Universities and corporations under the new Medical Act : an address to the graduates in medicine at the conferring of degrees in the University of Edinburgh by the Vice-Chancellor and Senatus, August 1, 1860 / by John Hughes Bennett.

  • Bennett, John Hughes, 1812-1875.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Universities and corporations under the new Medical Act : an address to the graduates in medicine at the conferring of degrees in the University of Edinburgh by the Vice-Chancellor and Senatus, August 1, 1860 / by John Hughes Bennett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ADDRESS. Vice-Chancellor, Professors, and Gentlemen,— The duty of addressing the new Graduates in Medicine having once again devolved upon me, it is with no small pleasure that, in the name of the Medical Faculty, I congratulate you on the high degree you have this day received, and on the position you thereby occupy in the ranks of an honourable profession. The study of medicine involves a knowledge of the structure and functions of the animate creation, and more especially of man. It comprises an acquaintance with the laws which regulate his physical, moral, and intellectual nature. It conducts the mind to ever interesting, ever advancing, and ever instructive subjects of inquiry, and stimulates those who cultivate it not only to appreciate, but to discover and promulgate, all truths that can benefit humanity. Looking at the endless relation man bears to the earth which he inhabits, to the air he breathes, to the food and drink necessary for his sustenance—to his clothing, dwell¬ ing, habits, and the various pursuits which influence his bodily powers,—it must be admitted that the range of information necessary to the physician is one of vast extent. He is incited to the acquirement of this varied kind of knowledge, not only by the love of discovering truth for its own sake, but as the direct means of enabling him to benefit his fellow-creatures. There is, consequently, no profession which so eminently unites a tendency to intellectual improvement with the gratifying power of being serviceable to others. If, then, we believe with the poet, that happiness is u our being’s end and aim,” the study