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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    [18] raan, to suffer and to do. It is the bliss which as the world cannot give, it cannot take away, as it cannot manufacture, it is unable to destroy. Such a conscience stands opposed to remorse, to moral cowardice, to shrinking meanness. It is associated with, and akin to every thing noble and good, and sublime in nature and art, in the moral and the phys- ical universe. It enjoys the star spangled heavens, the towering Alps, the boundless ocean, the green island, the life-like creations of the painter and the sculptor, the gorgeous palace, the solemn temple. Elo- quence, and poetry, and music, these are the breathings of its sister spir- its, and it communes with them and responds to them with a tranquil rap- ture which thought may conceive, but language can never portray. The fact is, that a pure conscience is the only lasting joy; it is the only thing which ean cheer you unid the trials of life. These you will have, no conduct, the result of the calmest and most sapient forethought can shield you from the ills of mortality. There does not exist for man a balm which can heal, much less prevent sorrow and misfortune. They must come, the primal curse must be borne, we must suffer and after a while die. But at all times, and under all circumstances, the consciousness of duty performed will afford the purest pleasure, smooth 1 he ruggid path and sweeten the bitter cup of existence, and enable you to bear the ills you cannot avoid. Do not, I beseech you, carry home with you in the spring the remorse of a misspent winter. Before concluding, I hue a few things to say of the Medical Depart- ment of the St. Louis University. It has been built up by the individu- al exertions of its professors. It has never asked or received aid from «ny other source. Several thousand dollars have been expended in the purchase of a lot, the erection of buildings, and procuring of suitable apparatus for teaching. It is now amply prepared for teaching; and we had hoped that all that was necessary to its success was industry on the part of its professors. It offered its services to the medical public as the fair and honorable rival of its sister institutions, resting its claims to p/.tronage on its intrinsic merits. Its ability to afford adequate med- ical instruction would, we had supposed, be the only required passport to public favor. But it seems that its enemies, afraid to assail it in this quarter, have appealed for aid in its destruction to the blind spirit of re- ligious bigotry. They have made the wonderful discovery that it is a Catholic school ; and endeavor to direet against it all the prejudice that exists against the Catholic church. This is unreasonable and unfair. Do not Catholics and Protestants teach the same anatomv, physiology and practice of medicine ? Do they not take the same drugs in the same doses ? Are they not a Hi oted with the same maladies ? Medical schools have nothing to do with Catholic or Protestant religion; they teach medicine, not theology. How foolish or dishonest, then, to urge against a medical school that its lecturers arc Cadiolie or Protestant, and that its charter is derived from aCath>die or Protestant college! ! But perhaps some will argue that to aid in tho building up of a school in