Address delivered in 1840, at the laying of the corner stone of the edifice of the Medical Department of Kemper College, now of the University of the State of Missouri / by Joseph N. McDowell. And the Valedictory charge to the class of graduates of 1854 / by John Barnes.

  • McDowell, Joseph N. (Joseph Nash), 1805-1868.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address delivered in 1840, at the laying of the corner stone of the edifice of the Medical Department of Kemper College, now of the University of the State of Missouri / by Joseph N. McDowell. And the Valedictory charge to the class of graduates of 1854 / by John Barnes. 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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    will allow, the wisdom of his Maker. The dawn of science, however, was with the development of the science of medicine, and its collat- eral sciences. At Padua and Salernum in Italy, and Leyden in Holland, in the early period of European medicine, science among our ancestors ap- pears to have had its first great impulse, and some of the brightest luminaries of the profession have risen; and as we travel onward, we find that Scotland, England, Ireland, France, and our own country, have been its most successful cultivators. But wherever, for the time, medicine has flourished, there we have ever had clustering some of the richest gems of literature and the arts. But, wherever, medicine has been most successfully cultivated, where great institutions have risen, it has ever been by the energy of those who are engaged in the cultivation of science, and whenever that lofty genius which has towered over the rest has disappeared, whenever that energy, which has characterized every grand improvement, every great achieve- ment among men, has been lost, the seat of science has been transfer- red. Some point more auspicious for talent, whose views are broader and more comprehensive, more elevated, and better adapted to the genius and necessities of the profession, or which has manifested more industry, or greater facilities, have been most successful in the race. And no nation or people has ever been successful in building great institutions of learning, who have not with energy encouraged the talent, the native talent of their country, and whose vigor in the prosecution of the work has not been equal to the power and intellect they would employ— For the sluggard's brow the laurel never grows, Renown is not the child of indolent repose. So soon as America was sufficiently colonized to justify the project of a school of medicine, that would educate our sons without a tour to Europe, the lamp of medical science was trimmed in our city of brotherly love and some of the brightest lights have arisen that have adorned the annals of the human race—lights that have not only illuminated their own country, but have shed their effulgence on the world. The names of Rush, Shippen, Barton and Wister, are written on the brightest scroll of medicine, and succeeding them, the same immortality will hale those of Jackson, Chapman, McLelland and others, who are still active and on the stage. And as the tide of nations rolled on, and the billow broke over our mountains, and descended into our valley, soon we see an institution planted in the wilderness. It was thought then by some premature, but its success