Introductory lecture to the course of materia medica and pharmacy, in the University of Pennsylvania / by George B. Wood, M.D.

  • George Bacon Wood
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory lecture to the course of materia medica and pharmacy, in the University of Pennsylvania / by George B. Wood, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    It is a good general rule, that an Introductory Lecture should have a close relation to the subject of study which it proposes to introduce. This rule I have generally observed in my pre- liminary addresses to the medical class. But the ways pf man's conduct in life, like those for his feet, cannot always be rigidly straight. They must be accommodated in the one case to the irregularities of circumstance, as in the other to the inequalities of surface. My position at present is, I think, such as to require of me a deviation from the ordinary course. Recently returned from travel in a foreign country, I may be reasonably expected to impart to those whom it is my duty to instruct some of that knowledge, having reference to our common pursuit, which I may have gathered while absent. I know of no opportunity better adapted to this purpose than that offered by the opening of a course of instruction, before the attention has yet been engaged in a regular series of observation and study, which it might be inconvenient to interrupt. You will, therefore, excuse, perhaps you may even commend me, if, on the present occasion, omitting all mention of the Materia Medica, the teaching of which is my special function, I shall in its place introduce to you a subject from abroad, and one no less important than that of the state of the medical profession in the British Islands. This is so peculiar, so different from what prevails in the United States, that it cannot but be an object of interest to all among you who have an inquiring spirit; and, considering the high civilization of that great country, the source of so much in every department of knowledge and art that we ourselves boast of, its arrangements in relation to a profession so influential as that of medicine must offer many valuable lessons, whether for imitation or for warning.
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