Excerpt from An Introductory Lecture, Delivered in the Medical College of South-Carolina, in November 1835

What has been more abused or mal-administered in some instances, than the principles of law and equity? Do not statesmen, who should regulate governments in the principles of virtue and honor, frequently violate their solemn duties? And has not the sacred temple of God been profaned by ignorance and vice? Yet would we say that all law, all government, all religion, is undeserving of con fidence because some men, either from incapacity or wickedness, do not put fully into practice the immutable principles of equity or the eternal truths of religion? It is true there have been some men, in all ages, who have been dignified with the character of philoso phots, who have thrown the shafts of ridicule and proclaimed their anathemas against religion. Because, under the garb of sanctity, some have polluted the temple of the Most High - and in like manner, the Medical profession has been satirized by the poet, and sneered at by the cynic - because of the ignorance and folly of some of its mem bers. Indeed, when we reflect upon the conflicting doctrines which have been advanced in Medicine, when we reflect upon the con tlanal efforts which are made by Medical men to bring themselves into notice and reputation, by decrying their competitors, and how many pursue the profession, who either by their attainments or pow er of observation or acumen, are unable to apply properly its principles, we have reason rather to wonder at the respect which is still paid to the dicta of Physicians than that there should be at times little or no distinction made by some portions of a community be tween the regularly educated physician and the empirical pretender.

Empiricism has prevailed in every country andin every age. In all professions, nay, in every pursuit of life, we find some men preferring the paths of treachery, cunning, and imposture, to that of honesty, intelligence and virtue; and among the vacillating, weak, and credulous, how many are entangled in its snares - awhile others, afflicted with incurable diseases, hope still fluttering in their bosoms, hke the weary and benighted traveller pursue any false light which may be presented to them - the hapless victims of its fatal promises Our profession has, however, no more to complain of than the pursuits of other men. Whenever the physician is thoroughly acquainted with the principles of his profession, he has nothing to fear, for knowledge, associated with virtue and honor, is a panoply, capable of resisting the shafts of envy, or the intrigues of designing men.

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