Valedictory address to the graduating class of Jefferson Medical College, at the fifty-first annual commencement : delivered in the Academy of Music, March 11, 1876 / by William H. Pancoast.
- Pancoast, William Henry, 1834-1897.
- Date:
- 1876
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Valedictory address to the graduating class of Jefferson Medical College, at the fifty-first annual commencement : delivered in the Academy of Music, March 11, 1876 / by William H. Pancoast. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![] 2 sion, that they are entitled to receive from it the aid they seek. To the immortal honor of our profession, it is commonly awarded with care and kindness, not only in hospitals and dispensaries, but in private practice, without fee or reward. A prominent French surgeon of other days, was called to give professional assistance to a great man of France. “ Bear in mind,” said this proud man to the surgeon, “ that you have not a hospital pauper under your hands, but the Prime Minister of France.” “Monsignor,” replied the surgeon, “ in my eyes, every poor patient in the hospital, is a Prime Minister of France.” He spoke but the common feeling characteristic of our pro- fession. Pray permit me to make you some suggestions, that may prove, useful in the furtherance of your future prospects. First of all things, avoid exclusive sects in medicine, and all blind empiricism. Recollect that there is but one science of medicine, and that sanctioned by experience; which includes all justifiable means of curing disease and alleviating human anguish. Should some of you give yourselves most to the pur- suit of surgery, you must not at the same time neglect your medical studies, for every surgeon has need also to be a good physician. Very many of you may be placed in rural dis- tricts, remote from clinics and hospitals,and will have to be oil occasions your own surgeon, ophthalmologist, gynecologist, auscultator, percussor, and laryngoscopist. Endeavor to keep up your anatomical knowledge, in all its varied relations to functions and diseases, such as we have endeavored to teach you. Keep pace as far as you well can, with the progress of the various sciences and the polite literature of the day. But let not this be done, to the disadvantage of your proper pro- fessional avocations. Though the world at large, is disposed to judge of a man in proportion to the excellence of his general accomplishments and varied knowledge, yet every one’s reliance in sickness, will be in the physician, who shows the greatest mastery of his art, and can most quickly relieve him when sick or suffering. Shall I conjure up a picture, such as I think that many of](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22353914_0014.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
