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(meaning "CON- TINUED"), or the symbol y (meaning "END"), whichever applies. Les exempiairae originaux dont la couverture en papier est imprimie sont fllm*s en commenpant par la premier plat at en terminant soit par ia darniAre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impreasion ou d'illustration, ^oit par la second plat, salon ia caa. Toua laa autras axemplairaa originaux sont filmte en commenpant par ia premiere page qui comporte une empreinte d'impreasion ou d'iliustration at en terminant par la darniAre page qui comporte une telle empreinto. Un dee symbolas suivants apparaltra sur la derni*re image de chaque microfiche, seion le cas: la symboia — »• signlfie "A SUIVRE", le symboie V signifie "FIN". Maps, plates, charts, ate, may be filmed at different reduction ratic^. Thoaa too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left har^-f corner, left to right and top to bottom, aa many frames as required. The following diagrama iiluatrata the method: Lea cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre fllmia A dee taux de reduction diffArents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul clichA, it est fllmA A partir de I'angia supArieur gauche, de gauche A droite, et de haut en bas, an prenant le nombre d'imagas nAcessaira. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 r^ Pl^A.^ , T^3.W VALEDICTORY ADDRESS DELIVERED TO THE GRADUATES IN MEDICINE AT THE ANNUAL CONVOCATION OF THE MEDICAL FACULTY OF McGILL UNIVERSITY, JUNE 15, 1900. BY T J. W. BURGESS, M.B.. Professor of Mental Diseases, McGill University ; Superintendent of the Hospital for the Insane, Verdun. Reprinted from the Montreal Medical Journal, June, 190(). y !..ll VALEDICTORY ADDRESS DELIVERED TO THE GRADUATES IN MEDICINE AT THE ANNUAL CONVOCATION OF THE MEDICAL EACUTLY OF McGILL UNIVERSITY, JUNE 15, 1900. HY T. J. W. Burgess, M.B., F.R.S.C, Professor'of Mental Diseases, McGill University ; Superintendent of the Hospital for the Insane, Verdun. With all my heart I would that to one more capable had been entrusted the duty of bidding you farewell, — of washing you that success and happi- ness which, as the voice of the Faculty, I do most heartily wish you. During your collegiate course your Alma Mater has done what she could for you; now in your own strength you must stand or fall; she ha^ laid the foundation of your future life, and I trust laid it well ; it is for you to raise a superstructure perfect in its parts and horourable both to her and the builder. It moy seem to you as though your days of toil and study were over, and that, with a diploma certifying to jour fitness and proficiency in learning, you will be armed and equipped with everything necessary to secure your success. I trust that none of you will reason thus. Remember that your work, your studies, and your readings have not ended, — they have indeed but just begun. To-day yon are entering upon a new world, a world of labour, and pain, and sorrow, a world in which there is at last but one event to all the sons of men, be they rich or poor, high or low. You must be pre- pared to deal with anxiety, fear, grief, and despair, as well as fever and physical pain; you are to be not only physicion, but friend, confessor, guide, and Judge; you cannot avoid these responsibilities if you would, nor should you if you could, 2 Do not, however, even lor a moment imagine that I would have you lool upon the world before you as one of utter darkness. The very shadows that 1 have nu'ntionc'd prove that there must be plenty of sunshine as well, the sunshine of good deeds wrought by brave men and faif women, whose best and noblest characteristics are brought out most vividly amid such scenes as those in which you will be called to act. In so large a class there cannot but be many natures, — n en of the most diverse capacities, aims and destinations. Each of you, too, has his aspirations, a little vague no doubt, but nevertheless real. Keep them, I conjure you, as long as possible, strive to realise them. In the words of Nathaniel Willis : — "Press on! for it is Godlike to unloose The spirit, and forget yourself in thought; Bending a pinion for the deeper sky, And, in the very fetters of your flesh, ; Mating with the pure essences of heaven ! Press on ! ' for in the grave there is no work '^ And no device.' Press on ! while yet you may." Li the ever-increasing competition in the medical profession, you will probably find the struggle for existence an arduous one, — will meet with many worries, many cares, many disappointments, — will find many of youth's golden visions fading away into gray, cold mists. But I would counsel you to be of good courage, remembering always the old adage that "every cloud has its silver lining." Doubtless, among other things, you will all desire to make money; not for the money's sake, but for what you can do with it. It is not a desire to be ashamed of. " He that does not provide for his own house- hold- is worse than a heathen," were the words of one who has also declared that " the greatest of these is charity." The words of St. Paul are nowhere more applicable than to the profession of medicine. He who is ever on the alert with the gift of his services, or, what is more common, is careless in demanding proper recognition of liis work, sins trebly, — against himself and his family, against his brother practitioners, and against those whom he thinks ho is serving. But mark this. The best works in tlic world are not done for money, or from selfi,sh motives of any kind. While all the giving of this world is not committed to the doctor, he has a special heritage in the poor, and if you are to achieve true success, — the success that brings happiness and is the only kind worth seeking, — you must do a vast amount of work, not for money, but in part because you like it, and in part because it will do good and help others. The privilege of relieving suffering humanity, of being a messenger of peace to those in pain, of endeavouring tq r J ^Ani t T^ Tf'A.rtS/^aS-e. 3 iinitute the example of Him who went about doing good, is indeed a reward above all monetary considerations. No more Christlike emblem can be found than the physician braving the dangers of pestilence in the wretched hovels of the poor, or the surgeon upon whe battlefield, ministering alike to friend and foe, without hope of earthly reward, but feeling aiaply recompensed in the conscientious discharge of his merci- ful calling. One day of such an opportunity to render service to Ciod and nuiu is worth a whole life spent in the acquisition of a science which confers such power upon its possessor. In his poem, " The Physician," read at Washington last month. Dr. S. Weir Mitchell thus beautifully sets forth the lesson which our pro- fession inculcates : — " To give what none can mea^^ure, none can weigh, Simply to go where duty points the way; To face unquestioning the fever's breath, Tiie hundred shadows of the vale of death; To bear Christ's message through the battle's rage. The yellow plague, tiie leper's island cage, And with our noblest ' well to understand The poor man's call as only God's command.' One bugle note our battle call, One single watchword, Duty, — That is all." As medical men you are expected to play a twofold part. It is your fprofessional matters, but you should also lose no opportunity of acquir- ) duty not only to acquire as complete a knowledge as you can of purely ing a knowledge of the world. Your success in life will depend as much upon the latter as upon your professional attainments. Remem- ber always that you are men amongst men ; and that no matter how great your medical skill may be, if you have not acquired an ease and grace of manner, you have not the key to unlock the door of public confidence. Often you will find it true that people will first call you in because they like you as a man; and then retain you because they like you as a physi- cian. To attain this happy result, it is above all things necessary that the medical practitioner should be a gentleman in the widest sense of the term. I do not mean in appearance only, in outward demeanor, in the cleanliness of his linen, pr the cut of his clothes, but in very heart. Thackeray, at the close of his " Four Georges," asks : — " Wliat is it to be a gentleman? Is it to have lofty aims, to lead a pure life, to keep your honour virgin; to have the esteem of your fellow citizens, and the love of your fireside; to bear good fortune r.eekly, to suffer evil with constancy; and through evil or good to maintain truth always? Show me the happy man whose life exhibits these qualities, and him we will i- salute as gentlpinan, whatever liis rank may be." Nowliere will ynu find a better definition of what constitutes a true gentleman,— follow it and you cannot fail to bo such, A word now as to your lei.uire time, because when first entered in the field of practice it is not likely that a host of sick people will be waiting to avail themselves of your kind attentions or superior skill. On the contrary, you must expect much wearisome waiting, many hours of •enforced idleness. How may you occupy these lu-urs to the hest advan- tage ? Good literature is, 1 think, beyond doubt the nuist valual)le resource at the command of the young practitioner. Not medical te.vt- books, for the jaded brain, after a five years' course of cramming, calls loudly for a change of diet. Instead, avail yourselves of the great masters of dramatic and poetic literature, or take excursions with some of the standard essayists, historians, or novelists. Believe me, every moment spent in the society of such men as Shakespeare, Teniyson, Montaigne, Macaulay, or Fielding will repay you a thousandfold. Nor is it only on your entry into practice that the resources of general literature will be found of incalculable benefit. There is no hunum occupation which taxes the vital energies more than the practice of medicine. Jn the severe strain imperatively entailed by close attention to a large visiting- list, and tlie constant devotion of the mind to one lino of thought, we have just the conditions most favorable for a pre- mature breakdown in the delicate mechanism of the human mind and body. The remedy against such a catastrophe is thus cogently put by Sir William Mitchell Banks, in an oration, " Physic and Letters," deliv- ered before the Medical Society of London a few years ago : — " The essay;, the review, the poem, the incident of travel, the glamour of his- tory, the romanace; these are the things that for a short, sweet, evening hour or two will carry him into a land where there are no querulous complainings of sick men, no tearful faces of anxious relatives, no thankless words of ungrateful patients." Or, if you would hear a more ancient authority on the same subject, letmethus quote you from Langford's essay, "The Praise of Books" : " As friends and companions, as teachers and consolers, as reereatoi-s and amusers, books are alway.s with us, and always ready to respond to our wants. We can take them with us in our wanderings, or gather them around us at our firesides. Ju the lonely wilderness^ and (he crowded city, their spirit will be with us, giving a meaning to the seem- ingly coni'used movements of humanity, and peopling the desert with their own bright creations." It may seem superlluous to tell you that in order to reap these advan- tages you must l)e readers not collectors of l)ooks. I 'have known some good men develop into the latter only. Better ! a thousand times /} I t \- r ' t better ! a dozen good IjooIcs well tliuinbed than ii whole library of iinoiit volumes, though of the choicest. Oliver Wendell lloltnea, in his "Autocrat of the Breakfast Tabic," sajh • — " (!ertain thiDgs are good for nothing until Miey have been kept a long while; and some are good for nothing until they have been long kept and used. Of the llrst, wine is the illustrious and immortal example. Of those which must be kept and usckI I will name three, — meerchaum pipes, violins, and poems." The latter part of the saying is etjually applicable to books as a whole. As your instructor in mental diseases, it v/ould hardly bl; right that I should allow you to escape all mention of the place occupied by my own specialty in your future career. " The proper study of mankind is man" said the poet Pope, and in a very special sense is this true of the medical profession. You, whose duty it will be to consider all that relates to the health of your fellow-men, have to regard man not only as an organized being having certain relations to the external world, Imt also as endowed with a mental constitution, through which his material organization is constantly influenced. You know how closely the mind and body are related to each other in health and disease, it therefore behoves you to watch well and carefully analyze the mental peculiarities of your patients. Believe me, there is no department of study to which you can give attention that will yield more therapeutic aid in dealing with the sick than a thorough cultivation of the power of quickly estimating their mentjil states. The psychological conditions of a patient e.xercise an important intluence on the progress of disease, on the character of secretions and excretions, and on the elfects of various remedies. It is, therefore, just as necessary that you should give some study to the intellectual jmwers of your charge, that you should know how to handle his will, imagination, and emotions, as it is that you should know how and when to give certain drugs, and the effects you expect them to yield. When you come to the bedside of the sick try to enter into the feelings and moods of the patient, remem])er that pain and disease are stern realities, changing the mental tones so that you cannot judge the sick by the well. At the bedside, too, be brave-hearted and joyous. Physical health is, unfortunately, not con- tagious, but mental and moral health is. There is much sound sense in the old quatrain : — "Speak sober truth with smiling lips; the bitter wrap in sweetness, Sound sense in .seeming nonsense, as the grain is hid in chatf. And fear not that the lesson e'er may seem to lack eonii)leteness, A man may say a wise thing, though he say it with a laugh." And now, as you bid adieu to all the pleasant memories of student- life to enter on the battle which all nmst wage, with our united right hands we give you a reluctant good-by, a hearty God-speed. In many 6 a graver sciiHon, I doubt not, you will look luick on the busy, happy hours, full of hiightt'Ht hope, pasHod in tho college IuiIIh, and will long cherish the friendships fornied therein. Let me add, in eoiuiluKion, that in receiving your degrees to-day, you have pledged yournelves to your Alma Mater. I'er vows are on you. You go forth as tru(! knights sworn to hcmoiir and (idclity. See that no act of yours brings discredit on her. ' Always, throughout your life, let your motto be loyalty, — loyalty to yourselves, h>yalty to your fellow-men, loyalty to your Alum Mater, Old McOill. I 7 T i -V\