An address, delivered to the students of Guy's on the commencement of the winter session, 1847-48 / by John C.W. Lever.

  • Lever, John C. W., 1811-1858
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An address, delivered to the students of Guy's on the commencement of the winter session, 1847-48 / by John C.W. Lever. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    mand him to put out his skill, and rescue their loved ones in the season of approaching death. He will at times be called upon to witness trials that will lacerate his heart, scenes that will cause his sympathy to gush forth. Perchance, he may be summoned to attend the head of a family, where the members of that family have their hearts wrung with intense anxiety, for he is oscillating between life and death; and as the medical man, with noiseless step, steals into the chamber, and notes the symptoms and state of the sufferer, “his very look will be watched, his very words caught with breathless earnestness, and these words will wing themselves to the souls of the hearers, either for sorrow or for joy/’ Believe me, I am not over- colouring the picture, for scenes like these have ofttimes been witnessed by many around me. Seeing then, the nature—the serious character of your re¬ sponsibility ; feeling, that according as your talents, in propor¬ tion as your medical education is extended or neglected, you may be messengers of mercy, dispensers of health, in the abodes of sickness, or be like unto the destroying angel, and be tracked by death and desolation, I feel anxious to point out to you the best means of acquiring that information, and attaining that knowledge, which, in seasons of emergency and over¬ whelming danger, will enable you to lend a speedy and effectual assistance, to be immediately and eminently useful: and, if your best endeavours prove unsuccessful, you will be consoled by the consciousness of having done your duty. All of you, I presume, have received a sound preliminary education, have attained a certain amount of classical and ma¬ thematical knowledge : the former you will do well still to cul¬ tivate, while the latter is essential to enable you to reason strictly and correctly on those phenomena which disease, under its various phases, will continually present to your view. The various branches of Natural Philosophy may have received some attention at your hands; but these should be closely studied, to enable you to understand the mechanism of this mighty machine ; to comprehend how the functions of life are carried on ; to interpret the various symptoms of disease; and to apply your remedies for the relief of both internal and ex¬ ternal ailments. It is true that a man may reduce a disloca¬ tion or set a fracture, in perfect ignorance of the laws that
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