INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
747 
that the first beginning of all social estimation is a sound 
English education, and if it extends to the classics so much 
the better. The longer you live the more you will discover 
that if a man can write correctly and speak well, provided he 
possesses the other qualifications necessary to success in life, 
it will be impossible long to exclude him from the position 
which a gentleman ought to occupy. Of how great import¬ 
ance this will be to you in your career through life it would 
be superfluous for me to dwell upon; I may, however, state 
that it will inevitably lead to your social elevation in the 
scale of society. But again, this amount of preliminary 
learning which we ask of you, and which on the one hafid 
points you exactly, according to its cultivation, to your place 
in society, on the other introduces you definitely into the 
mysteries of art and science. For the first difference you 
will discover, between the unscientific man and the man of 
science, is a difference of language. In the case of science, 
distinct appearances have distinct names, and can, therefore, 
be described exactly by the terms that belong to them, and 
the description can be transmitted in writings and books to 
distant places and future times; and each person who is in 
the science will know precisely what the words of the descrip¬ 
tion mean. Nothing of this kind is possible without these 
terms and the knowledge of them. For instance, to take an 
example in pathology, suppose that an ulcer is to be charac¬ 
terised, and that the person who has the task of describing it 
is not master of the scientific vocabulary, and does not know 
how to apply its w r ords to the facts before him; in that case 
all he can say is, that there is a sore place” on the surface, 
wherever it may be. But many morbid conditions are at¬ 
tended with “ sore places,” and therefore this description 
gives you no information as to whether there is a breach of 
the surface by abrasion or by the more hidden process of ulce¬ 
ration. Yet two professional men acquainted with terms will 
instantly characterise the ulcer as correctly as if they had 
possessed a correct painting of it; and hence the one can 
communicate the facts of the case to the other. You can 
apply this in a thousand other instances, and you will find 
how widely the use of scientific—that is to say, well-chosen 
and definite—language ranges, and how great are its results 
to accurate knowledge, and consequently to the practice of 
your art. It is true that current English will not carry you 
through the knowledge and use of the scientific terms of 
anatomy, physiology, and chemistry, and the other sciences 
in which you will be examined for your diploma; for the 
most of these terms are derived from Latin and Greek, the 
