318 
INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. 
medicine already recognised? Your name is at once honora- 
bly known in connexion with your discovery; through life 
you will have the consciousness that you at least are not 
among those who pass Undistinguished along their destined 
course, and leave no trace behind them; your children and 
your children's children will inherit the imperishable treasure 
of your reputation. In the pages upon which succeeding ge- 
nerations of students will dwell, your name will be connected 
with the record of the good that you have accomplished ; in 
the lectures to which future aspirants for medical honors will 
listen, your claims will not be forgotten when your discovery 
is alluded to ; perhaps from this very spot, some future Pro- 
fessor, giving, as I have done to-day, a history of the Materia 
Medica of our country, may cite your example as an honor to 
the Institution, and a powerful incentive to his pupils. It is 
something also to possess the consciousness that you have 
added to the credit of your profession, and have been a bene- 
factor to your country and to mankind. These, it is true, are 
motives of action common to every honorable field of exer- 
tion; the peculiar inducements in that now offered to you are 
the deficiency of present culture, and the greater probability 
of a rich return for all the labor expended. Our native Ma- 
teria Medica may be said to have lain fallow for several years. 
Pathology has by its fruitful yield drawn almost all floating 
labor to itself; and fashion has invested it with additional at- 
tractions. Our comparatively neglected science has, in the 
meantime, through the progress of general discovery, been 
accumulating renewed fertility, and will yield abundantly to 
properly directed culture. May I not hope that some of you, 
under the inducements which I have presented, or others 
which your own minds may suggest, will engage heartily in 
this work of investigation, in the pursuit of the high prize of 
honor for yourselves, your school, your profession, and your 
country? 
But you must remember that such a prize is not easily won. 
We cannot guess ourselves, nor dream ourselves into honora- 
ble distinction. The pursuit of a creditable name is no lot- 
