Lectures on the principles and practice of surgery, as delivered in the theatre of St. Thomas's Hospital ... Taken in short hand / [Sir Astley Cooper].

  • Cooper, Astley, Sir, 1768-1841.
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on the principles and practice of surgery, as delivered in the theatre of St. Thomas's Hospital ... Taken in short hand / [Sir Astley Cooper]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    equally so in the country, for there the practitioner is obliged to inspect the preparation of his medicines, and, necessarily, must be often in his shop. But general education, so essential to our profession in particular, is making rapid and desirable advances, whilst ignorance flies fast before it. I particularly request the young pupils, whose friends have at great expense prepared them for an honourable and lucrative profession, not to lose their precious time in idle and vain amuse- ments ; and while they have those opportunities which our hos- pitals afford, to keep their attention steadily fixed on the various branches of science which are essential to a knowledge of sur- gery, and not suffer themselves to be led away from the true path to eminence by the idle and unthinking: for, I ask them, how they can, on their return home, look their friends in the face, if they have neglected their duties? But, on the other hand, should they conduct themselves with good sense, and apply with diligence to their studies, they will receive their just reward. I have probably known ten thousand members of the faculty in the course of my professional life, to whose partiality I attri- bute my successful progress, more than to any merit of my own: and I should be wanting in gratitude if I did not acknowledge it. I have observed that well-directed assiduity will surmount all difficulties: you should not be deterred in your efforts, even by poverty, for it isa great stimulus to exertion, and to regularity of life ; all, however, will not be equally studious, for some will be fluttering in the boxes of another theatre, or come here only to interrupt their more steady fellow-students, But I will not suffer it as long as I have the honour of lecturing in this establishment : no man shall interrupt another with impunity. Perhaps some who are fashionably dressed may think proper to look down with a feeling of contempt upon the students whose attire is plain and more modest; but should such a feeling exist, I would advise such persons t6 pause a while, and consider what it is that makes one man superior to another in this profession. When they com- mence their career of public life, the plain, industrious, intelligent young man goes slowly but steadily in the right track of his pro- fession, and rises to respectability, perhaps even to a high rank ; on the other hand, the fashionable lounger, who neglects to im- prove himself, ands his. want of knowledge and his bad habits equally retard him ; instead of rising, he sinks lower; his friends disappear, and at last he falls into obscurity, reduced to a pitiable