Oration on the guidance of a sound philosophical spirit in the investigations of medical science : Read before the Cincinnati Medical Society, Jan. 4, 1837.

  • Harrison, John P. (John Pollard), 1796-1849.
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Oration on the guidance of a sound philosophical spirit in the investigations of medical science : Read before the Cincinnati Medical Society, Jan. 4, 1837. 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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    exhibit. Besides, our profession opens up to the mental powers a rich perspective of view, along the pathway of which are profusely distributed the most attractive truths, which can engage the mind of man in this sublunary scene. The science of medicine presents to the active and executive faculties a rich field for their most noble and assiduous toil. So that both in the contemplation of truth, and in the practical application of truth, the physician, who loves his profession, and who strives to be useful to his suffering fellow-be- ings, may ever expatiate in pleasurable emotion over that allotment of life which he has chosen. 0! but the toils, the anxieties, the har- rassing perplexities of our profession! The ingratitude of the pub- lic! their preference of ignorant presumption to modest skill! the miserable pecuniary recompense, doled out with niggard hand, to our painful efforts on their behalf! Fond, puling, indolent complainer, cease thy plaints, If thus your abject spirit dwells only on the ills of your profession, abandon it; for, be assured, with such a quirulous, dejected, splenetic soul, you are not worthy this good, this glorious calling. But stay, ere you take your departure from our ranks, and endeavor to stir up in thy darkened spirit, by every cheering, ennobling consideration, drawn from the inspiring loveliness of truth, from the subduing appeals of suffering humanity, from the love of thy own happiness, an earnest, unconquerable, irrepressible, aspiration after the high rewards, tem- poral and eternal, which flow by the very constitution of your being, and the fiat of the eternal God, from the love of truth, and the prac- tice of virtue. Lift up thy down cast eyes, and in yon clear upper sky, what dost thou behold] There shine those great luminaries of our profession, whose light directs and animates our efforts in the cause of active benevolence. In imperishable glory the names of Sydenham, Rush, and other eminent physicians, are engraved in golden letters upon the temple of medicine. Their labors live in enduring remembrance in the minds of the profession. Their lives were consecrated to a bright renown, and their earthly career was radiant with the beams of a divine philanthropy. Hear the language of Sydenham, declaring that, the art of medi- cine is the best of all worldly gifts, and so much more preferable to all others, as life surpasses all the enjoyments it brings with it. Again, says this great and good physician, Upon deliberate and equitable reflection, I find it better to assist mankind than to be commended by them. And the illustrious Rush, clarum et venerabile nomen, after deep struggles and travail of soul in arriving at a correct conception of the