The annual address to the graduates of the Medical College of South-Carolina : delivered March 23, 1830, after conferring the degree of doctor of medicine / by Thomas Y. Simons.

  • Simons, Thomas Y. (Thomas Young), 1798-1857.
Date:
1830
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The annual address to the graduates of the Medical College of South-Carolina : delivered March 23, 1830, after conferring the degree of doctor of medicine / by Thomas Y. Simons. 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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    of Macedon to our present age. Look into any community, and see how many—from the most exalted to the most humble—from the most intellectual to the most ignorant, have fallen prostrate to this Hydra—this leveller of all distinctions—this author of ail that is monstrous or degrading in human nature. In the course of your anatomical and physiological investigations, you have become familiar with death and its consequences ; but, I trust, none of you have been led to the astonishing conclusion of some Physicians, that man—like the plants or the beasts of the fields—is a mere creature of organization, and with his physical dissolution, is total annihilation. This proposition—so revolt- ing—so debasing—so calculated to make us shrink with hor- ror and appalled with awe—is maintained by contractedness of views, limited comprehension and miserable sophism: That with the developement of the organic structure, are intellectual developements ; that when the physical power decays, the intel- lectual powers diminish; nay, further, that in proportion to the perfection of organization, is perfection of mental capacity—may all be admitted. But do these admissions warrant the extraordi- nary corollary, that the Soul—that something immaterial, which gives impulse—action—power—to our wonderful frame—must, with it, perish forever 1 Does it prove any thing more than an intimacy of association between the physical and moral system, without which, our structure and existence would have been vain and nugatory 1 Does it prove any thing more than the mysteri- ous economy of Nature ? What, shall man, so fearfully and won- derfully made—with intellectual power to grasp and encompass all physical phenomena—to control all animal and physical pow- ers, and render them subservient to his purposes, and which makes him vie almost with divinity—be a creature of a day, and like the butterfly, flit a few idle hours and perish forever 1 That all things however beautiful or wonderful in structure, is the mere effect of chance; and that there is no great First Cause—no Supreme Creator—but a continual revolution of organization, life and des- truction—all originating out of chaos 1 Such opinions, however philosophical in the estimation of some short-shighted men, only prove their littleness and weakness. No: man's finite vision, with