MEDICINE AND SURGERY. S2l 



fincerity with which his patronage of it has been carried on from 

 the beginning; and although it may be urged both to him and 

 to myself that our obligations to medicine and to science are not 

 inconsiderable, yet I trust that the efforts we have both made for 

 their advancement in this instance, are an earnest that we shall 

 not desert in our grey haii-s that cause which we have cherished 

 from our youth." He then proceeds: — "Thus then here, in the 

 centre of a vast population, you have a School of Medical Science, 

 a Museum of Natural Histoiy in all its branches, and of Ana- 

 tomical Preparations, and a scientific Library, already fitted for 

 their important purposes. Your ingenuous youth may be here 

 imbued with all the necessary elementary instruction for the 

 practice of medicine and surgery; and suffering humanity may 

 be comforted by the reflection that it need not look uj) to you in 

 vain. On that primary education on which a scientific education 

 can be alone securely founded, I shall not detain you by enlarging. 

 On a recent public occasion I ventured to declare, that mere 

 lectures on science are barren without it — that unless a store of 

 good sense is formed out of the materials of general and common 

 information, and a certain portion of polite literature, and by 

 founding all on the adamantine basis of moral and religious 

 principle, the rest of education is a bubble." 



In conclusion, the learned physician thus addressed the 

 students: — 



"While the subject is warm in my mind, let me address this parting 

 sentiment. You well know what a bright ornament classical learning is, 

 how much it decorates the character, purifies the style, and tends to 

 create accuracy of idea, and elevation of sentiment. It is on these ac- 

 counts, as well as of the number of medical books written in the learned 

 languages, and also on account of the usage of writing prescriptions in 

 Latin, that your superiors have made a certain proficiency in this know- 

 ledge part of your examination for admission to jpractice. It is not then 

 as a mere embellishment that classical literature is recommended to you ; 

 for destitute of dignity and barren of utility is every acquirement which 

 has not for its end and aim the real information of your understandings. 

 It is to render your minds better receptacles of science that primary 

 education is necessary — it is to expand your views, and substantiate and 

 fix your principles, that classical learning, as a part of moral discipline, 

 is so available ; and, in fine, it is the union of all these which, by cor- 

 recting and enlarging the heart, makes you the fit companions and the 

 best comforters of sickness and of sorrow — bringing your professional 

 acquirements to bear, wheresoever they are needed, a blessing to 

 humanity." 



While on the subject of this admirable Institution, we cannot 

 omit alluding to an Introductory Lecture, on the Study of 

 Anatomy and Physiology, by William Sands Cox, Esq. the 

 Lecturer on Anatomy and Surgery. 



The investigation of that exquisitely wonderful and beautiful 

 structure, the humau frame, could not have been more appro- 



