An introductory lecture on surgery, delivered on Wednesday, 4th November, 1840 / by James Miller.
- Date:
- 1840
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An introductory lecture on surgery, delivered on Wednesday, 4th November, 1840 / by James Miller. 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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![]1 and acquired previous to and during the study of surgery ? and what ought to be the conduct of the surgeon while applying the knowledge to the practice of his profession ? In regard to the first question, I have used both the words “ possessed” and “ acquired,” meaning that some of the requisites are the gift of Nature, while others must be worked out by the individual’s own exertions. “ He must be young, or at most but middle-aged,” says Celsus. According to the maxim of Hippocrates, “ Vita brevis, ars longa;” and unless study be begun early, there is not time to arrive at excellence. If delayed, the student will have fallen into the “ sere and yellow leaf,” ere any great progress have been made in his attainments. Then, too, besides the want of time, there is a want otpower ; for it requires the energy and enthusiasm of youth to master volu- minous and intricate details, from the labours of which an advanced age would shrink in feebleness and despair. This truth is now so universally and fully acknowledged, that we find rather an aptitude to fall into an opposite error. A young man may be placed tco soon within the pale of medical study. Let him be diligent in obtaining an acquaintance with genera] literature in the first instance. His mind will thus be expanded, its powers cultivated and strengthened. He will no longer think as a boy, but as a man and as a gentleman. He will have obtained the faculty of concentrating his mental powers on a particular object, and retaining them so until its mastery has been completed; and prudence and discretion will accompany their application, culling what is good, and setting aside the vain and unprofitable. Then may his mind, thus strengthened and enlarged, be brought with the happiest effect to bear upon professional study. Let him begin as early as he please to the acquirement of general knowledge; but let him be restrained from the actual study of his profession until his mind have been, by healthful exercise, brought into the form suitable and necessary for solid and sure advancement. Let his progress be slow or rapid as it may ; but let it be solid, and let it be sure.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21916536_0013.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
