The principles and practice of surgery / by Sir Astley Cooper.

Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles and practice of surgery / by Sir Astley Cooper. 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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    Attention and perseverance to study. Motives to study. The contrast. there the practitioner is obliged to inspect the preparation of his medicines, and, necessarily, must be often in his shop. But general education, so essential to our profession in particular, is making rapid and desirable advances, whilst ignorance flies fast before it. I particularly request the young pupils, whose friends have at great expense prepared them for an honourable and lucrative pro- fession, not to lose their precious time in idle and vain amuse- ments; and while they have those opportunities which our hospitals afford, to keep their attention steadily fixed on the various branches of science which are essential to a knowledge of surgery, and not suffer themselves to be led away from the true path to eminence by the idle and unthinking; for, I ask them, how they can, on their return home, look their friends in the face, if they have neglected their duties ? But, on the other hand, should they conduct them- selves with good sense, and apply with diligence to their studies, they will receive their just reward. I have probably known ten thousand members of the faculty in the course of my professional life, to whose partiality I attribute my successful progress, more than to any merit of my own; and I should be wanting in gratitude, if I did not acknowledge it. I have obseiwed that well-directed assiduity will surmount all difficulties: you should not be deterred in your efforts, even by poverty, for it is a great stimulus to exertion, and to regularity of life; all, how- ever, will not be equally studious, for some will be fluttering in the boxes of another theatre, or come here only to interrupt their more steady fellow-students; but I will not suffer it as long as I have the honour of lecturing in this establishment: no man shall inter- rupt another with impunity. Perhaps some who are fashionably dressed may think proper to look doAvn with a feeling of contempt upon the students whose attire is plain and more modest; but should such a feeling exist, I would advise such persons to pause a while, and consider what it is that makes one man superior to another in this profession. When they commence their career of public life, the plain, industrious, intelligent young* man goes slowly but steadily in the right track of his profession, and rises to respect-
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