Page:A History of the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania.djvu/208

 as a sacred one, and that as such it has been emulously cherished. Nearly eight thousand pupils have graduated from the halls of the institution, and have diffused the blessings of their calling throughout the length and breadth of these United States. But another mission has been assigned to this ancient school of medicine; it has been the nursery of teachers. Deriving its descent from the University of Edinburgh, and more remotely through that institution from the University of Leyden, the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania has in turn become the parent of numerous schools of medicine, and has thus been the means of transferring the facilities of acquiring and cultivating medical science from the Old World to the New. To the compeers which have been brought into existence by its own and other instrumentalities and which are engaged in laudable and honorable efforts to disseminate true learning and science, and to improve the efficiency and maintain the exalted character of the Medical Profession, the University should ever extend a cordial sympathy. The reputation acquired by them is reactive. It is only by mutually sustained energy that the good of mankind can be successfully promoted.