Page:Advice to Medical Students (1857) William Henry Fuller.djvu/8

8 at its outset by negligence or irregularity, is gradually led ou to utter idleness and into evil company, and finds himself at the close of his hospital career without the knowledge requisite for the proper exercise of his profession, and without a character calculated to assist him in any effort he may be then induced to make to redeem his mispent hours. For, remember, the tribunal by which you will be judged hereafter will not be composed only of us who are now your teachers at the hospital, but of your friends, your contemporaries, your fellow-students, who will have ample opportunities of marking your conduct, and who, whatever their present feelings, will assuredly form their estimate of your character according to the incidents of your student life. Yes, whilst you fancy yourselves unnoticed, your career will be closely watched by those whose observation you cannot escape; and in future days, when you stand in need of assistance, you will be surprised to find how closely all your acts have been noted, and how greatly the position you are to occupy in the world will depend upon the character you earn for yourselves during the three years you pass at this hospital.

Let me beg of you, then, one and all, to devote yourselves from the very outset to the study of your profession. Begin, as you intend to go on; be regular and constant in your attendance at lectures; be diligent in the dissecting-room, earnest in your private studies, zealous in the pursuit of that practical knowledge which is only to be acquired in the wards of the hospital. Miss nothing; neglect nothing; for that which to-day appears of little moment, will be found ou the morrow to supply a link in your educational chain, and to be necessary to the right understanding of the subject then before you. Consider well the magnitude and exceeding interest of the study you have embraced; its subject is the marvellous fabric of the human body, the mutual relation of its various parts, the perfection of its entire mechanism, the