The reciprocal obligations of professors and pupils : an introductory lecture / delivered by Thos. D. Mitchell ... November 3d, 1845.

  • Thomas Duché Mitchell
Date:
1845
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The reciprocal obligations of professors and pupils : an introductory lecture / delivered by Thos. D. Mitchell ... November 3d, 1845. 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 as part of this plan, I would also propose a revision of all existing laws, touching the conferring of degrees in medicine, so as to authorize, and require every medical faculty to cite before it any alumnus, charged school, whose settled policy has been and now is, to multiply its num- bers, at ail hazards. By its agents sent to all points, and by its travel- ling Professors, it holds out the inducements of a grand cheap shop, where goods can be had, at any price, or no price. Young men are sought out, and matriculated, whether they can read or not; (see Resol ■ utions of 21 Physicians of Louisville,) and furnished with tickets of admission, on credits varying from eighteen months to three years. Those who have attended at another school, and are in debt for their first course, are hunted up, received as candidates, and at length graduated, in utter disregard of all the rules and qualifications, observed in schools of honorable bearing. The cheap shop to which we refer, has done more to disgrace the profession of medicine in less than ten years, than ten conventions could do in the way of reform and eleva- tion. Its trickery at home and its trickery abroad, are now matters of public notoriety ; and we warn the unwary, that they will neglect no device that may avail to augment their show of numbers. Who can doubt that doctors made at suck an establishment will partake, more or less, of the characteristic marks of the proprietors? The present organization of this so-called Medical School has been so seriously assailed by the most respectable physicians around it, that great fears are entertained, lest the desired change in the City Council may thrust out the entire Faculty, and give the institution to honest men. Moved by this appalling prospect, one of the caitiffs of the concern has made extra efforts, traducing the characters of men whose talents he envies, because he has none that any honorable man would like to possess; and governed by his all-absorbing quality, the love of money, he has put himself forth as the little intriguer for the Faculty, ready to visit steamboats, and hotels and coffee-houses, to impose on young men who have money by false statements, and to seize on such as can pay nothing, in order to swell the catalogue to such dimen- sions as to intimidate the- City Council, and prevent the dreaded revo- lution. The immortal author of the Course of Time, has well- delineated this non-descript, chemical nothing, in the shape of a man: His tonguo was set on fire of hell, his heart Was black as death, his legs were faint with haste To propagate the lie hia soul had framed. Yet did he spare his sleep, and hear the clock Number the midnight watches, on his bed Devising mischief more: and early rose And made most hellish meals of good men's names. It is high time for the public to know the true character of the great medical cheap-shop of the West, and to see to it, that the machinations of the establishment shall no longer decoy their sons, and disgrace the medical profession, so irrecoverably, that its ultimate position wdl be ar inferior to that of the humblest mechanic art. The Medical School of Transylvania disclaims the glory of a great cheap-shop. She prefers to be paid for 150 to 200 pupils, who, from the fad of payment will better estimate their profession, than to have