618 
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
particularly connected with the study of anatomy, physio- 
logy, and pathology ; and presented you with some general 
considerations to show why you must sedulously and dili- 
gently cultivate these divisions of science. Let me now pass 
to more practical matters, and advise you in all earnestness 
and sincerity not to be content with a mere book-knowledge 
of anatomy, but to dissect for yourselves, and thus to obtain 
that real information which makes so deep an impression 
on the mind, that it endures for life, and in daily practice 
is constantly resorted to as an ever fresh fountain of know- 
ledge. In the course of your studies here, make it your 
business to dissect the subject over and over again ; and to 
give your whole mind to an examination of the structures 
which the parts present before you. I do not, however, 
advise you to spend a large portion of your time in minute 
dissections, nor to become great in the making of neat pre- 
parations ; but I do say that there is no part of your studies 
which supplies such a basis for medical education to rest 
upon, as anatomy, taken in combination with physiology. 
You will also find great and lasting benefit in a daily 
attendance upon the clinical practice of the college : indeed, 
this is the field in which you will receive the most direct 
instruction, and it is that in which your after life will be 
spent. Study the cases well ; notice the peculiar symptoms 
of each ; and record in your minds, as w T ell as in your note- 
books, the progress of the case from day to day ; observe the 
action of the medicines given ; also register successes, that 
you may be able to treat the like cases when you come to 
practise for yourselves ; and above all, note failures ; inquire 
into their reasons, and endeavour to ascertain the mode of 
treatment wffiich might be likely to afford benefit in similar 
instances. An hour or two every morning devoted to such 
habits of observation and accurate thinking, will rapidly 
develope the faculties of your minds ; and the germ of the 
scientific practitioner will thus be manifested within the 
first few months of your attendance at the College. The 
surgical cases will also claim an equal share of your attention ; 
and in this institution you will have the benefit of occa- 
sionally observing cases of a nature that a small practice 
but seldom affords. Lose then none of these golden hours, 
w 7 hen clinical practice can be witnessed by you, but regard 
the opportunity with the most jealous care. However 
clever you may be, however bright and talented, the pro- 
blems presented to you in disease are often deep and obscure 
enough to employ all your abilities, and sufficiently important 
to enlist all your sympathies as well as your earnest en- 
deavours to solve. 
