A charge delivered to the graduating class of the Columbian College, D.C., at the medical commencement, March 22d, 1827 / by Thomas Sewall.

  • Sewall, Thomas, 1786 or 1787-1845.
Date:
[1827?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A charge delivered to the graduating class of the Columbian College, D.C., at the medical commencement, March 22d, 1827 / by Thomas Sewall. 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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    Universal temperance is incumbent on you, not merely as essential- ly requisite to preserve your minds in that unclouded state, which may render you equally able at all times to pronounce on the cases you may becalled to investigate, but because it is a virtue which you will often find it vour duty to inculcate on your patients, and which you will enforce with but little effect, if it is not regularly exemplified in your own conduct. Shun, gentlemen, the first temptation which may assail you, and when it shall be once known that you are inexorable, your acquaint- ance will cease their importunities, and no longer offer you those well meant but dangerous civilities. 7 Intimately connected with intemperance, is the practice of gam- bling;a vice, which, though less common, is not less destructive to the peace of society, and to domestic happiness and virtue. Let me exhort you, gentlemen, to abstain from all games of chance, as a practice alike degrading to you as men, and inconsistent with the dignity, and the high and important duties of your profession. 8. Discountenance and abstain from the practice of duelling. It is highly creditable to our profession, that so few of its mem-- bers have exposed themselves in single combat. A few have exposed themselves, and some have fallen, and many more have been accessory to the crime, by attending the combatants to the field, and extending to them surgical aid. How absurd, how inconsistent it is, for that man whose peculiar pro- vince, and let me say privilege, it is to preserve life, voluntarily to mingle his blood with that of his fellow! Never forget, gentlemen, that you have been this day received as men bers of the medical profession; have taken upon you its vows, and assumed its responsibilities. You are no longer at your own disposal; you are the property of the profession, of the public, and more particu- larly of that community who shall give you a residence, and confide to your hands their lives and health. To tear yourself from them by an act of self-destruction, would involve a violation of the highest princi- ples of honor, of gratitude, of justice, and of truth. In all this I say nothing of the obligations which bind you to your family and friends, nothing of your obligations to your country and to your God. Here let conscience decide. And when you have made the decision, gentlemen, let your country see that you have too high a sense of moral rectitude, to imbrue your hand in human blood. Let the world see that you have too much ele- vation of soul, too much independence of spirit, to be awed by the clamor of unprincipled men, and induced to yield to this unhallowed practice. Finally, gentlemen, keep constantly in view the moral obligations you are under to your patients and to the community. Your profession, while it will give you, if properly sustained, an extensive influence in society, will present you with frequent opportu- nities of exerting a controlling power in private, and in circumstances the most important. The moral and religious influence of sickness is, no doubt, highly beneficial to the best interests of man, and of society. At this time