Introductory lecture to a course on surgery, to the medical class of Geneva College, on the life and character of Barron Larrey : delivered December 6th, 1848 / by Professor Bryan.

Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory lecture to a course on surgery, to the medical class of Geneva College, on the life and character of Barron Larrey : delivered December 6th, 1848 / by Professor Bryan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    functions of the organs of organic life. He says that men with laree and soft brains suffer at sea more than those with smaller heads. On this voyage he became practically acquainted with the ne- cessity of free ventilation and great cleanliness on ship-board, and directed an efficient mode of curing scorbutus, which broke out on the outward-bound passage. All these observations were careful- ly dotted down in a diary kept by young Larrey, and remain to this day, when the hand that indited them is withered in death—a me- mento of the industry of the writer^^ I cannot let the present opportunity pass without cautioning you to keep a diary, in which the daily observations and transactions of life, which at the time of enacting appear so trivial, may be re- corded, and referred to in future yeai's. The diaries of Scott, By- ron, Rush, Franklin, and even Washington, are read with the great- est pleasure even at this distant day. Most of them were kept when the writers were young men and all unknown to fame. The diary of Dr. Rush gives us the only authentic account of the yellow fever as it appeared in Philadelphia in 1793 ; and this great phi- lanthropist and philosopher leaves the following strong-testimony in favor of every young man keeping a diary: So high is my opinion of the advantages of keeping a diary, as the best means of strengthening the mind and acquiring knowledge, that I wish it could be made an early part of education in all our public schools and colleges. A boy should never go from home, nor into company, without being obliged to bring back with him a written account of every thing he has seen and heard that was new to him—or rather, he should be sent from home and into company for the purpose. A more correct judgment might be formed of his talents, and of the specific character of his mind by this practice, than by his attainments from books. The natives of Mexico, tra- vellers tell us, discover the propensities of their children by first suspending the operations of their reason by means of strong drinks, and then throwing the tools of different trades before them. The tools they prefer to play with in this situation fix their occupations for life. A diary, by discovering the primary objects of attention in a boy, would be a more certain and delicate mode of determin-