Address delivered in the Masonic hall at the commencement of the first course of lectures of the Medical Institute of the State of Georgia / by Paul F. Eve.
- Paul F. Eve
- Date:
- 1832
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Address delivered in the Masonic hall at the commencement of the first course of lectures of the Medical Institute of the State of Georgia / by Paul F. Eve. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![G that in entering upon the arduous task winch we have taken upon ourselves, we have reflected, deeply reflected, on the re- sponsibility of our situation. Some of us arc indeed too young in years, and too inexperienced in our profession, to promise much as teachers of medicine. Others might Iiave been select- ed, whose talents and observations would have belter qualified them for the offices which we (ill: hut we have pursued no ex- clusive course: the door of admission has been opened to all, and if we.have apparently thrust ourselves upon the public, though humble be our origin and meek our pretensions, we hope we can say our opportunities have not been altogether contemp- tible^ and that our previous conduct promises industry and perseverance in the undertaking. We are free to confess our inabilities, but whether success attend our efforts, or the bitter cup of disappointment be onr portion, we are resolved to do our duty, happen what will. Feeling the necessities for im- provement, anxious to keep pace with the daily advancement of our profession, and to afford a better opportunity of investiga- ting the diseases peculiar to our climate, we are willing and ready to sacrifice our time, our labor, and if required, our mor- tified feelings in so good a cause. Were there no other profits to be derived from the experiment than in our individual prepa- rations and studies, this would even be a satisfaction, and we might glean some consolation from the rectitude of our conduct and the honesty of our intentions. But we arc cheered by the reflection, that similar Institutions have heretofore made their own men, by exciting that emulation which tends to our mutu- al advantage and to the promotion of our science. Confiding our enterprise in the hands of the disposer of all events, and whom we have this day invoked for its success, I leave this subject and beg your indulgence in making a few remarks on the present state of the medical professsion. The origin of medicine is involved in too much obscurity an uncertainty, and its history previous to the past half century, contains too many wild conjectures and unreasonable specula- tions, to offer much interest or profit in its consideration. It will be sufficient foi'oui'i)]ii'j)ose to know, that it must have been co-eval with the existence of human misery, and that it arose from the exercise of that heaven-born principle, which teaches us in feeling for the sufferings of others to attempt their relief— from the exercise of one of the noblest motives implanted with- in us—from the exercise of sympathetic benevolence. Though among the last of the sciences to be reduced to true philosophical principles, within the last fifty years, it has at- tained that degree of perfection which ought to convince the most skeptical of its importance and utility to the human race and the respectability of its cultivators in every counte-y ?s at leasts inducement to believe it an enlightened, a liberal and Europe' threc ^^^t Professors have visited the Medical Institutions of](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21118413_0008.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
