Excerpt from Address to the Graduates of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New-York: At the Commencement, Held March 12, 1846

In the second place let me advise you now to begin a systematic course of reading in relation to your profession. In the course of his studies, and especially during his attendance upon the lectures, the student has little leisure for doing any thing more than to run over the ordinary text books on the various branches to which his attention may be called. Useful as this class of books unquestionably is, there is another which is still more valuable. I mean those standard works on particular subjects, which embody the results of years of the thought and labor and expe rience of the ablest men, who have adorned our profession. In these, you will find subjects discussed in a very different way, from what they are in the popular text-books of the day. It is these, therefore, that you ought now to begin to read, and among others I would refer especially to the writings of Hippocrates, Boerhaave, Sydenham, Huxham, Sir John Pringle, Hillary, Moseley, Sir Gilbert Blane, Cleghorn, John Hun ter, Rush, and the thousand valuable monographs with which our pro fessional literature abounds. In alluding to Hippocrates, I would re mark, that it is hardly to be expected that many of you will be able to peruse him in the original language in which he wrote. Of many of his more important works, however, you will find good translations, and these I would recommend to you. While on this subject, I cannot suf fer this opportunity to pass without calling your attention to a work which is in progress, and which I trust will shortly make its appearance, and that is a condensed, 'yet full abstract of the writings of the father of Physic. This work is undertaken by our learned countryman, Prof. John Redman Coxe, of Philadelphia. Should the task be executed, as from the ability of the person engaged in it, I anticipate it will be, I know of no learned labor that will reflect more credit upon the author or upon the professional literature of his country, and at the same time confer a more lasting benefit upon his professional brethren. Should the work be patronized as it ought to be, it will furnish a good omen of the future progress of medicine in this country.

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