INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. 
598 
to take a firm hold on the mind, and become permanent, than 
if it were communicated in any other way. But here, again, 
think not that to be present, and to listen, is all you will have 
to do : it is far otherwise ; for should a case of more than 
ordinary interest occur, one in which the symptoms are some- 
what ambiguous, you must watch their development for yourself 
and carefully note down the changes that take place . By so 
doing you will not only become conversant with the protean 
forms in which desease sometimes shows itself, and be enabled 
to detect its phases, but you will be unconsciously cultivating 
habits of thought and observation, so as to trace effects up to 
their causes, or, in other words, correctly to diagnose , and thus 
\.o prognosticate what in all probability the result will be. One 
case thus minutely noticed by you, will teach you more than 
volumes of books written on the subject, or months of atten- 
dance for mere form’s sake ; since it is not so much by the 
number of patients you may have seen, or the variety of 
diseases — valuable as all this is — that you will be profited, as 
by the pertinent inquiries instituted by you, and the closeness 
of your observance of Nature’s deviations. 
You will, also, in your turn, be expected to undertake the 
“ dressership” for the appointed period. No slight privilege 
this, but one, I fear, not sufficiently estimated. During it 
that facility in the exhibition of medicines may be acquired, 
with an amount of practical “ tact,” which although it must 
be allowed to be only of lesser moment, is nevertheless of 
some w T orth, especially in the opinion of the “ many while 
the want of it might subject you both to considerable annoy- 
ance and loss. 
As the 3rd aid, I would place the assistance you will re- 
ceive in the dissecting-room. And here, too, you must work 
for yourself, or you will never become an anatomist; since 
neither reading nor demonstrations will make you one, indis- 
pensable as these are as adjuvants. 
Anatomy has been stated to be the foundation of medical 
science ; and it is essential that this foundation be both 
securely and correctly laid. But remember it is only the 
foundation ; and were we to stop here, how would the goodly 
edifice be erected ? On it is built Physiology ; for with- 
out a knowledge of the structure, how can we comprehend 
the use or function of a part? On this again rests Patho- 
logy, which is the consequence of a change, either 
functional or organic, that has taken place in some portion of 
the frame ; to explain which we have often to call to our 
assistance the principles of Chemistry; and to correct the 
derangement that exists, we make use of certain medicinal or 
other agents, constituting Therapeutics. 
