Address to the graduating class of Rush Medical College on the nature, utility, and obligations, of the medical profession : delivered February 7, 1850 / by John Evans.
- John Evans
- Date:
- 1850
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Address to the graduating class of Rush Medical College on the nature, utility, and obligations, of the medical profession : delivered February 7, 1850 / by John Evans. 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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![[4] In giving you our parting address, no subject seems more- appropriate for our consideration, than the nature, utility, and obligations of that profession, the cultivation and practice of which, is to be the business of your lives. Permit me, there- fore, to call your attention to a few thoughts; 1st upon the na- ture of the science that we study and teach: 2d, upon the utility of the art we inculcate and practice, and 3d, upon the rspon- sibilities imposed by the office of Physician: on each of which, 1 must necessarily be brief. There is, in the public mind, a well settled conviction of the necessity of efforts for the relief of the afflicted, which not only has the sanction of Him who said they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick, but which has existed in all ages and countries since the time when man partook of the fruit Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into the world, and all our woe. This conviction has always secured patronage to those who pretend to the art of healing, whether they relied upon the agency of religious rites and ceremonies, superstitious incan- tations, the royal touch, the empirical use of medicines, or the well directed remedial agents, of the scientific physician.— Medicine as an art, then, however rude, has existed *' time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, but as a science, it cannot boast of such high antiquity; yet having originated with the cultivation of letters, being one of the elements of civilization, it has a growth of over two thou- sand years. The science of medicine at the present day comprises all the facts which throw light upon the health and disease of man, and the means of preserving the former, and relieving the latter. It consists of several departments, each of which is a science of itself. But as it has been the object of years of](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21118334_0006.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
