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Excerpt from Success in the Medical Profession: An Introductory Lecture Delivered at the Massachusetts Medical College, November 6th, 1850 N 0 man who embarks his lot for life in our profession - no man who intends to practise it with a view to its highest usefulness to others, as well as to his own best advantage, should aim at the cultivation of the qualities that can only gain him a patronage so worthless and evanescent as this. I believe, gentlemen, I may say with truth, that everything re lating to your studies, your character, your habits, your manners, your social and professional intercourse, may have an influence more or less important on your prosperity in the profession you have chosen; and my present purpose is to offer a few suggestions to aid in preparing you to acquire that sort of confidence which I have described as the only sure foundation for permanent success. Of course I shall be expected to say that a thorough knowledge of medicine is of the first importance, and assuredly it is so. But this general statement requires some qualification. Medicine embraces a vast field of knowledge. To go over the whole of it is impossible, even in a long life. The pupil can only begin its cultivation. All this knowledge is of value; but all is not of equal value. All has some connection, but not an equal connection, with practice. Now the main purpose of the study of medicine with most of us, is to enable us to treat disease. This is the ultimate object, which is to be kept in view at every step. It is for this end that the science of medicine exists for this that the profession exists. This is never for a moment to be forgotten. No doubt there are some physicians whose aim is different - to whom practice is a secondary concern. They mean to acquire a great proficiency in some particular department. They mean to devote peculiar attention to anatomy, to pathology, to organic chemistry, to the microscopic study of organic forms. These are all useful pursuit