THE HUNTERIAN ORATION. 
167 
on the human understanding ; and it is impossible for the mind, 
imbued with a love of truth, to witness the mock display of gladia- 
torial talent shewn in our courts of law without regretting that 
there the highest intellectual powers are enlisted in the cause of 
moral degradation, and either indulge a smile of contempt or shed 
a tear with the philosopher of Ephesus over the vices of a re- 
dundant civilization. It is matter for rejoicing, that the mind and 
the habits of the medical man are differently constituted — with 
truth as his field of action, good his aim, and the world his study. 
The duties of the profession of medicine have a tendency to keep 
alive the best emotions and a warm sympathy with the sufferings 
of humanity. Still the practice of the law is regulated by a sense 
of decorum, and even of refinement, which, in a far less degree, 
are practised by the medical profession. 
In the next place, the state of the law has an important influence 
in depressing the rank of the profession of medicine. On this point 
Mr. Skey remarked, that the general practitioner was an amphibi- 
ous link between a profession and a trade, and, in its exercise, the 
law awards him a tardy and, perhaps, questionable remuneration; 
a system fraught with the greatest evils both to the profession and 
to society. The law awarding payment for physic only, the doctor 
disposes of as large a quantity as is consistent with the capabilities 
of his patient. The question is, how much of this physic will 
repay the daily loss of time of the medical man ; while, in many 
cases, it is difficult for him to be remunerated but by actual dis- 
honesty. If the law does not award legitimate compensation, he is 
driven to an excuse for subjecting his patient to a course of physic, 
with a view to prevent the recurrence of the malady. The objec- 
tions to all this cannot be overcharged. It is inseparably inter- 
woven with the rank of our profession, our characters, and the 
well-being of society. It upholds the doctrine, that medicine is 
the great antidote against disease — inviting empiricism, and weak- 
ening the allegiance of our profession to Nature, as the author of 
disease and the worker of its treatment : we thus forget the opera- 
tion of first causes in our reliance on second, and strike a fatal blow 
at the rank and respectability of our profession. The placing a 
pecuniary value on the drugs dispensed is a feature most injurious 
to the rank of a general practitioner, and with quite as much reason 
might the surgeon claim compensation in the name of the instru- 
ments he uses. Medicines should not be dispensed at their adven- 
titious value. The whole profession should cry aloud and repudiate 
a practice so derogatory and vicious, and obtain from the legislature 
a title to remuneration more consistent with their services and their 
high calling. Mr. Skey next observed upon the ambition to acquire 
rank as an incentive to attaining superiority of mind; but it was a 
