of uniting in a testimonial of respect to the memory of their late colleague, Dr. Benjamin Rush, Prof. of the Institutes and Practice of Medicine, and feeling sensibly the afflictive dispensation of Providence, which has removed from the Medical School one of its earliest and ablest supporters, Resolved, that the Secretary be directed to record their high estimation of the talents, learning, and eloquence of their late colleague, and of his unwearied diligence and zeal in the discharge of every official duty.
“That the Professors cherish a lively recollection of his laborious exertions in the promotion of medical science, exertions which have conduced greatly to the reputation and interests of the University, and have conferred important benefits upon mankind.”
To trace the course of medical science through its phases of doctrines and opinions, from the commencement of the eighteenth century, when a remarkable impulse was given to it, to the time when Dr. Rush terminated his labors, would be an agreeable and instructive task. It would present the account of the contest between the lingering power of scholasticism, monkish credulity, bigotry, and dogmatism, and the teachings of experiment, observation, and reason.[1] In Medicine, as in other sciences, the victory declared itself upon the side of humanity. There had previously been a fearful struggle, when death and the dungeon were the awards for the temerity of proclaiming God’s own natural revelations, and of reading, by means he had bestowed, the truths of science; yet, through such a terrible ordeal had science passed, and placed its heel on superstition.
The difficulty is great of being entirely freed from illusive dogmas and long-continued prejudices, which have become a part of the mind itself, and tinctured its mode of operation and expression. This has been the case with Medicine. The metaphysical connection between the soul and body
- ↑ The reader may be referred to two interesting and instructive works for information upon this subject: the “Life of Cullen,” by Dr. Thomson, previously referred to, and the “Brief Retrospect of the Eighteenth Century,” by S. Miller, D. D., vol. i. The article, “Medicine,” in it, was written by the late Edward Miller, M. D., of New York.
