[ xii ]
life, and often the bulk of his fortune, to administer more skillful aid to the calamities of his distressed fellow mortals, if he is to be considered as entitled only to the same gratuity with those who employ all their time at home, in getting money, instead of spending it for the public good? or is he to be allowed no more, than if, in acquiring this knowledge, he had been supported at a public expence?—let unbiassed reason and justice determine.
I am sorry that the objections, which have been made to my proposed method of practice, have laid me under the disagreeable necessity of mentioning the kind of education I have had to qualify me for my profession, and to afford me a reasonable expectation of a living from my advice and attendance.
It is now more than fifteen years since I began the study of medicine in this city, which I have prosecuted ever since without interruption. During the first six years I served an apprenticeship with Dr. John Redman, who then did, and stills continues to enjoy a most justly acquired reputation in this city for superior knowledge and extensive practice in physic. At the same time I had an opportunity of being acquainted with the practice of other eminent physicians in this place, particularly of all the phy-
