The mutual responsibiilties [i.e. responsibilities] of physicians and the community : being an address to the graduating class of the Medical College of the University of Michigan : delivered March 27th, 1856 / by Henry P. Tappan.

  • Henry Philip Tappan
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The mutual responsibiilties [i.e. responsibilities] of physicians and the community : being an address to the graduating class of the Medical College of the University of Michigan : delivered March 27th, 1856 / by Henry P. Tappan. 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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    to require the gifts of learning. In the Middle Ages, when they were fully and distinctively developed, the professors or teachers belonged also, generally, to these professions. In our age they claim, no less, to be learned professions, although sciolists may creep into them; and, certainly, they demand, no less, all the discipline and preparations of learning. And if we were to point out one of them as demanding, beyond the others, the basis of solid learning, as well as the unceasing prosecution of learned studies and investigations, we would point out the profession of Medicine as that one. In its wide reach, it lays almost all science and literature under contribution. Its history can be traced only by an extensive knowledge oi languages. Its history and treatises can be written only by those who possess high literary accomplishments. [f philosophy, in the strictest meaning of the word, be de- manded by any profession, it is demanded by one so inti- mately connected with both the physical, and the intellectual and mora] constitution of man, with anthropology, and with the morbific and remedial agencies of nature. As to the exact sciences, if in any case they be required for the rigid and manly discipline of the mind where they cannot be directly applied in professional pursuits, then the medical student may not wholly discard them; for he, surely, should possess firmness and clearness of mind, and the ability to reason with an unerring logic. In the Inductive Sciences, no one will deny that the phy- sician finds his natural and appropriate field. Consequently the principles and methods of inductive investigation and reasoning should be familiar to him. By the daily duties of his profession, he is led to the nice and accurate observation of phenomena and the exact application of principles He is also invited to original investigations, and enjoys opportu- nities oi enlarging the boundaries of medical science, by add mg to the facts upon which it is based.