163 
THE HUNTERIAN ORATION. 
stimulus, he said, far less available, on many grounds, to the pro- 
fessors of medicine, than to any of the other professions. He would 
lay claim for eminent superiority, and for some order of merit to 
be granted by government to such as distinguished themselves in 
medical science. 
In the removal of professional evils, society would not render 
aid, unless the profession itself rooted them out — purging them- 
selves of the imputation of littleness, and throwing themselves on 
the highest resources of their art. Pointing to the grandest dis- 
coveries in general science, or to the deductions of the profoundest 
philosophers and mathematicians, Mr. Skey said, that in the limited 
circle of our own profession we may boast names and discoveries 
not inferior, and which greatly exceed them, in their intrinsic value, 
if guaged by their subserviency to the happiness of mankind ; and 
in justification of this statement the speaker noticed in succession 
many points in which the study of medicine had proved, in the 
hands of some of its ornaments, the handmaid to health and hap- 
piness ; discoveries worthy of any age or any science, and benefit- 
ing alike the peasant and the king. In considering the remunera- 
tion of our profession he did not lose sight of the fact, that the 
necessities of society increase in proportion to its inability to com- 
pensate us; that poverty is the very nursery of disease ; and that, 
in hospitals, dispensaries, or in unions, a large portion of our time 
is devoted to the relief of human suffering. We may justly boast 
of our noble hospitals and infirmaries, erected by the benevolence 
of private individuals. The practice of charity is stamped upon 
the national character. In the hospitals of the metropolis about 
300,000 persons annually obtain relief from suffering. But what 
would these endowments be but for the active agency of our pro- 
fession 1 The medical mind infuses a spirit of life into the other- 
wise inanimate body, and is thus the instrument of incalculable 
good to thousands — the pride of virtue, and the boast of the world. 
Without doubt, the motives dictating these services are composite 
in their nature ; still, the world is our debtor, and we feel that we 
have some claim for an honorary distinction. The sovereign en- 
circles the warrior’s brow with the victoiious wreath; his bruised 
arms are hung up as monuments of glory; and it is perhaps natural 
that the professors of medicine, devoted to the purpose of extend- 
ing human existence, should pass unrewarded ; while it is almost 
singular that this fact should escape the propounder of the Mal- 
thusian doctrine. 
In alluding to the impracticability of extending the advan- 
tages of education to the present generation of practitioners, Mr. 
Skey said : — Thus far the evil is irremediable ; but much good 
ma)' be effected by the agency of a refining spirit, employed for 
