The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-03-27
MANY NEW DOCTORS
Medical College of Indiana's In
teresting Commencement.
Hon. Byron X. Elliott Delivers an Able
Address-Music Feature
Award of Prizes.

annual commencement of the Medical Col
lege Of Indiana, and the house was packed
to its fullest capacity by students and their
friends, the city's best occupying seats in
the house. The stage setting was a draw
tng-room scene and the front Of the stage
was banked with palms and ported plants
overhead hung the stars and stripes plainly
draped and in the center the college banner
The college colors. blue and yellow, were
displayed all over the house. the palms
and plants being in pots of these colors
When the curtain arose, a few minutes
after o'clock, DR.. Franklin W. Hays, sec
rotary Of the faculty. and DR.. Kitchen ap-
peared in the door at the rear of the stage
followed by Judge Elliott and DR.. Elder
heading the line of members of the faculty
and graduates They marched to the
stage in double file, down the aisle through
to seats arranged for them. The seating
Of the graduates upon the stage in such
perfect order was due to the experience of
DR.. Franklin w. Hays. who acted as mas
ter Of ceremonies for the commencements
of the college for twelve years past In
the arrangements of last night there was
not hitch the experience of Dr. HAYS
proving triumphant over the many vexing
and perplexing details to be cared for
While the faculty, speakers and graduates
were being seated the orchestra was playing
march, THE Medical College Of Indiana. ="
by Miller. The exercises were opened by
prayer by Rev. Dr. Henry A. Buchtel. The
hrst number on the programme was vio-
I'm solo by Will G. Sterne, "Canzonetta,"
by Dudley Buck
DR.. Z. s. Elder dean of the faculty. +ban
iintroduced Judge Byron K. Elliott, who de-
nVered the address on behalf of the faculty
IN introducing the speaker DR.. Elder said
Of he foo
ulty for the speaker to deliver the address
on behaf of the faculty, and named some
dress on former, occasions. He concluded
by saying that this year they had selected
the worthy peer Of any of them. Judge Ell
MOTT, who needed no introduction.
AFTER comparing three classes Of pro-
fessional men-doctors, lawyers and clergy
men-in general way, with a quotation
Mr.. Elliott said:
The influence of the physician is power
this land HOUSEHOLD or a home i'm which
the physician is not the most important
visitor that crosses it's threshold. He stands
the newcomer and bidding farewell TO the
goer away Under God the issues of life
and death are in his hands, disease and
misery, or health and strength often de-
pend upon his knowledge Skill and judg-
ment. An error on his part may cost life
or, II not productive of such serious conse-
quences, may wreck the health of the
patient or send him out into the world in
firm, lame or deformed.
ut needs no argument to prove that
tnere is an 1mperiOuS necessity for medical
education Strong measures are required to
protect the community from pretenders and
charlatans. Humanity has suffered too
much from ignorant pretenders. and it is
high time to end their existence There is
but one safe course and that is for the
law to sternly and imperatively exclude
from the practice Of medicine all except
those who have studied in well-organiZed
colleges, conducted by competent instruct
A fdr. % q
the public veal requires, and this guaran-
tee can only come from an institution gov
erned and conducted by men of integrity
and learning. The time for allowing men
who have not given years of study to the
science OF medicine TO tamper with such
delicate and complex organization as that
of man has gone by. 1t is true that no man
who is worthy TO be physician will enter
the practice of the profession unless he feels
study, but, unfortunately it is also true
that there are men who would enter it for
the greed of gain, though they were con-
scious that they could not tell a case of
collie from a case of typhoid fever. 1t is
for such dishonorable men that strict laws
unrelentingly enforced are required.
Education in the science Of medicine if
rightly conducted, gives skill and power
The object of all practical education lis to
create power, not simply to cram the MEM
DRY with rules and precepts. In no practi-
cal profession is there power unless skill
and learning are combined. A man may
know how to bend the bow of Ulysses, but
IL he lacks the skill to do ii, his knowl-
edge is fruitless. man may know how
Hector of the glancing helm welded his
spear, but the knowledge without the skill
would be a barren thing. A man may be
taught the theory upon which a Sydenham
or Hunter diagnosed diseases but II he
never gets beyond the mere theory he will
do but sorry work when called to tho bed
side of the sick and suffering. 1t is the
man of power who is of service at the
bedside The mere theorist is little else
than a 'John-a-Dreams.' who is ever a
muddy melted rascal If the power that
aItr &c ocIrf
man who assumes to enter upon the active
practice, will go sounding on a dim and
perilous way more perilous to his patients
cine is scientific knowledge of principles, and
skill is the application of that knowledge
with and malls sagacity The
knowledge and that kind of knowl-
edge is deep rooted and yields golden
fruitage. 1t is the kind of knowledge, and
the only kind, that makes a man strong
when strength is needed and gives him
power to successfully grapple with disease
The man who possesses such knowledge is
seldom at fault in diagnosing a case and
his skill is not often baff1ed.
1.-The only knowledge that avails in the
hour of disease and danger Is a. philosophic
one, for. as Bacon justly says, Medicine
not founded on philosophy Is a weak
thing The sagacity and judgment of the
physician must apply the knowledge that
he acquires. but If knowledge be absent
there is nothing to apply, and absent such
knowledge always is If there is not a
philosophical mastery of principles In the
absence of scientific knowledge there can
be nothing but crude guesseS and wild con-
lectures, and If judgment and sagacity be
absent the power to make practical appli-
cation OF acquired knowledge cannot exist
A medical education is neither complete nor
valuable unless ii gives the power to know
what to do and how TO do IL.
AS A SCIENCE.
Medicine is a science as well an art,
and before there can be proficiency In the
art there must be a mastery of the science
If medicine is a science it's principles are
laws of universal sway in all of its do
main Throughout all the universe law
reigns and over all the sciences it holds do
minion Every science has its fundament
laws which in the field of the particular
science are universal. Medicine is no ex-
ception to this all-pervading rule. The laws
of health are universal, and where laws
are universal there can be no distinct sys-
tens or schools, although there may be
diversity of views as to the efficacy OF rem
edies and modes of treatment. FuQdamen-
tally, however, there can be only one
school, since every science Is, in It's prI-
mary elements, unified and indivisible
system of philosophical laws. In these laws
place in the great profession of medicine
must be deeply learned. More than mental
training and discipline is required to hit a
man for the great work Of a physician. 1t
is not enough that the physician be educated
in the principles of medical science or be-
come proficient in the art Of medicine. 1t
is hardly too much to say that there is a
higher and nobler education than this, and
that is education in medical ethics. a man
who knows nothing of the ethics of the pro-