An introductory address delivered at the Charing Cross Hospital Medical College, October 1, 1857 / by Edwin Canton.

  • Canton, Edwin, 1817-1885.
Date:
[1857?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introductory address delivered at the Charing Cross Hospital Medical College, October 1, 1857 / by Edwin Canton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    waking dreams by night ? Probably the very in¬ tensity of his application may have given rise to the symptoms, the removal of which calls for the aid of the medical attendant; his spirit, as is often the case with men of genius and superior attain¬ ments, may be too powerful for his bodily frame, the casket too frail for the precious gem within : and who so capable of ministering to the mind diseased as he who has slaked his thirst at the same classic fount, and thus rendered himself keenly alive to the more hidden points of diagnosis than one who has never felt the burning zeal which kindles in the breast of the student whose re¬ searches after knowledge are but too likely to render him indifferent to the preservation of his bodily health ? Nor is this a visionary idea; it is formed upon a knowledge of the sympathies of human nature which always yearn towards men. of kindred pursuits; and it is a principle of action which will often effect more to render medical treatment successful, by operating on the mind, than will the skilful exhibition of drugs by one who is not possessed of this master-key to the hidden springs of the human heart. It must not be imagined that I am unadvisedly advocating the necessity for indulgence in these collateral pursuits, when the medical studies which are more especially to occupy your attention might be considered, in themselves, sufficient to engross