132 Valedictory Charge. 



by an affectionate silence, convey to you my wishes 

 for your future welfare. But as the custom of our 

 University calls for a parting Address, upon this pub- 

 lic occasion, I shall endeavour to discharge this duty, 

 by briefly suggesting to you a few directions, intend- 

 ed to promote your improvement and usefulness in 

 your profession ; and, while my voice only sounds in 

 your ears, imagine you hear your other Professors, 

 and the Trustees of the institution, inculcating the 

 same advice upon you. 



Invested, as 3'ou have just now been, with the ho- 

 nours of this University, you have not yet finished 

 your medical studies. You have only laid a foun- 

 dation for them, on which to build, must be the busi- 

 ness of your future lives. To enable you to do so, 

 it will be necessary in the 



1st place. To continue your application to books. 

 If a physician acquire skill by his own solitary expe- 

 rience, how much more will he acquire, by availing 

 himself of the experience of several hundred physi- 

 cians ! But reading will be necessary, not only to en- 

 crease your stock of ideas, but to retain those you 

 have acquired ; for such is the nature of the human 

 mind, that, unless it be continually excited by fresh 

 accessions of knowledge, it will soon lose all that it 

 has acquired in early life : hence it is no uncommon 

 thing to find an old physician more ignorant than he 

 was when he first began the practice of medicine. I 

 need hardly repeat, what has been often inculcated 

 upon you in the course of your studies, to make 



