Introductory lecture : delivered in the Philadelphia College of Medicine, on Thursday evening, November 2, 1848 / by Rush Van Dyke.

  • Van Dyke, Rush, 1813-1882.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory lecture : delivered in the Philadelphia College of Medicine, on Thursday evening, November 2, 1848 / by Rush Van Dyke. 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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    The change may leave temporarily less of prestige attached to the names of those who grant medical degrees ! The truly ingenuous mind, rests its claims to consideration and influence, solely upon intrinsic worth, and such should be your motto, gentlemen, even as it is the device of Philadelphia College. But if you value the letter-patent, that shall accredit your claim to the title of Doctor in Medicine, as much for the source whence it emanates, as for the acquirements it may bespeak of you, it is to the future you should look; for all prestige has its endings and successions. Who now can say who will be the cynosure of American Medicine, when some few years hence, the scythe of time shall have gathered the high and haughty aristocrats of genius of the present hour, into his garner. Per- haps, gentlemen, that same institution, among those you are now thinking of, which may have been lately represented to you as the very dog's tail of them all! It is for you to decide the question! It is for you to fix the cape-stone in its place, upon the temple we have erected for you, and when the splendid finish of the coping, shall in future years arrest your sight, you can point with pride and pleasure, to our glittering dome and say, I and my com- panions did it—our smiles cheered the weary laborers on—our countenance shielded and protected them, against the pitiless peltings of the storms that beset the pathway of their early progress. Your presence and approbation are the cape-stone we require. The co- ping—we will be personally responsible for. The only point for you to decide is, whether, to use a medico-legal term, Philadelphia College is viable —whether it is capable of supporting the existence it has assumed ? To this point I reduced my decision when some two months ago, I occu- pied a position in regard to it parallel with yours—and with as great, if not a greater, interest at stake than yours. A calm, dispassionate observer of the progress of this College since its first organization, I have been surprised at the indefatigable zeal and energy which have characterized its movements, and the wonderful extent, to which in so short a period, it has carried its arrangements for medical instruction ! In all the details of an institution, it has accomplished more in one year, than any other medical school, whose history belongs to Philadelphia, ever before has done in ten years. Had not the past been to me a sound reliable assurance of capacity for future success and greatness, I had not been here this evening to testify to you con- cerning the estimation in which this Philadelphia College is held, and the prospect—predicated upon the untiring zeal, and persevering industry, and effective energy it has already exhibited—of future usefulness and fame, which confessedly in public opinion, are supposed to lie before it. Had not such been the result of my reflections and inquiries, I had not stood here on this occasion, a voluntary witness between it and you. As it is, I say to you, gentlemen,—you cannot choose your lot, for a better or a prouder pro- fessional future, than that which in all human probability, will be connected with the registry of your names, at this Philadelphia College of Medicine. As regards ourselves, all the great obstacles to success in an undertaking like this, have been surmounted. A commodious and comfortable building is all our own—the grand essentials of instruction are all provided—and all the luxuries of demonstrative courses are being superadded, as opportunities from time to time occur, from the ample means at our command. Under such circumstances, you may rest assured, that the word fail for us has no existence, whatever may be the representations to the contrary of those whose interest or malicious pleasure it may be, to say all manner of things against us falsely. They may call us quarrelsome fellows—a house divided