Medical education for the people and the profession : an introductory lecture / delivered by W. Sherwood before the Eclectic Medical class, in Greenwood Hall, Nov. 10, 1852.

  • Sherwood, Wm. (William)
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical education for the people and the profession : an introductory lecture / delivered by W. Sherwood before the Eclectic Medical class, in Greenwood Hall, Nov. 10, 1852. 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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    And here, permit me to appeal to you gentlemen, and through you, to the various communities you represent; and permit me also, fellow citizens of Cincinnati, in whose city our college is located, to appeal to you, and through you to the legislature of Ohio, for support and encouragement in our undertaking. The faculty of the Eclectic Medical Institute ask no high salaries; for although they do not feel, and will not be guilty of the affecta- tion of professing, indifference to pecuniary rewards, as is some- times done from the professor's chair; still for the sake of lib- eral principles, of true science, and of a rational American system of medication, we are willing to labor hard with no pros- pect of adequate pecuniary reward. But while we labor for the cause of reform, while we strive to enlighten the community and furnish them with competent physicians, let us at least have the satisfaction of believing that our efforts are appreciated, and that should we ever fail through excessive toil, or want of means, other hands are ready to sustain our excellent cause. And may we not ask even more than this? If our cause is right and our efforts proper, may we not expect to be seconded by material aid? We need anew college building, and must have one, so that we may receive all who apply for instruction; and not be compelled as now, to lecture eight months instead of four, for want of room to accommodate all our annual matricu- lants at one time. In this matter a small investment of the spare capital In your midst might do much in promoting this noble enterprise. And then will you not once more unite with us, as more than 10,000 of your citizens did last spring, in petitioning our state legislature for an equal participation in institutions supported by public funds? I mean the Commercial Hospital of Cincinnati, and the medical library of the state of Ohio, in this city. Could our repeated applications in regard to the hospital, se- cure a deserved response, a most prolific source of reliable statis- tical thuth would be opened to the public, tending directly to the dissemination of the very information which community need--. in regard to the relative success of rival modes of practice. As affairs stand now, every party publishes its own statistics, and neither having confidence in the report of others, and the public little in any of them, the matter is left in utter darkness. But let public hospitals like the one just referred to be opened to the different systems of practice, let separate wards be assigned to each, allowing patients the choice of the wards they will enter; Jet full and accurate records be kept of all cases of disease treated, the prescriptions and results; let these be published quarterly ; and thus let the people have official and reliable information ; and then let rival schools in medicine rise or fall by a truly adjusted scale of merit. Such gentlemen, is an outline of our plan for diffusing medical