Practical suggestions as to medical study : being the introductory address delivered at the opening of the Medical School, Edinburgh, for the session 1869-70 / by D. Argyll Robertson, M.D.

Douglas Argyll Robertson

Date:: 1870

Credit: Practical suggestions as to medical study : being the introductory address delivered at the opening of the Medical School, Edinburgh, for the session 1869-70 / by D. Argyll Robertson, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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$Why do we know so little of the exact mode of action of remedies ? Why are we so ignorant of the natm-e of cholera ? Why have we so little acquaintance with the morbid conditions which lead to what we term diabetes? What is insanity? What causes epilepsy? What, again, is the nature of fever-poison ? What the materies morbi of tetanus, of hydrophobia, of chorea (if there be any such) ? And, above all, what are the agents by which we are one day to counteract these poisons, and neutralize them as they are generated ? I could suggest unnumbered points, many of them of the greatest interest and importance, which you might investigate, and upon which you might found an undying reputa- tion \ but let those I have indicated suffice. Any one of them, if properly worked out, would make you remembered while time lasts. Let this be your ambition; but remember, that while all do not achieve such success, there awaits every man the opportu- nity of quiet, thorough, unostentatious fulfilment of duty, and that these moral things in truth rank higher than the greatest intellectual achievements. So let those who aim at higher things never forget the apparently lesser ; and let those who feel themselves constrained to avoid the paths of ambition never forget the dignity of the work they are called to do ; and remember, Grentlemen, that in work well done you are not only doing your duty by yourselves, but doing your duty by your neighbour and in the sight of the Supreme Judge who watches over all our careers. EDINBUROU: PRINTED BY OLIVER AND UOVD.$