Introductory address delivered by Professor J.C. Hughes before the class of medical students : at the opening of the session of 1852-3, of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Iowa University.

  • Hughes, J. C. (Joseph Clokey), 1821-1881.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory address delivered by Professor J.C. Hughes before the class of medical students : at the opening of the session of 1852-3, of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Iowa University. 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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    we will refer to the hypothesis, that material or matter, with all its attributes was without beginning, without origin, and per consequence without end. With what ingenuity did Ocellus Lucanus endeavor to prove that the circularity of the earth is indubitable evidence and irrefragible proof of its future, eternal and perpetual duration. With what boldness and power did Aristotle maintain the eternal ex- istence of the universe, for he advocated that it was impossible for a divine mind to conceive of so grand a system as the universe, with- out at once creating it, an idea as fallacious as beautiful. We smile too, at the unique doctrines of Lucretius, who amused himself, and has ever since made history risible with his preposterous farce of creation. The picture of animals and plants, rising from the bosom of the mother earth, in a dismembered state, a head here, and a limb there, a trunk rolling upon the earth, while its members were just protruding through the crust, was too absurd to gain credence, even at that early period. He maintained that some attractive force between homogenous particles would bring them together, and hence the symetry, proporiions and harmony in the whole family of animal organization. How interesting to witness a head in search of a body, and the limbs leaping from a promiscuous throng in search of their fellows and the body to which they belonged. Absurd as such doc- trines were, they had their followers and believers for acime. Again, it was asserted that the first principle in existence was air, this produced mud, from which again sprang senseless animals, and from these sprang man, who lay in deep coma upon the ground, until the lightning's gleam and the thunder's deep tones awaked them from their first lethargy. Alarmed at the crashing noise, they aroused from their deep sleep, and wandered on the face of the earth. Then again, is the theory of the human family springing from fishes. And again, the fabled story of Omoroco presiding over Chaos, the subsequent advent of Belus, whose decapitated head, with its blood mingling in the dust, vivified and warmed up the soil so that human beings, like vegetable products, rose therefrom. It is a matter of no small surprise, and astonishment, that these ri- diculous imaginings, these blind absurdities, should find a resemblance in other portions of the heathen world; for the Pundits assert with all sincerity, that the first cause of all things was a great Spider, whose1 art and skill had contrived a web of the universe, and disposing the whole with astonishing taste and art, sitting in the midst of the web of her own construction, and the work she has created and disposed around her, she will, at her pleasure, wind up her web, and thus ar- rest the progress of creation. The Hindoos believed in the aqueous origin of all things, and assert what has been maintained in more modern times, and among enlight- ened nations, that the world was the product of a bubble. There seems to have been some plausibility in this theory, when we consider the empty nature of many of our systems, the baseless origin of many theories extant, and the visionary characteristics of manv popular doc- trines of the day. '