An introductory lecture delivered on the opening of the session of the Medical School, Charing Cross Hospital, London, October 1, 1852 / by Edward Smith.

  • Smith, Edward, 1818?-1874.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introductory lecture delivered on the opening of the session of the Medical School, Charing Cross Hospital, London, October 1, 1852 / by Edward Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. Gentlemen— It would scarcely be fitting if so rare an event as the opening of a Session should take place without some formality. As Students, many of you have, during the past months, laid aside the book and the scalpel, and with your angling rod have wiled away your hours on the bank of some favourite sti-eam; or, it may be, have wandered over gi'ound trodden by you in your boyhood's days, and endeared to you by many cherished associa- tions. You have revelled in all the joyous peacefulness of your earlier homes, and regaled on the pure air, and the yet more tangi- ble good which Nature has plentifidly provided in her country nooks. During this period, I can conscientiously acquit you of any intention to study—aye, of even the remotest inclination towards it; and believe that the very remembrance of the Charing- Cross Hospital anatomical room would be ejected with in- effable deffout. Now, however, the scene is changed, and you are called upon to doff the easy jauntiness of the young country squu'e, and to assume, at least for the time, the demure and care-worn aspect of the laborious student. As Teachers, it affords us great gratification to meet you once again, and to see your ranks thronged with new faces, and to offer to you a hearty welcome to the School and to the benches, which you will find well marked with the enduring memorials of your illustrative predecessors; but we cannot forget the ease in which we have lately luxuriated, and, in spite of ourselves, we cherish a lurking desire to continue it, and look a little shy at the labours which a long six-months' Session is about to impose upon us. Since, however, we must, willingly or unwillingly, be again united to tlie tunnoil of professorial engagements, it is only fitting that the wedding-day should offer the occasion presented by all wedding- days, of trying for a few moments to beguile ourselves into a very happy future.