134 Valedictory Charge. 



services yoii render to your patients, in curing their 

 diseases, may be considered as articles of commerce, 

 which are exchanged for the means of j'our subsist- 

 ence; but the services you render, by publisliing your 

 discoveries, will be gratuitous offerings upon the altar 

 of humanity. They will, moreover, be honourable to 

 our profession, for they will draw a line between your 

 characters, as physicians and benefactors to mankind, 

 and the sordid and vulgar traders in the health and 

 lives of their fellow-creatures. 



You begin your professional career, gentlemen, urii 

 der the most auspicious circumstances. A new sefk 

 has commenced in our science. Natural history and 

 chemistry ha\-e lately shed an iinusual portion of light 

 upon the theory and practice of physic. Habits of bb-' 

 servation, ardour, and correctness iiyexperimenting, 

 and intrepidity in reasoning, have likewise succeeded 

 a superstitious attachment to forms and names, in 

 our schools of medicine. The effects of these new 

 aids, and modes, of acquiring medical knowledge, 

 have latelr appeared in the diminution of the mortality 

 of many diseases. 



i'm'u; 



Improve, perfect, and perpetuate, what has been 

 so happily and successfully begun by the present gene- 

 ration. We commit their uirfiiiished labours to your 

 care; and, while we are descending into the vale of 

 life, v>e shall be consoled in reflecting, that the sci- 

 ence we have loved and taught, from its encreasing 

 advantages, will be more useful in your hands than it 

 has been in ours. 



J 



