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.........■mi •—* " "—•
           AN
1/
INTEODUCTOEY ADDEESS,
DELIVERED AT THE
         OPENING
                OF THE

ANNUAL  COURSE  OF  LECTURES
                OF THE

   COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS,

           IN TIIE CITY OF NEW YORK,

         OCTOBER  19th, 1857.
SAMUEL ST.  JOHN, M. D.
      Professor of Chemistry.

NEW YORK:
VTTNKOOP, HALLENBECK & THOMAS, PRINTERS,
        No. 113 Fulton Street.
           1858. 
I 
   At a meeting of the Class of 1857 and 1858, ol the College of Physicians and
Surgeons, held October 21st,  on motion of Mr. R.  II. Ilinman,  Mr. C. P. Russel
was appointed Chairman and Mr. R. F. Weir Secretary of the meeting.  The fol
lowing resolutions were then adopted:

   1st.  To appoint a Committee to  confer with Professor Samuel St. John, and to
solicit for publication the manuscript of his Introductory Address, delivered Octo-
her 19 th.

   2d. That Messrs. E. P. Whitney, C. Phelps and J. H. Thompson be that Com-
mittee.

   Agreeably to the above resolutions, the following correspondence was entered
into:

Prof. Samuel St. John :
   Sir:—As representatives of the Class  of 1857-8 of the College of Physicians
and Surgeons, we have been delegated to request from you, for publication, a copy
of the Introductory Address pronounced before us on the evening  of the 19th inst.
Should the request be honored by your approval, we shall take great pleasure in
communicating the result.
                                               CH. PHELPS,
                                               EDWARD P.  WHITNEY,
                                               J.  HARRY THOMPSON.
   October 26th, 1857.
Messrs. Cn. Phelps, Edward i\ Whitney, J. Harry Thompson:
   Gentlemen:—I accede to the request of the Class, expressed through their Com-
mittee, for the publication of the Address, with the hope that it  may serve to
illustrate,  in some humble measure, the fitness and importance of mental discipline
in (he student's preparation for the responsibilities of professional life.
                                                     SAMUEL  ST. JOHN. 
 
ADDRESS.
Mr. President and Gentlemen :

  On an occasion like the present, I might be expected to com-
mend to your favorable regard that branch of Science with whose
supervision and administration, in  this Institution, I am honored.
  If this branch of Education  were new, or if the general senti-
ment of the profession and  of  mankind  had not been decidedly
expressed in its favor, I  should feel it  incumbent upon me  to
attempt a plea in its defense.  But, since it is  neither novel nor
destitute of public favor, I have deemed it not inappropriate to
ask your attention to  the  general  philosophy of the  processes of
Education—a topic of vital  interest to the well-being of society,
and which has elicited the widest discussion, not only with the
view of improving details, but  of placing the whole system upon
a rational foundation, in accordance with the spirit of the age, and
the constitution of the human mind.
   I propose, briefly, to consider the peculiar claims which Natural
Science has to be considered a branch of liberal Education, and
the important purposes  it may subserve  in training the mind for
efficient action.
   It may be viewed:  I. In  reference  to  the immediate discipline
of the powers of the  mind.   II. With reference to certain intel-
lectual  habits which the study is fitted to form and strengthen; and,
III.  In its manifold relations with the useful arts and  the econo-
my of life.
   I. The physical sciences are not  only pleasing  subjects  of 
6
ADDRESS.
 contemplation to the mind,  but they  conduce to its  thorough
 discipline  and fit it for successful  action.   The  most obvious
 thought, suggested  by reflection upon the intellectual relation
 which  man  sustains to the material universe,  is,  that he  com-
 mences his existencs entirely destitute of knowledge, but endowed
 with a mental appetite, and surrounded by objects fitted to stimu-
 late and gratify inquiry.  The object of Education is, to render
 the mind an  efficient instrument for the discovery and application
 of the laws  to which the Creator  has subjected  the universe.
 That it is practicable to train the mind to greater skill in the dis-
 covery  and application of these laws, appears  from the fact that
 the human mind is so constituted that certain processes of thought
 are better adapted to the discovery of truth than others, and that
 the reasoning powers are rendered more efficient by exercise.   Just
 in proportion as the  student acquires skill in the use of his reason,
 is his progress in knowledge.   It is not merely the  knowledge
 which physical science conveys, and the value and extent of its
 applications,  but  from the nature  of  its  methods and  reasonings,
 from the power and  energy of the agents employed, and from the
 striking character of the phenomena, all eminently calculated  to
 awaken curiosity and fix  the attention, the mind of the student,
 instead  of  being  forced to a compulsory exercise, is led, by the
 interest it feels in the subject, to exert  itself in a way eminently
 calculated to  invigorate its powers of attention, observation and
 reasoning.  Every one, who  is  at all practically acquainted with
 the business of education,  is well aware of the difficulty of fixino-
 the attention  of the student.  The vivacity of the vouthful mind,
 arising from the acuteness of its sensations, continually attracts it
 to external objects.  Now, in  the study of natural  science, the
 senses are made purveyors to the mind,  and  facts and principles,
 deduced, as it were, by its  own observation, give the greatest accu-
racy and precision to the  ideas thus acquired.   Natural history
has been termed a science  of observation, and such, in a restricted 
ADDRE SS.
/
sense, it undoubtedly is—as a definition, however, it is partial and
insufficient.   Should the naturalist  confine his attention to the
external forms of objects, to the compilation of a dictionary of
their names, together with the uses  to which they might be ap-
plied, he would manifestly overlook the essential philosophy, the
splendid truths which  give dignity to the science.  All branches
of science, however varied  may be  their materials, or diversified
their nature, have but  one  object in view—the discovery of the
primary laws of nature.   By  a  series of  legitimate  deductions
and generalizations, the science, which, in the early state of devel-
opment, was one of observation, becomes  one of demonstration,
and as such claims kindred influence with the mathematics in de-
veloping and disciplining the reasoning powers.  The remarks of
Baron Cuvier, on  the influence of this class of study in forming
habits of mental  discipline, are striking and pertinent.  "The
habit naturally acquired," says that  great man,  " in the study of
natural history, in the mental  classification of a great number of
ideas, is one  of the advantages  of  the science that  has seldom
been observed, and which, when it  shall have been generally in-
troduced into the  system of education, cannot fail to be appre-
ciated.   By it the student is exercised in that part of logic which
is termed method, just as he is by geometry in that of syllogism.
 Now, this art of method, once  well acquired, may be applied  with
infinite advantage to studies the  most foreign to natural history.
Every discussion  which supposes a classification of facts, every
 research which demands a distribution of topics, is performed ac-
cording to  the same  laws."   A notable  instance, in which the
fitness of these studies for  awakening the  dormant faculties and
developing a disciplined and well  furnished  mind, has within  a
few years engaged public attention,  in the  case  of Mr. J. P.  Nor-
ton, late Professor of Agricultural Chemistry in Yale College.
 " We  were  much interested," says a writer of a biographical
sketch in the New Englander,  " in  the account of his first scien- 
8
ADDRESS.
 tific study, which we received from Theodore Dwight, Esq., who
 had the direction of his studies the first winter he was sent from
 home.  Mr. Dwight says,  'In my first interview with him, I found
 he had a decided aversion to every branch of study, especially
 Latin and Greek.   I sought for some  pursuit in which he might
 feel some interest, but went through the whole  range of sciences
 and literature  without success, when  at last I mentioned min-
 eralogy.  There I found him  alive and  willing to answer ques-
 tions, and I soon  learned that for two years or more he had appro-
 priated his money to  the  purchase of  minerals, and had a large
 collection.  I inquired anxiously  how he had arranged them, and
 he replied that he had made three attempts to  arrange them ac-
 cording to their colors and names, and found that they could not
 be classified at  all.  I assured him of the contrary, and told him
 that the proper principle was that  of their composition.   He im-
 mediately inquired how any one  could know what stones were
 made of.  I explained, in a simple manner, analysis and synthesis,
 and promised him that he should begin the next day to decom-
 pose minerals, and (what pleased  him  more, although he did not
 half believe it  possible) compound and form  some for himself.
 Henceforth there was no want of interest in his studies, and from
 the hour of this conversation he  became one of the most hard-
 working scholars  of his time.'  Professor Andrews adds, (Ohio
 Journal of Education, vol. II., p. 12):  ' His previous studies of
 grammar  and arithmetic, Latin and Greek,  had all been to no
 purpose, because  the vibrating chord  of his intellect had not
 been touched.  This  once touched, and there were sympathetic
 vibrations through his whole  soul.  From his mineralogy he
 passed on from  one science to  another, and from the acquisition
of one language to another, until  his attainments  were most en-
 viable, and at the  early age of twenty-four  he  was chosen Pro-
fessor of Agricultural Chemistry in Yale College.   Although his
career was very brief, he was doubtless the ablest  teacher in that 
ADDRESS.
9
 department in our country, and made his influence felt through-
 out the land, by awakening an  unceasing  interest  in  scientific
 agriculture.' "  It should ever be remembered, that the senses are
 the immediate purveyors of the mental powers.  As the Creator
 has formed the universe partly for the education of the human
 soul, He has completed his plan by giving to the soul the senses,
 to act as its instruments in receiving education.   Accordingly, the
 various sciences which are used  for developing  the intellectual
 powers are based upon the intercourse which the mind, through
 the senses, holds with the material universe.   Now, the only way
 in which these sciences can  be well understood, is by mingling,
 with the study of books, a sufficient leaven of original observation
 and experience to imbue the whole with life.   The studies of our
 school-boy  days are to a great  extent abstractions, employing in
 a slight degree the  evidences  of the senses,  while  the natural
 sciences, by training the mind to habits of watchfulness and atten-
 tion, tend to  impart  that power of discrimination which consti-
 tutes, in no small degree, mental superiority.   We know that ac-
 curacy and activity in business, that  skill in  every art, that the
 correctness  and life of most literary and scientific description and
 illustration, depend upon  the training  of the senses; and  that
 throughout the student's whole life, whether it  be  when,  as a
 lively child, he is attentive only to feeling  and the works of na-
 ture, or when he has become an adult, and mingles reflection with
 observation, or when the man has lost the  acuteness and  strength
 of his bodily  organs  in  the infirmities of  age, and lives only in
 memory and meditation, the character and condition of his mind
 are  most decisively  influenced  by the intercourse he has held,
 through the medium of his senses, with external nature.   Do we,
 then, exaggerate the importance of those sciences, as  branches of
 education, which strengthen and sharpen the senses, and thus give
vigor and keenness to the mind, enlarging  the  sphere of its  use-
fulness and enjoyment ? 
10
ADDRESS.
   II. I proceed to consider the relation of this study to certain
intellectual habits, which it is fitted to form and strengthen, with-
out which little can be expected from the  richest native gifts of
mind.   There is a philosophic  spirit  or habitude of mind which
is far more valuable than any limited acquirements of knowledge.
The acquirements will fade from the memory, unless their impres-
sion be frequently renewed, but  the  disposition  or character of
mind to which they give birth will be enduring.   As  in chemis-
try two substances combine and produce  a  new body, different
from each of the constituents, so our aptitude for the attainment,
appreciation  and enjoyment of knowledge  combines with  the
human soul, constituting a  portion of its spiritual power, and is
as imperishable as the mind itself.
   1. This study tends to establish the habit of patient thought,
of fixing the attention upon any subject of investigation, and of
retaining it in mind till all its various bearings and relations have
been fully examined—of holding it in the focal point of illumina-
tion till it glows and burns.   This constitutes the genius of inves-
tigation and reasoning on all subjects.   Nor  is there, probably,
any habit of mind more prolific in  discovery and invention—
more truly characteristic of  a great and powerful mind.
   2. A second habit of mind, necessarily induced by this study,
and allied to  the former, is that of accurate and  persevering ob-
servation ;  a quick discernment, accustomed by practice to distin-
guish differences which  an  ordinary observer would  overlook.
The importance of this habit and of its early formation is apparent,
from.the fact  that the want of it proves fatal to all high attain-
ments.  As no pursuit requires more observation or greater nicety
of discrimination than that of Natural Science, it is pre-eminently
fitted to qualify the mind for the application of the acuteness and
judgment, thus acquired, to  the pursuits of  subsequent  life, which
may call for the exercise of sound reason and just discrimination.
The student, who  has been taught to receive as true only what is 
ADDRESS.
11
the result of observation or experiment, will be in little danger of
being led away by the insidious arts of sophistry, or of having
his mind bewildered by fanaticism or superstition.   The knowl-
edge of facts is what he is taught to esteem; and  no reasoning,
however specious, will induce him to receive as true what appears
incongruous, or can not be enforced by demonstration.
   3. Another habit of mind, naturally consequent upon this pur-
suit, is  that of enthusiasm, the foundation of an ardent, inquiring
mind.   There  is an inexpressible satisfaction, an intellectual  de-
light, in the pursuit of truth, which few but the philosopher can
understand.  This luxury of the soul, as it has been well termed,
belongs especially to  the pursuit of Natural Science.  He who
studies  the forms of Nature has before  him models of perfection.
He has not to consult popular taste or arbitrary opinion as to the
value or  importance of his pursuits.   He has before him  truth i
his sole business is to analyze and classify all the parts and rela-
tions of that truth.   If, indeed, all truth be not attained, yet, with
superior minds, the very difficulty of attainment serves but to in-
crease the ardor of its pursuit.  Whoever enters upon this study
with proper  views, and pursues it with  intelligence and success,
rarely looks back, but is continually urged on by the discovery of
new and wonderful truths which fill his mind with ennobling
emotions. Nature has her history written on her very lineaments;
a history so interesting that the most splendid fictions of human
imagination sink  into  insignificance when compared with it, as
human  productions must when compared with the works of the
Creator.   The study of Nature  leads its real votaries, by the plea-
sure derived from the observation of her ordinary phenomena, to
the deeper delight afforded by the contemplation of the unity of
design and the harmony of all her relations.  Then it is that new
susceptibilities to some of the purest and  most exquisite mental
pleasures awaken in the breast, and we become conscious of senti-
ments and powers before dormant and unknown.   A wide survey 
12
ADDRESS.
 of the operations of Nature, in their sublimities and beauties, fur
 nishes such a conception of the wisdom displayed in their origin
 and maintenance as compels our admiration.   The  demonstra-
 tions of power, evinced by the  desolating tornado and  terrific
 earthquake, strike us with awe, but are scarcely more convincing
 than the skill and wisdom manifested in the silent combination of
 the gases, in the  exquisitely graceful figures of crystals, and the
 perfection of organization  discernible  in  some of  the  minutest
 forms' of vegetable  and animal life.   Chemistry teaches us that
 the  oxygen which kindles  ordinary  combustion  is the same
 principle which purifies our blood, evolving  animal heat, and •
 sustaining the  steady flame of life; while the same  particles  of
 carbon are found successively in the mineral, vegetable and animal
 kingdoms,  coursing a  ceaseless round, illustrative of  Nature's
 method  of maintaining stability  by incessant  change.    If we
 minutely examine a drop of water by the aid of the  microscope,
 we find  it crowded with myriads  of animalcula?, deriving  suste-
 nance and finding  ample scope  amid  its uncounted particles;
 and if we proceed to analyze it by superior attraction,  we find
 that in the mild  bosom of its  compound  state there are  locked up
 two of the most energetic elements known—oxygen, the supporter
 of combustion, and hydrogen, the most combustible of all sub-
 stances.  To the eye of cultivated  intellect, every part of creation,
 beams with rays of light, and glory, and  beauty.  The  enthusi-
 astic zeal of every true student of science testifies that his  pursuits
 are of the highest interest, and is a sure promise to the beginner,
 who sees but  dimly into the system of Nature, that knowledge
 will, in itself, be a sufficient  reward.  For the highest success in
 the pursuit of any object, there must be a sincere love of the object
 itself.  The student, the thinker, the author, who  is true to his
 vocation, loves the truth which he seeks to develop, embody and
 enunciate.   He  labors not for mere subsistence nor for fame pri-
marily.   These may, indeed,  result from his labors, and he may 
ADDRESS.
13
 welcome them, but truth is higher and dearer in his estimation
 than they.   Newton, sitting half a day on his bedside, with  his
 fast unbroken, rapt in a problem of fluxions; Bacon, taking  his
 death-chill  in an  experiment to test the preserving qualities of
 snow; Linnasus, studying the Flora of the Arctic Circle in place;
 Cuvier, a lordlier  Adam than he of Eden, naming the whole ani-
 mal kingdom in  his museum, and reading the very thought of
 the Creator after  him, in their wondrous mechanism ; Pelletier,
 laying  down his  life in an attempt to demonstrate the fitness of
 Chlorine for respiration; Franklin and Davy, wresting the secrets
 of Nature from their inmost hiding-places; these, and hundreds
 of others similar,  attest the power of these studies to elicit enthu
 siasm, and  engage the hand and heart in the service of Truth—
 he Truth as she appears in the works of God, as seen in her sub-
 limities or her beauties, in her world-poising might, as she moves
 among the  spheres, in the  mysterious  laws that combine a uni-
 verse, and spell it to harmony ; or in her seeming trivialities, as
 she condenses the damps of the summer evening in glittering
 dew-drops,  or paints with tints of lustrous beauty the tiny insect
 that floats in the sunbeam.  Truth is, indeed, the  one legitimate
 object of all intellectual  effort; to discover and  apprehend, to
 establish, present  and  commend it, are  the processes  and end of
 study.  To discern the things that really are, to distinguish reality
 from appearance and  illusion, is the  business of educated  mind.
 It is one of the most  insteresting facts in the history of science,
 that almost every great and central truth which we  now possess
 has been secured by the enthusiasm of some gifted man, upon
 whom its discovery has conferred immortality.   To  discover it,
 years have been consumed in the study and laboratory, until the
 single truth  shone forth with established lustre.   Galileo spent his
 life in vindicating  the Copernican  system, and perfecting the tel-
 escope ; Harvey, in defending the circulation of the blood; Jen-
ner, in the  defense of the theory of vaccination; Lavoisier,  in 
14
ADDRESS.
 establishing the correct view of combustion.  A burning love of
 the  truth, for the truth's own sake, inspired them, and such an
 enthusiasm it is one of the benign effects of the pursuit of science
 to awaken in noble minds.
   III. The third branch of the topic named was, the numerous
 and varied  relations which  this study bears to the economic arts
 and the welfare of mankind.
   It has been said, with classic beauty and truth, that every vista
 in the ample domain of  science should lead to a temple dedicated
 to the benefit of man.
   Devotion to works  of practical utility seems to have been a
 striking feature of the Saxon race ever since their  character was
 distinctly developed by the progress of civilization.  The Ger-
 mans have been chiefly remarkable for patient  study, profound
 research, abstruse speculation, and critical analysis, in all subjects
 which can afford material, slight  or solid, for intellect to work
 upon; the French have addicted themselves very much to the
 pursuit of the agreeable, the beautiful, the exhilarating in man-
 ners, literature and life; while the English have been distinguished
 rather for sober and laborious attention to whatever is substan-
 tially useful to man, as  a physical, intellectual and social being.
 They have not, indeed, neglected the elegances of literature, nor
 the  pursuit of pure  science; but they  have left upon them the
 strong impress of a passion for utility. And for the Anglo-Saxons
 in America we may,  perhaps, without vanity, challenge the honor
 of having improved somewhat on the parent English utilitarian
 stock,  the  very  circumstances of our  origin  and history as a
 people having tended strongly to develop this characteristic.
  The difference, between man in a state of nature and in a state
of advanced science, is  almost as great as that between distinct
orders of beings.  With the  former, the visible world  is filled
 with prodigies, and the invisible w7ith imaginary beings.  Objects
 and events, which, familiar to  us from  our childhood, create no 
ADDR ESS.
15
 apprehension, fill his mind with  dread and amazement.   Every
 event becomes a mystery to him whose cause he knows not, and
 whose tendency he has no means of anticipating.   Diseases attack
 him, from  causes which he does not understand, and carry their
 fearful desolations through his frame in a manner which he can
 neither  trace nor control.  The thunder rolls  and the lightning
 rives the sturdy oak by an invisible influence which he cannot
 explain.  An earthquake or volcano is equally an object of dread,
 whose origin is inscrutable.  To his view, the stars of night shine
 with unmeaning splendor or merely excite inquiry whether they
 exert an occult influence over the fates of men.   But when science
 has shed its light upon his mind, each one of the objects which
 once affrighted him takes its place among the things known to be
 adapted  to promote his welfare, and to furnish him security and
 happiness.  Nature, no longer full of gloom and terror, has turned
 her fiends  to friends.  The restless spirits of superstition are dis-
 cerned to be the vapors of a mind oppressed by its  own imagin-
 ings.  Relieved of this incubus,  man begins to examine  the
 changes in the world around him—which he attributes to some
 secret and malign  influence of invisible beings—traces them to
 their true causes, and makes them tributary to his comfort  and
 intellectual advancement.  The once much dreaded eclipse is now
 accurately  predicted, and intently watched to determine great
 problems of astronomy and navigation.   The elements he subjects
 to his control;  and on every hand innumerable agents rise up;
 with greater precision and  power than  those of living beings, to
 aid him  in the accomplishment of his purposes.   Disease  and
 danger he learns, by the aid of science, to evade or control, while
he scrutinizes the heavens  and  the earth, the mineral, vegetable,
and animal kingdoms, to make all tributary to the expansion of
his mental  powers, and to the advancement of his social welfare.
This difference,  between man  in  a state of  barbarism and man
aided by the powers which modern science has placed at his dis 
16
ADDRESS.
posal, we are prone to forget, for at our birth we have been intro-
duced into all the benefits which have resulted from the scientific
discoveries of past times.   We have not been witnesses of the
slow growth of science, of the struggles and conflicts which each
of its principles has encountered, before it has been enabled to
acquire the ascendancy,  and exert its  appropriate influence on
the welfare of society.
  The contrast presented by ancient and modern philosophy, in
their  direct influence upon the physical welfare of  mankind, is
most striking;  and to the  modern views of the object of science,
as well  as the modes of pursuing it, we owe nearly all  its rapid
advancement.   The differences of physical and medical science in
ancient times and at the present day are traceable almost  exclu-
sively to this.   Until the time of Lord  Bacon, the true object of
science seems not to  have been recognized, and the fundamental
tenet of his inductive philosophy was  hailed  as an innovation
upon the lethargic systems of ancient  philosophy.  While  the
ancient philosophers busied  themselves with discussions respect-
ing profound, mystic, ideal schemes, and endless abstract theories
of perfection, disdaining all  contemplation of processes  of  nature
or art which might  be made to minister to the physical  benefit
and comfort of  mankind,   Bacon affirmed the  true  object  of
science to be, the  advancement of the welfare of man, the mitiga-
tion of  the  annoyances of human  life, and the accumulation of
scientific discoveries  and achievements for enriching the human
race.  Utility, which was ignored or scorned, as degrading ancient
philosophy, became the dominant purpose of modern science, and
has ever since proved the mainspring of  its  progress.   Nor can
we attribute its rapid advancement to the superior endowments of
its  cultivators.   The ancient  philosophers have left  abundant
proofs of intellectual powers adequate to the successful  investiga-
tion of  the  laws of nature—admirable  specimens of logical and
rhetorical skill—but, amid all the treasures of classic lore, we seek 
                        ADDRESS.                      17

in vain for any rational explanation of the phenomena of nature,
with a view to the physical welfare of mankind.  In  the healing
art, what was  more obvious  than the study of the human frame
by dissection, educing the laws of its normal structure, constituting
the sciences of anatomy and physiology ?  Yet, so far as we can
learn, dissection was not  practiced by the ancients. What system
of investigation was more promising than that which accumulates
and collates facts respecting diseases, arranges them by patient
induction, discovers their laws and furnishes the basis for attempts
to restore to a state of health ?  Instead of this, ancient medicine
consisted  in attempts to  ward off disease, and, failing in this, its
efforts to  cure the sick were rare and impotent.   Another differ-
ence between  ancient and modern science is conspicuous in  their
relations  to the  mass of the  people.  The former was confined
to certain privileged classes,  constituting a  philosophical caste,
wholly isolated from  the interests and sympathies of the commu-
nity, and  the knowledge of scientific truths was perpetually liable
to perish with their discoverers.  But the scientific discoverers of
the present day find ready access to the  public mind; incorpora-
ting themselves  in its thoughts and feelings, and modifying  its
acts, they can  never be obliterated.   It is related of Phidias, the
famous Grecian sculptor, that in carving the statue of  Minerva,
the tutelar divinity of Athens, he so engraved  his  own image
upon her shield that it could never be effaced without destroying
the shield and essentially marring the  statue.   In  like manner
the principles of modern science are deeply graven upon the fea-
tures of society, and  so  pervade its texture that  they can never
be removed without its destruction.   How can the knowledge of
Sir Humphry Davy's safety-lamp ever perish ?  Not only does  it
daily guide ten thousand miners in safety amid the explosive fire-
damps of the mines, but,  as a guardian angel, warns them of their
approach  to danger.   How can the knowledge of the  mariner's
compass be blotted from the memory of man ?   Every hour it
        2 
18
ADDRESS.
guides the vessels of all nations with unerring certainty.   When
can the knowledge  of the use of steam be forgotten?   Every
ocean, lake, and river, every art and nation acknowledge its power,
and the plans of all civilized nations, whether for war or peace,
for commerce or manufactures, for ambition or pleasure,  involve
its use.   When shall the knowledge of that property of electricity
become obsolete, which as the swift messenger, in the electro-mag-
netic telegraph, proclaims its utility by annihilating space and
time?
   The science of chemistry affords as striking illustrations as any
which can be adduced of the value  of a proper aim and correct
method of investigation.   It was  formerly an  occult art, full  of
 mysterious and anomalous processes, based upon absurd theories,
and seeking to accomplish  contradictory results.   Instead of a
tissue of absurdities, incapable of reduction  to any rational prin-
ciples, it is now,  in the highest sense, a science.  Its  laws have
 been examined and ascertained with great accuracy,  and are sus-
 ceptible of demonstration with as much clearness and facility as
 the laws of  mechanical  philosophy.  So eminently practical has
it become, that its beneficial effects  are  realized in almost  every
 department of life.  By its  aid, medicinal compounds  have been
 purified and concentrated, until no excuse remains for the incom-
 patible nostrums with  which the apothecary's art formerly abound-
 ed.   By analysis  it reveals the  dangerous  nature of the choke-
 damp of wells, mines and  illy-ventilated  apartments, while  its
 safety-lamps have arrested the fearful waste  of human  life, for-
 merly involved in the extraction of coal.  It lights up our dwell-
 ings with  brilliant gas,  reduces  the ores of  valuable metals,
 bleaches or imparts the never-fading tint, and, with the aid of the
 subtle sunbeam, perpetuates the most fleeting forms.   It  discloses
 the nature of air, earth,  fire and water—of the products of vegeta-
 ble and animal life.  It has not, indeed, yet discovered that ignis
fatuus  of the  alchemists,  the  philosopher's stone, which was  to 
ADDRESS.
19
 transmute all substances into gold, but it has accomplished for us
 far more valuable results, in improving art, in the departments of
 medicine, agriculture and  manufactures, and in disciplining  our
 mental powers, by the study of its phenomena and laws.   The
 secret science (as it was called) has escaped from the mysterious
 closets of the monks, and become an habitual accompaniment of
 every department of life, revealing its presence in the atmosphere
 we breathe, and in all the processes of domestic economy.  Less
 than a century ago,  the composition of the atmosphere and ocean
 were  unknown to  philosophy; the identity of electricity with
 lightning was scarcely established; the wonders of galvanism and
 electro-magnetism were not conceived,  and that the same agent is
 the basis of chemical action was not conjectured.   It  is unneces-
 sary to trace in detail the causes which led to these changes in the
 object and pursuit of the science.   The principle of that philoso-
 phy, which aspires to render science useful to man, runs through
 them all, and no sooner had chemistry renounced  the vain and
 chimerical dreams of alchemy, than, fearless of the public  gaze,
 she  abandoned  her  hiding-places  and stood forth  in the broad
 light of science.

 Gentlemen of the Medical Class :

   In  performing the  pleasing duty assigned me, of welcoming you
 to this Institution  at the  commencement of its annual course of
 instruction, it seemed to me that  no more  appropriate theme for
 reflection  could be suggested, than that which would fix  your
 attention on the course of  training to which you purpose to sub-
ject yourselves, and  which is to be. the great work  of your lives.
 You  resort  to  this Institution  for what purpose?  To prepare
 vourselves, you will, perhaps, reply, to become physicians.  But
 has it occurred to you to inquire into the fitness or design of your
exercises here?  Have you become personally convinced that the
» 
20
ADDRESS.
great principles of medical education  are  the  true ones?—that
they are true because they are founded in the intellectual nature
of man ?  Do you, in your daily mental exercises, reflect that by
these processes eminent success is attained, and human knowledge
and happiness advanced.   The design of these exercises is, whether
you are aware of it or not, to render your minds fitter instruments
for discovering and applying  the  laws of the Creator.  This de-
sign is accomplished  whenever the  original powers of the mind
are thoroughly cultivated  by use.   But the improvement of the
memory, which to some of you, perhaps, seems the whole object of
education, does not of necessity strengthen the power of discrimi-
nation or induction.  The law on this subject  is universal, that
every separate faculty is strengthened and rendered more perfect-
exactly in proportion as it is  subjected to habitual and active ex-
ercise.   The sciences  which  you here pursue are of peculiar
utility in this point of view, from the very manner in which
they must be investigated.   They can be pursued with success
only by patient examination of facts ; their object is unalterable
truth, to be  derived from  oft-repeated observations, and accurate
deductions, imparting to  the  mind  a habit of  observation, most
difficult to acquire, but of inestimable value.  Valuable as the
information  may be, with which you may store your minds whilst
pursuing your studies,  it is as nothing when  compared with the
invigoration  of the powers of your understanding, and their in-
creased aptitude for application, which will be the certain results
of an assiduous and enlightened training of those powers.   Your
mental habits are of more importance than your acquisitions.
The importance of mental discipline, in  connection with profes-
sional reputation and success, has been too little regarded; and
especially in this advanced period of the  history of professional
science is it  a great error in any young man  to suppose that he
can rise above mediocrity without a thorough  cultivation of his
intellectual powers.   The  general principles  of the profession— 
ADDRESS.
21
results as they are of the study, experience  and wisdom of suc-
cessive generations—are, to a great extent, settled upon so firm a
basis that they are in very little danger of being overthrown, by
dreamy speculations or visionary theories.  Medical philosophy is
a science in the strictest sense of that term—classified facts;  the
result of the most rigid induction of facts gathered by the most
careful experiment and accurate observation.  Its practice involves
processes of the most severe logic.   Too long, for the  interests
of humanity, has it  been believed, that, while  thorough  intellect-
ual culture and  mental discipline were indispensable to success in
other  professions, the issues of life and death might daily hang
upon the inconclusive reasoning of an untutored mind, which has
spent a few months  in undirected medical reading.   But, it may
be asked, if an accurate memory and diligent reading have fur-
 nished that mind with the requisite facts, is it not fitted for action ?
 By no means.   Of what service would the best furnished armory
 be to him who knows not  how to use  a single  piece ?   A mind
 filled to repletion with facts, without that skill in the use of them
 which is the result of mental discipline, is deplorably imbecile in
 all its efforts—an elaborate  piece of machinery  with no moving
 power.  Every year is adding to the amount of learning connected
 with the profession.  It is idle  to pretend that  there are not, at
 this day, valuable sources  of information, to the examination of
 which the most industrious life  is hardly equal, and without an
 acquaintance with which no one  of the profession ought to hope
 to secure the confidence and command the respect of his fellow-
 men.  A knowledge of diseases and their remedies, or an  acquaint-
 ance with the writings of those who have been distinguished in
 the various departments of the profession, never has  been, and
 never will be, attained  by intuition.  Nor can it be the work of
 a day or a  year—it is the labor of a life.   The last half century
 has produced a great change in the medical profession.  It has
 opened new sources of instruction of the most valuable  character, 
22
ADDRESS.
and elevated  Medical Science to  a high and dignified position.
To the credit of the age, it may be said that more liberal views are
entertained, in regard to medical education and thorough qualifi-
cation for professional respectability and usefulness, than  were
formerly cherished.   It is now  a  common sentiment, that while
great pains are taken to secure the services of  men of talents and
learning in the pulpit, and those of the most skill in the legal pro-
fession, it is unwise to entrust life  and health to the guardianship
of ignorant pretenders.   With any other views than those which
embrace the increasing responsibilities of stations you contemplate
occupying, you will degenerate  into listless students, and  mere
practitioners of habit and empiricism.  As  you value your own
success, and the lives and  happiness of those who may be commit-
ted to your care, permit no opportunity to escape of thoroughly
disciplining your mental powers and securing all the knowledge
that is  attainable by energetic and diligent study.   Be assured
that the pleasure  you will derive from  the daily conviction that
you are acting on the sure basis of conscious strength and inform-
ation, will be a source of perpetual enjoyment.  Neither  should
you be content with garnering up the results of previous labors in
the cause of Science, but strive to bear at least some humble part
in  enlarging that intellectual treasury whose magnificence and
wealth are  freely opened to you.   I have called  your attention
to  the fact that  the Science of the present generation is the  ac-
cumulated fruit of the patient study of thousands of minds  all
guided to one end—the improvement of the human  race.    From
the period when the alchemist brooded  over  his  mystic  rites,
in  indefatigable but vain  search after the brilliant phantoms of
his dreams, to that in which  Davy and Dalton have  demonstrat-
ed not merely the quality but the definite  proportions of the
elements  of the  most complex  substances,  the long interval
has been  filled  up,  and  the  wonderful  conclusions of  science
attained by the incessant  mental toil of numerous, acute, patient, 
A.
                        ADDRESS.           '  .         23

and daring intellects through days of thought and nights of watch-
ing.   Great men, during a long train of ages, have accumulated
and transmitted to  you this more than regal  heritage, through a
line far more illustrious than any ancestry ever blazoned by her*
aldry.  Instead of  inflating your  vanity, let  this consideration
incite you to high resolve and manly action.   If  you find your-
selves to be debtors to the past in an almost incalculable amount,
will you not feel stimulated to the desire of paying  some part of
the debt, by services to the present and the future?  Others have
lived  and toiled for us—it is for us to live and labor for others.
Do you say that  you lack genius for such exploits?   Yet these
achievements were  wrought by minds like your own.   In those
periods in which science has advanced with the greatest rapidity,
the same discovery has been made independently  by several indi-
viduals at the same time.  This teaches us  that the  laws then
discovered pointed out the next step in discovery, and thus that
talent common to many was able to accomplish what the highest
endowments in intellect had previously found to be impossible.
Men often possess a greater share of genius than they are willing
to give themselves credit  for.   Newton, the  prince of philoso-
phers, owed his success, at  least, in his own estimation,  to his un-
tiring  perseverance, rather than to any superiority  of natural
gifts.   Nor should the  want of time be objected, when it  is
remembered that many have acquired an honorable distinction as
men of science, with whom philosophy has been only the recrea-
tion of their leisure hours.   The pressing cares of a diplomatist,
and the consciousness that a nation's destiny was  hanging, in an
important sense, upon the  fidelity with which he served its inter-
ests, could not prevent  Benjamin Franklin from turning aside
often  to  converse with Nature.  That well-earned wreath which
he will ever continue to wear while experimental  philosophy has
its votaries, or  respect is paid to science, may be said  literally to
have been woven of those remnants and shreds of time which 
24
ADDRESS.
by many are given to listless vacuity, to some trivial amusement,
or to the cravings of a vitiated appetite.  There is no doubt  that
those  splendid  attainments in astronomical  science which made
our countryman, Dr. Bowditch, a  denizen of both hemispheres,
which gave American science a name and place in European esti-
mation,  and which caused his death to be so deeply deplored
throughout the scientific world, were owing to his untiring indus-
try and  rigid economy of time.  Instances  of a similar nature
might be adduced from almost every walk of science.
  The profession, gentlemen, to which you  aspire is worthy of
your  respect, because of its usefulness; of your  love, because of
its intimate alliance with the virtues which follow in the  train of
benevolence; of your veneration,  because it reckons among its
ornaments many of the most powerful  minds, whose existence is
graven on the records of history, and because of the vast amount
of profound truth and sublime speculation which distinguish it as
a science, and signalize its achievements as an art.  If, with such
a view of the calling, you labor with assiduity to  fit  yourselves
for its responsibilities, you cannot fail of your reward.  Whether
wealth or poverty be your lot, whether you pass your lives sur-
rounded by a throng of admirers, or in the solitude of  neglect,
whether you are loaded with  distinction, or live obscurely use-
ful, you will  enjoy the ineffable satisfaction of the assurance
that "the blessing  of him  that was  ready  to perish has come
upon  you."
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