464 
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
subject as it comes before you. Study not merely its general 
principles, but all its details, for in them you will find matter 
of the first import to your future success in practice. Take 
notes of cases, therefore, as well as lectures, and compare 
them with the diagnosis, treatment, and result in each 
particular instance. Bear in mind that although the ex- 
perience of after years may increase your skill in the treat- 
ment of disease, it can never compensate for neglected op- 
portunities of obtaining, during your pupilage, a correct 
insight into the nature of the changes which are wrought by 
disease in the animal organism. Plant your standard high 
enough, and rather seek to aid the pathology of human me- 
dicine than fall short of information in your own profession. 
In all this, however, nothing is exacted from you which a 
man of ordinary ability and moderate industry cannot ac- 
complish. Industry, indeed, will surmount most difficulties ; 
and those of you who possess talent, but lack perseverance, 
will find yourselves outstripped in the race for honour and 
reputation. But all should remember, that the mere obtain- 
ment of knowledge sufficient only to pass an examination 
is of little worth. Labour therefore, even now, for a higher 
object than this — the obtainment of a diploma of public 
approbation, one which bears the signature of every right- 
minded and moral man. And then, in the language of an 
elegant writer and eminent surgeon : “ If you will do all this, 
and ever be on the watch to increase your professional know- 
ledge, by constant observation, by daily study and reflection ; 
if you will never lose sight of the true and noble object of 
your profession ; if in your intercourse with your professional 
brethren, and with the public, you will ever be guided by 
principles of honour and of candour, and by an abnegation of 
self-interest, you will live to be respected and believed by 
those who know you best, you will have the inward satisfac- 
tion of knowing that you pass an honoured and useful career; 
and, amidst all the trials, anxieties, and difficulties that will 
meet you in one of the most anxious and responsible pro- 
fessions, you will never have cause to regret the day on which 
you have become one of its members, or to envy those who 
follow other, and perhaps more prosperous, walks in life.”* 
* Erichsen’s * Introductory Address,’ delivered at University College, 
London, 1850. 
