An Examination
of certain charges preferred against the medical class of the University of Pennsylvania, during the session of 1834–35.
"Nil falsi audeat, nil veri non audeat dicere."—Cic.
It is our happiness to live in an age when truth is the great object of pursuit with civilized mankind. The genius of liberal opinion, which, a few centuries since, was crippled by prejudice, and opposed by ignorance, is now traversing the nations of Europe and our own country with rapidity, shedding an almost dazzling light upon every department of science and of art, and while it adds new conquests to the empire of mind, subdues our ruder feelings to the influence of the heart. The arrogance of pedantry can no longer impose the sophisms of subtilty for the demonstrations of reality; every assertion is examined, every argument weighed, every conclusion traced; justice awards the palm where partiality once conferred it, and voluntary falsehood is compelled to seek refuge in obscurity from the retribution of an indignant public. No subject, in the discussion, or decision of which, essential principles, or the vital interests of any branch of knowledge are concerned, can pass, without exciting interest, before the eyes of the community, and least of all is indifference shown when that sacred principle of honor, the firmest safeguard of all we value, is called in question, or impugned. If then a case may be produced, in which not only that principle is involved, but in which assaults are directed against the partialities of a body of men, proverbially sensitive in all that regards their privileges, their pursuits, and their early attachments,—from them at least a candid hearing may be anticipated, if not from the world. Such a case we esteem the present one to be, one in which a charge of dark dishonor has been preferred against the oldest medical school on this side the Atlantic, in the disproval of which, not only the present students in her halls have a deep interest, but every physician throughout the land, who has won his laurels in the race for which her skill equipped him. It is a case too which concerns every parent who looks forward to the day when his son shall become an honor to the science of medicine, which concerns every citizen who has at heart the culture of intellect, and the highest good of his country.
And now, it will be asked, what wrongs have been suffered by the students of the University to elicit language such as this? In a public print of this city, known by the name of 'The Pennsylvanian,' on the 21st Feb. 1835, there appeared an article signed 'a Physician,' purporting to be a correct account of certain occurrences leading to the removal of Dr. John Redman Coxe, from the chair of Materia Medica
