Lecture on medical obedience : introductory to the course of theory and practice of medicine in the Medical Department of Pennsylvania College, Philadelphia : for the session of 1845-46 / by William Darrach.

  • Darrach, William, 1796-1865.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lecture on medical obedience : introductory to the course of theory and practice of medicine in the Medical Department of Pennsylvania College, Philadelphia : for the session of 1845-46 / by William Darrach. 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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    authority of such a benevolent, gentle, and efficient physician ? Who, of us, will not gladly submit himself to his mild command—Go! Heal the Sick. What better topic can I have for an introduc- tory to my coming Course of Lectures, on the Theory and Practice of Medicine, than that suggested by this command ; and what better title to the subject which it affords, than that of Medical Obedience: that is, an unqualified, implicit obedience, on the part of physicians, to the Divine command, Go! Heal the Sick! The subject which I have thus brought before you, has been im- pressed upon me by an examination into the true import of the Medi- cal Diploma. If we avoid the extremes into which our age runs, of despising forms, or regarding them every thing, and consider well the new and responsible position of the graduate in medicine—that the important powers of that position are not presumptuously assumed ; but, on the contrary, that they are conferred through his Alma Mater by that high ordaining power which says, Go! Heal the Sick—;we shall then be convinced that the conferring of the medical degree is a ceremony of high import, putting its subject under orders, imposing on him a most important commission, and setting him apart to the exer- cise of medical skill, humanity, and a life of self-denial. Such consi- derations, and the duty imposed on me by the Faculty, of annually conferring the Doctorate in Medicine, urges me to the exposition of the Great and Benificent command, and thereunto to enforce Medical obedience. The more I have thought on this command, the more it has spread, and risen, and occupied my mind. Other subjects, it is true, have since obtruded themselves as topics for my introductory, perhaps to tempt me from my purpose, accumulating upon me, indeed. But they have all passed away, and now leave my mind solely occupied and deeply impressed with the noble, royal injunction, as the eye of the poet or painter is impressed with the mid-day heaven,when every cloud is away. Such like is my subject, high, clear, and broad in every direction. How, gentlemen, shall I treat it ? Will all receive it ? May I not, without intention, rouse a feeling which had better not be awakened ? For it is common fame that physicians have taught them- selves to believe that the Bible contains no word of command to them —critics of Revelation! There are some such, false as fair. But the mass of medical practitioners in this country, and also throughout Great Britain, are now not so. They submit themselves to the ordU nances of Christianity, and do not judge it unprofessional, unscientific, to obey the command, and bow in the presence of Him who not only went about all the cities and villages, healing every sickness, and