wreck, tossed by
every contending current, till finally  she disappears amid
the billows.  Such anticipations, then, must not for  a mo-
ment be entertained, and whilst I have no wish to dampen
the ardor of a youthful aspirant to professional favor; whilst
I would rather cheer him in his onward course, and encour-
age him to sustain with calmness the many difficulties he
will have to encounter, yet is it proper he should be admon-
ished that, if he rightly regards the honor,  the dignity  and
the importance of his profession, his life must be one of pri-
vation, of patient endurance, of unceasing toil and labor.
  You are to remember that in closing your collegiate course,
the character  of your studies must to a certain extent be
changed; thus far you have aimed only for the rudiments, th« 
10
elements, the first detached principles of a medical educa-
tion—these you are now to combine and labor with, in order
that you may observe how the great fabric stands as a whole,
and if possible to evolve something new and valuable.   The
lessons you have thus far received are to be kept fresh in
your  memory, and hence they must often  be recurred to ;
your knowledge must be kept from decreasing ; but to in-
crease it, you must extend your researches to sources hith-
erto unexplored ; you are on no account to relax in your ef-
forts for the acquisition of knowledge,  and every leisure
moment is to find you the diligent, the devoted, the attentive
itudent.   The first few years of the young physician's life
i* an anxious and a trying season; but it is the season which
if carefully cultivated by reading, by  reflection, and by
thought, will be daily leading you along the avenues of time
in pleasant company, whilst you will thus  be daily better
fitting yourselves for the faithful discharge of the solemn
duty which  you owe yourselves, your country, and your
God—and thus, too,  you will enjoy the pure and exulting
satisfaction of an approving conscience,  whilst you will re-
ceive the grateful plaudits of an admiring world.  It is the
season, too, in the life  of the young physician, which, if al-
lowed to pass in inglorious ease, unmarked by effort, by ex-
ertion and improvement, when if he listens to the song of the
siren sloth, bearing in her train every vice which can degrade
the soul, will inevitably bear him onward to the great ocean
of the past, unwept, unhonored and unsung.
  Observe those two physicians—both are in the prime of
life—twelve years ago  they started together in the race for
fame—one possessed the influence of wealth, of family, of
friends, with the advantages of a commanding and vigorous
intellect, a  polished education  and  varied and extensive 
11
knowledge—the other possessed none of these adventitious
aids; by dintof industry and perseverance at a mechanieal
occupation, he was enabled to acquire a medical education,
and but few then thought of the poor mechanic—now mark
the change!  time has rolled on; one abandoned study when
he left  the school;  he depended on resources which have
failed him;  he fell behind his profession, and now plods his
weary way,  a mere practitioner of habit, with scarce profes-
sional reputation enough to shield him from contempt—the
other never for a moment relaxed his efforts, but continued
to apply himself with increased vigor to his professional
studies, and although not endowed with  the  same natural
abilities, nor possessing the same advantages as the former,
he has far outstripped him in the race, and now stands among
the foremost of his age in the  profession, thus illustrating a
familiar truth, that distinction is to be regarded more as the
result of moral effort, than of intellectual superiority—rather
of the  fixed determination, than of the mere ability to ac-
quire it.
   A point of great  importance to you when you shall com-
mence the practice, is to cultivate the society and good feel-
ing of the well-informed of your professional brethren, and
to elicit from them,  as much as possible,  the results of their
experience in practice; in this way you may often acquire
knowledge that will be useful to you in every day life, and
which may also extend your usefulness to others.   It is un-
fortunately too frequent an occurrence in these days, .to meet
with young men  fresh from the schools, who pride them-
selves upon their modern learning, who entertain  high no-
tions of their medical acumen,  and who are apt to look
with improper feelings upon what they are often pleased to
term, the antiquated notions of old  practitioners.    It is an 
12
unpleasant sight to witness a popinjay in physic setting him-
gelf up in the face of gray hairs and experience.   Granting
a young man to be talented, and to be well grounded in his
profession—to have had superior advantages, if you will—
yet modesty is inseparable from worth, and the young man
who oversteps its bounds will find when too late, that he has
over-estimated himself,  whilst the community have placed
him precisely at his par value.   Let your intercourse with
your seniors,  then,  be marked  by the  most scrupulous re-
gard tj  propriety,  and  thus you  will not only secure their
esieem and respect, but you will find that if required, they
will cheer, encourage  and support you.
  On the subject of good feeling towards one another among
members of the profession in general,  I have a few words
to  say.   It has  often been remarked of medical men, that
thsy are apt to display too much, a want of harmony among
themselves, and thus a stigma is cast upon the whole profes-
sion.  There is no doubt that occasions very frequently oc-
cur where physicians do very honestly differ "in professional
sentiment; these differences, if judiciously examined by the
parties themselves, might generally be  very readily adjust-
ed;  but I think I have almost  invariably observed that
there  is a third party, to open, or at  least to widen the
breach,  and if physicians were less heedful of trifling com-
ments, often innocent in themselves, and which are usually
misinterpreted,  and always magnified,  we should hear less
of this want of harmony.   Let me advise you, gentlemen,
when you enter upon the practical duties of life, ever to
bear in mind the respect you owe yourselves, and the respect
which is due to others—never allow yourselves  to be be-
trayed, even unconsciously, into an unkind word or an unjust
comment on a professional brother—pursue the even  tenor
of your way, and your own good sense will mark out for you 
13
the line of duty and propriety.   If in faithfully pursuing
such a course you should hear of professional comments on
yourself, of criticisms upon your practice, or of severe stric-
tures upon your operations,  that they were either too pro-
tracted, or perhaps too rapid, and hence more hazardous to
the safety of your patient;  or  even if you should hear of
charges of a more  serious  nature from such a source—do
not allow yourselves to be betrayed into any show of feel-
ing; do not stoop to dignify the ebullitions of jealousy and
ill feeling with the appellation of slander ; betray no  irasci-
bility of temper; pass such things by as the idle wind which
harms not, and  looking down  from the   proud eminence
on which you stand, conscious of the strength of your own
position, the correctness of your own actions, and the purity
of your  own principles, pity the frailties  of a weak and
erring brother, whilst you may safely leave him to the work-
ings of his own conscience, and the discriminating judgment
of the community.   Of this you may rest  assured, that in
the practice of medicine, you will find ample room for the
exercise  of the benevolent affections; and mildness of man-
ner, gentleness of disposition and evenness of temper,  are
indispensable requisites in the formation of the character of
the good physician.  This, therefore, is another argument
why you should keep clear of those petty professional  squab-
bles and  jealousies,  which unhinge and ruffle the temper,
and which are only indulged in by men of little minds.
  Again, not only are your studies of a character to elevate
and refine the feelings, but they are calculated to " raise the
genius and to mend the heart"—watch the student as he un-
ravels the mysteries of his own  formation ; see the compli-
cate yet  beautiful machinery of man;  mark the perfect
symmetry and harmony in the structure and functions of or-
gans; trace  those  " silver chords" which link the mental 
14
with the corporeal being;  observe the perfect adaptation of
all its parts to the great purposes of life, and he sees the im-
press of an Almighty hand, stamped in characters of living
light; and in turning from  the handiwork, to the contempla-
tion of the Supreme Architect, he is ready to exclaim in the
language of the King of Israel, " I will praise thee, for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made."
   Before concluding, I would remark, that when you  look
around upon the continual changes in the profession of medi-
cine which have been occurring ever since you commenced
its study;  when you reflect upon the daily progress  it is
making towards its completion  as one of the certain scien-
ces ; when you see almost daily some new light thrown upon
some one of its branches, as in the art of diagnosis ; in pa-
thological anatomy; in the therapeutic-application of reme-
dies ; some brilliant achievement in the field of surgery, or
some new and valuable therapeutic  agent  from the labora-
tory of the chemist, or from the indigenous materia medica
of your own country, the  necessity for keeping pace wU3i
the progress of improvement, will point to you the necessity
of cultivating a knowledge of the periodical literature of the
day.  Unquestionably great benefit has resulted to the pro-
fession,  and thereby to the community at large, from the
numerous and ably conducted medical journals of our coun-
try, through whose columns we have early intelligence etf
all that is passing in the medical world at home and abroad,
and of every  new and  interesting  fact, which we are  thus
enabled to put early to the test of practice.  I would there-
fore call  your attention to the importance  of supplying
yourselves with one  or  more of these works immediately
on settling down in practice, and as  far as your opportuni-
ties and ability will enable you, to become an early <5Q&-
tributor to them. 
15
  Within the last few years, through the instrumentality of
these invaluable channels of communication, every branch
and every department of science has progressed with gigan-
tic strides—the schoolmaster has indeed been abroad, and
he has wandered over an extensive surface—the chemist in
his laboratory has unfolded many of  the hidden secrets of
nature ; the mineralogist and the geologist have carried their
researches through regions teeming with the richest treasures
Of creation's God ; the botanist has culled the choicest flow-
ers,  and twined a wreath of beauty around the  Christian's
head;  the mariner, by square and compass, has traversed
in safety the pathless deep;  the astronomer has fixed his
gaze upon the vaulted canopy of heaven, and the planets in
their revolutions, the stars in  their fixedness, the  sun, the
moon, the laws which govern all, are beautifully revealed to
us—and with one universal shout, the chemist and the geolo-
gist, the mariner and the astronomer, unite in a single voice—
" Hallelujah  to the Most  Highest."
   It becomes you, therefore, to emulate the bright examples
which you daily see around you ;  to bend all the eneigies
of your mind, in the effort, however feeble, still further to
extend research through all the intricacies of learning and of
science—and if you go forth with this firm and fixed resolve,
you  lay a sure foundation for future usefulness—your labors
cannot be in vain;—the offerings you may lay upon the altar
of science will give you a title to respect and gratitude, and
your names  will  be inscribed among  the  benefactors of
mankind.
  Lingering as we are upon the threshold of a moment which
must soon be  passed—the kindly intercourse  which has
marked our acquaintance, and the intimate relations which
have so long existed  between us, so near an end! I feel it is
a painful and a trying duty to  bid you farewell.  Thoughts 
1G
 of the past come flitting in quick and rapid succession across
the pathway of memory—thoughts, too,  of the future can-
not be repressed.  I see you in my mind's eye, each arrang-
ing  for your separate departure from your -beloved  Alma
Mater-^I see, too, the big round tear rise from the deep re-
cess in which you would fain bury it,  as you grasp for the
last time, the hand of your old college chum—I see the deep
heaving of the manly bosom and hear the painful sigh of re-
gret, at parting from preceptors and friends—yet amidst such
a scene,  which is calculated  to soften and subdue our feel-
ings, and to call forth some of the nicer sensibilities of our
nature, there is much to cheer and animate us !   We behold
in the distance the rich bow of hope!  the tints of the spec-
trum are perfect, giving token of the promise!—may it con-
tinue to illumine your path in the up-hill of life—may its
subdued and steady beams be reflected as you travel down-
ward in the vale of years—and when the summons comes—
when the vesper-bell of life  is tolled—and when the last
trump shall sound, may you be awakened to the enjoyment
of the glories of that celestial light, which burns with unfa-
ding lustre in the regions beyond.the grave!
'                              v
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