An introductory lecture delivered in the hall of the medical department of the St. Louis University, November 4th, 1845 / by M.L. Linton.

  • Linton, M. L. (Moses L.), 1808-1872.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introductory lecture delivered in the hall of the medical department of the St. Louis University, November 4th, 1845 / by M.L. Linton. 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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    L16] the ladies liked most! It was easy to see what a few more years would do. Middle age came, the one arose to distinction like a phcenix from the ashes of his ancestry, the other sunk into quiet obscurity, and for- got his Greek and his Latin ! I can enjoy the spectacle of genius and poverty, triumphing over adverse fortune, but I cannot adequately por- tray it. It is heart-stirring, it is eloquent, it is poetical. It dilates the pulse, swells the bosom, moistens the eye. No nice arrangement of books on the shelves, no tasteful adjust- ment of office furniture, no fastidious adherence to arbitrary rules will ensure the acquisition of science.—Determine to excel; embrace op- portunities as they present themselves ; grasp whatever is nearest and best. When that is exhausted seek out other means of improvement; when the mind leans to any particular subject, pursue it with your might; when it becomes fatigued, turn to something else ; relax the mind by a change of studies—whip it to the task, if it be of immediate necessity; let the ultimate object to which all your efforts tend, be the acquirement of knowledge, and never mind keeping your offices or your persons particularly nice. This may be well enough for those who will never have reputation for any thing besides. St. Louis possesses in great abundance the means of professional im- provement. I do not propose to enumerate them in minute detail; but I cannot pass over the fact that the student can here see and contemplate from day to day, disease in nearly all its forms. That this daily obser- vation of it, this constant critical examination of the patients themselves, is necessary to the formation of correct practical ideas is not disputed by any one at the present day. We know persons and can again recog- nise and identify them after having frequently seen and conversed with them. From a mere description of them we could not do this. Wo can solve mathematical problems after having toiled over them and work- ed them out by the master's aid.—We could not be enabled to do so by the mere enunciation of principles, rules, and exceptions.—Just so with disease ; to understand it, we must see it, examine it for ourselves from day to day, under the eye of the teacher who is to direct the process, make suggestions, correct false ideas. The. Hospitals, the Dispensa- ry, and much of the private practice of St. Louis, afford ample means for this ; and the student who is wise will leave none of them unem- ployed. A small town does not afford these and other advantages which I need not mention, and hence small towns cannot expect to rival large cities in medical schools. The talents of individuals may sustain the former for a time, but with the progress of correct ideas they will fall into disuse and wither away. But for hospitals, medicine could not have made the progress which has characterized it within the past and present centuries ;—they are and have been the hot beds and nurseries of the science. But for the divine spirit of charity, we should not have had the hospitals. Who