Page:Advice to Medical Students (1857) William Henry Fuller.djvu/22

22 men, do not allow yourselves to fall into this common, but grievous error. Do not forget the honour due to human dust, nor fail to bear in mind that the dead body which you are permitted to dissect and examine so carefully, is indeed that body which shall one day rise again and put on immortality. Let your conduct, whether in the dead-house or the dissecting-room, be quiet, thoughtful, and becoming. Strive to the utmost to obtain a thorough knowledge of the subject you are studying; but do so in an earnest, inquiring spirit, abstaining from careless and unseemly jesting. So will you mark your own sense of the almost sacred nature of the work you are engaged upon, and you will establish a character for right feeling, which will have a salutary influence on your fellow-students, and prove of use to you through life.

And if it be necessary to observe propriety of conduct towards the dead, how careful should you be in your behaviour to the living—your poor, sick, suffering fellow-creatures, at whose bedside you are permitted to watch the ravages of disease, and to contemplate the approach of death. Remember that your presence in the wards is only tolerated in order that you may learn to minister to the relief of those who in future days may need assistance, and that you are bound to exercise the greatest care, lest, by any harshness of manner, unkindness of remark, or roughness of conduct, you aggravate the distress of those poor sufferers who are now to form the subjects of your observation. Indeed, this is so obvious, that I am almost ashamed of calling your attention to it; but I would urge you to be not only gentle and decorous in your intercourse with them, but scrupulously kind and considerate towards them. By no class of persons is unkindness felt more keenly; by none is sympathy appreciated more thoroughly, or remembered more gratefully. But whether rich or whether poor, your patients, and those you are brought in contact with professionally, are all equally entitled to look for considerate