Page:Advice to Medical Students (1857) William Henry Fuller.djvu/3



October 1, 1857.

,—We are this day assembled to inaugurate the opening of another medical session, an event of the deepest interest to us all. To many of us this day is the anniversary of our first introduction within these walls, and it speaks of the time when, like those who are now beginning their professional career, we entered on the trials of a medical life. It recalls the strange perplexity and misgiving we felt when first we mixed with those who were to be our fellow-students at the hospital, and, some at least, our friends in after life: the difficulties we had to encounter, the temptations we had to resist, the need we found for counsel and assistance. And few persons can come to a meeting like the present, and see so many young men about to enter on a race which they themselves have partially run already, without a sense of deep anxiety and heartfelt interest on their account. They cannot fail to remember that, spite of many advantages and much excellent advice, they wasted precious time which ought to have been devoted to the study of their profession or the moral culture of their minds; that they lost many opportunities of improvement, and neglected many seasons of usefulness to their