An address, delivered at the annual commencement of the Berkshire Medical Institution, Pittsfield, December 23, 1824 / By Rufus William Bailey.

  • Rufus William Bailey
Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An address, delivered at the annual commencement of the Berkshire Medical Institution, Pittsfield, December 23, 1824 / By Rufus William Bailey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    portant, then, he should feel foi4 the soul as well as the body.— How Important he should be able to drop on the anxious ear of the dying mao, that word, which he most needs to hear. Cicero has said that none but a good man, can be an orator. I would use the term in a stricter sense than Cicero could comprehend itr when { sav, every physician ought to be a good man. He performs some of the tenderest, most eventful, most religious duties. Let my physician then be a man, who has, as a foundation, the characteristics of true greatness, who has cherished and cul¬ tivated all that can exalt and dignify human nature, that he may be a man, whom I can confide in and love when I am sick ; who can administer to my soul when he can no longer help the body, who can take me up in prayer, in that trembling and awful mo¬ ment, when my tongue shall cease to speak what I feel, and my flesh and heart shall fail ; and who, when he can do no more, can commend me to the great Physician, and carry me by faith to the portals of the skies, where I hope to revive again, and experience no more sickness, nor sorrow, nor death. Then, having cultiva¬ ted and employed my powers while on earth, having sought and used the best means of prolonging life, I can feel, when I can no longer speak, that I have done my duty, and finished my course, and can lay down in the grave peacefully, ’till the resurrection. eminent advancement of the science. In some of our States, the bodies of all who die under sentence of the law, are given to the use of the surgeons. In this State, the selectmen of each town have a discretionary power to remove, or permit to be removed, any body from the grave. Although some have supposed this law Iiad a reference to occasional removals for dissection, we believe it was rather intended for the safe keeping of the dead, and for the accommodation of friends Avho might desire such a removal, or for the public convenience and safe¬ ty. At any rate, the town authorities would, in few instances, exercise their power beyond this. It is believed that a judicious law, framed with a reference to this subject,- might find otheivinstances, in which the public interest and safety might place in the hands of physicians, all the necessary means of knowledge. In England, and in France, it is often the case, that the living1 give to the surg'eon, a fee of their bodies, to be claimed at the moment of death ; and in many instances this must be said to be the best use they ever made of them. We do not say the law should recognize such contracts, nor forbid them—still we believe, there are practicable points, on which the law might reach this important subject, in all its extent, and in a manner by which the feelings we cherish, might be still more sacredly guarded;
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