An oration delivered before the Philadelphia Medical Society, pursuant to appointment : Feb. 15, 1823 / by Hugh L. Hodge.

  • Hodge, Hugh L. (Hugh Lenox), 1796-1873.
Date:
1823
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An oration delivered before the Philadelphia Medical Society, pursuant to appointment : Feb. 15, 1823 / by Hugh L. Hodge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    know how, when, or where to apply them ; but will grope in darkness, and be forced to feel his way amidst doubts and anxieties. I speak, gentlemen, from some experience; for notwithstanding my edu- cation was directed by a revered preceptor, whose emphatic and unceasing directions were, that 1 should attend to practice, yet, when called to the duties of the profession, I found myself bewildered and harassed, and in a great measure ignorant how to apply the principles with which my mind was stored. To a feeling heart, this will be a source of continual uneasiness, and to the latest hour of life will form a subject of constant self-reproach; for, as my amiable teacher exclaimed, What can be more dreadful, than to gain experience at the expense of your patients? This is a very brief and imperfect sketch of the knowledge with which a medical practitioner should be furnished, and but moderately vindicates the claim of his science to superior dignity and eminence. Lest, however, any should imagine that the speaker has pourtrayed his subject in too dazzling colours, permit him to state the opinions of some eminent men. Professor Gregory, in a work already alluded to, observes, a that to excel in medicine requires a greater compass of learning than is necessary in any other profession. Dr. Young, in his Medical Literature, has affirm- ed that it exceeds, as a science, the comprehension tfthe human mind. Testimony perhaps more dis-