Address delivered to the graduating class of the Indiana Medical College : at the public commencement, Feb. 18, 1847 / by M. L. Knapp.

  • Knapp, M. L. (Moses L.), 1799-1879.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address delivered to the graduating class of the Indiana Medical College : at the public commencement, Feb. 18, 1847 / by M. L. Knapp. 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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    The first question before you for decision is, where shall you settle? It is an important one. It involves so many considerations, and cov- ers such a field of results, that the motive finally determining the choice will be the cynosure of your destiny. An error in the commencement of a mathematical calculation vitiates the whole process; so may an error in the outset vitiate your career. As a governing principle in choosing a location, I advise you to seek a rich and populous district; or if your inclinations lead you to be among the first on the ground in some newly opened region of the west, let there be peculiar advantages, as navigation, water-power, mineral wealth, &c. promising the most certain and rapid advancement. Avoid more than you would the pestilence, a poor, sparsely settled, incapable region, where listless in- activity might supercede energy ; where intellect might slumber; and where in the idle and tedious probation of waiting for business, foul weeds might spring up in the mind and choke your professional aspira- tions. Your success will mainly depend on the numbers that dwell around you, and on their ability to pay for your services. All other considerations are of secondary importance compared with these.— There may be a choice, to be sure, in places possessed of these requisites, arising from personal adaptedness. One Physician may be better adapted to city life and practice, possessing a more disciplined ability in the art of prescribing, and leaving prescriptions to be compounded by the Apothecary; whilst another may prefer a country life and prac- tice, and can compound and dispense extemporaneously, with acquired facility and tact, and with a satisfaction or security he might not feel entrusting these matters to another. Taste, habits, education, &c, grounding a preference in good and sufficient reasons, will guide you here. It is important that there be no fault in the place in the abstract; for should you find after a few years trial, that your location was an un- favourable one, much of your time and efforts, thus far, would have been spent in vain. It is a serious evil to be obliged to break up and begin anew. The advantages of a good location will be especially felt and prized by you in the further prosecution of your scientific and philosophic in- quiries. To be out of the reach of, and out of the way of obtaining, a particular author or piece of apparatus, when inclination might prompt to investigation, would be a great impediment. The favourable mo- ment when moved to engage in researches would pass unimproved, and the first step, perhaps, of a series that would have led to some