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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    ADDRESS. It again devolves upon me to charge the Graduates of the Medical College, and to make such observations as seem most suitable to so solemn an occasion. In the performance of this duty, I shall address you, Gentlemen, as those who are, in due season, to become the representatives of the Medical character of our communities, and, as such, to assume heavy, yet honorable responsibilities. About to launch upon the great ocean of life, the young and ardent imagination beholds every thing brilliant and prosperous; no portending storms are seen, but an unclouded sky, and the sun beaming with radiant beauty and lustre. But the moral, like the physical world, has its changes and vicissitudes—its storms and sunshine. There is no such thing as uninterrupted joy or sorrow, prosperity or calamity. Life is a kind of mosaic work wherein S^ fcfy intermixed the miseries as well as the pleasures of existence. Young men, from an ignorance of the world, are generally mor- bidly sensitive, and shrink from the difficulties and rasping trials of life. They are apt to despond, and to believe the obstruc- tions to success too great to be overcome, and thus are oftentimes lost to themselves and mankind. Be not thus discouraged or de- luded. Hold the maxim that nothing is impossible to be attained which is within the bounds of human capacity, and if you do not reach the summit of excellence, you will at least gain an elevated and honorable position. To all who have to sustain themselves by their physical or mo- ral efforts, the commencement of life is peculiarly trying and dis- tressing. But none can feel it so forcibly as the young physician. His first essay may be the most hazardous and important. He has to contend not only with the raging of disease, but with the doubts