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INTRODUCTORY LECTURE ON THE OPENING OF 
THE MEDICAL SESSION, 1842-43, 
DELIVERED AT THE MIDDLESEX HOSPITAL,, 
By Erasmus Wilson, Esq. 
Lecturer on Anatomy and Physiology in the Middlesex Hospital 
School of Medicine. 
[We are induced by two considerations to insert a portion of Mr. 
Wilson’s introductory lecture at the Middlesex Hospital, — the 
importance of the subjects on which it treats, and the original 
and impressive style in which it is written. — Ed.] 
Gentlemen, — O n our first introduction to an individual, a 
natural question. Who is he? what is he? arises to the mind. 
It is my duty, this day, to introduce you formally to the science 
of medicine; and you may as naturally inquire, Who is she? 
what is she? Medicine, Gentlemen, is the science of health; 
the science by which we are taught to cure disease, to relieve 
pain, to treat the physical infirmities of mankind. Medicine 
in the early ages of the world was a science thought worthy of 
the gods, and her sceptre recognised no inferior sway to that of 
kings and princes. Moses, the great leader of the Jewish people, 
was a physician, and a learned and able practitioner ; Chiron, 
Hercules, and Achilles, were adepts in the practice of medicine ; 
Esculapius, the father of physicians, was a king ; and his sons, 
Machaon and Podalirius, were no less distinguished in arms than 
in the arts of cure. These, Gentlemen, are our ancestors. This 
is our profession. These are our companions of the past and of 
the future. These are the spirits whom we have to emulate and 
admire ; and, let me assure you, that is no small privilege to be 
permitted to mingle your names with theirs, to be admitted 
amongst them, to enter the sacred portals of our pain-healing, 
ease-conferring profession. 
Your first question answered, the next that makes itself heard 
is, How may we become worthy to walk in so noble an arena, to 
take arms in so majestic a cause ? Gentlemen, the reply is brief. 
You must be virtuous ; you must be untiring in your efforts to ex- 
cel. The soul that could be content with mediocrity has no right 
within the precincts of the medical profession. To do our duty to 
the divine office we seek to fill, we must ever strive to occupy the 
highest place, otherwise we may chance to fall below even the 
lowest. The good physician of medicine must be endowed with 
