EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
672 
tageously resumed ? As a profession, we are too much 
estranged from each other. Union is power. 
Having lighted on the following review in the pages 
of a contemporary, we hesitate not to transfer it to our own, 
since it well expresses our sentiments on the subject. 
It lias been loudly asserted in many quarters that an earnest pursuit of 
science lends to infidelity, as if the truths of science and of Christianity 
stood in positive antagonism to each other. The assumption that science is 
opposed to religion has caused uneasiness among persons insufficiently awake 
to the habit of loose generalisation and rash assertion which prevails among 
the advocates of rationalism. It is therefore gratifying to notice that the 
inaugural addresses delivered at the different schools of medicine during the 
past week have been generally marked by a religious spirit and a reverential 
regard'for divine truth. Considering the occasion on which they were de¬ 
livered, instead of wondering that these references should not have been 
more precise and detailed, we feel no ordinary thankfulness that they are so 
full and satisfactory as they are. In this point of view the following quota¬ 
tions will be read with lively interest. 
The inaugural address at the Middlesex Hospital was delivered by Dr. 
Murchison, who pressed strongly upon his hearers their responsibility before 
God. He said that they must never forget that they came there to acquire 
knowledge, the attainment of which was the most ennobling of all occupa¬ 
tions. It was the possession of knowledge which constituted the real dis¬ 
tinction of one man above his fellow, and which elevated the human race 
above the beasts that perish, while the prosecution of knowledge in a right 
direction was the best use that they could make of the talents which had 
been entrusted to them, for by those they hoped to glorify the Creator and 
ameliorate the condition of their fellow-men. He made, in the course of 
his address, some admirable remarks on the duty of recognising no distinc¬ 
tion between rich and poor, and submitted that a person with an inferior 
education was not qualified to enter upon the study of medicine, and that 
it ought to make no difference in the standard of medical education whether 
a man be destined to practise among the poor or among the rich. It was 
the body of man, the image of the Creator, which was equally concerned in 
both cases. No difference was made in the standard of education required 
of a clergyman according to the class of the community to which he minis¬ 
tered, and no such difference could exist in the profession of medicine. He 
concluded with the following memorable sentencesLastly, it was his 
advice that they should do their duty in that state of life which they had 
chosen. To this aim, distinction, wealth, and all other considerations must 
succumb. They must bear in mind that their calling was a sacred one. It 
would be their blessed privilege to emulate the example of the Great Phy¬ 
sician, aud to go about the world continually doing good. Not a day would 
pass but they would have it in their power to alleviate suffering, to heal the 
sick, and to minister comfort and consolation to the dyiug. But they must 
be careful not to incur the charge of abusing these privileges. Let uot 
familiarity with disease and death and the frail emblems of mortality reuder 
them callous to the effects which they naturally produce upon the mind. 
When they were called upon to witness the flickering and extinction of the 
flame of life, let them remember that ere long they themselves would be the 
principal actors in such a scene, and that then they would have to account 
for the privileges and talents entrusted to them on earth. Let them think 
what that account must be if they made the sacred privileges of their calling 
