turned on his right side, and expired, a little after two o'clock, on the morning of the 21st, without a struggle.

It deserves to be mentioned, that about two hours before he died, he ate, very eagerly, half of an apple, and a small piece of bread: but, while swallowing, was somewhat convulsed.

He was always greatly convulsed while discharging his clysters but he passed his urine without any similar affection.

After his death, there were no livid spots on any part of his body; but the parts to which the blisters had been applied, had turned of a blackish hue. His ears had turned black, and the nails of his hands and feet were blue.

October, 1802.

NOTE.

The foregoing case will not be deemed altogether uninteresting. The unfortunate subject of the relation had taken (very soon after the mortal bite was inflicted) a considerable quantity of the Anagallis, in the efficacy, of which, both as a preventive and cure of hydrophobia, so much confidence has been reposed, not only in Pennsylvania and other parts

of the United-States, but also in several of the countries of Europe. He was afterwards treated by some of the most powerful means that have ever been employed for the cure of this dreadful disease. The injections of Tobacco were exhibited by my advice, as the well known effects of this active article in relaxing spasms, seemed to afford a distant prospect of its being of service. I was led, by another consideration, to recommend the tobacco. Injections of this plant have sometimes been used with advantage in the disease of tetanus, which bears, in several respects, a near relation to hydrophobia.

EDITOR.

XXIII. Valedictory Charge, delivered to the Graduates in Medicine, at the Commencement, held June 5th, 1805, in the University of Pennsylvania. By BENJAMIN RUSH, M. D., Professor of the Institutes and Practice of Medicine, &c.

IF the last sight of any thing, even of a tree, or a stream of water, be attended with distressing emotions; what must the feelings of a teacher be, when he takes a last and farewel look at a number of his pupils, endeared to him by diligence in their studies, by the most amiable deportment, and by numerous instances of personal respect, in his intercourse with them? Under the influence of these reflections, I feel, gentlemen, more than I am able to express; and, were I permitted to obey the impulses of my heart, I would only squeeze your hands, and,

by an affectionate silence, convey to you my wishes for your future welfare. But as the custom of our University calls for a parting Address, upon this public occasion, I shall endeavour to discharge this duty, by briefly suggesting to you a few directions, intended to promote your improvement and usefulness in your profession; and, while my voice only sounds in your ears, imagine you hear your other Professors, and the Trustees of the institution, inculcating the same advice upon you.

Invested, as you have just now been, with the honours of this University, you have not yet finished your medical studies. You have only laid a foundation for them, on which to build, must be the business of your future lives. To enable you to do so,

it will be necessary in the

1st place, To continue your application to books. If a physician acquire skill by his own solitary experience, how much more will he acquire, by availing himself of the experience of several hundred physicians! But reading will be necessary, not only to encrease your stock of ideas, but to retain those you have acquired; for such is the nature of the human mind, that, unless it be continually excited by fresh accessions of knowledge, it will soon lose all that it has acquired in early life: hence it is no uncommon thing to find an old physician more ignorant than he was when he first began the practice of medicine. I need hardly repeat, what has been often inculcated upon you in the course of your studies, to make

allowances in reading books written and published in foreign countries, for the difference which climate, diet, and manners make, in the character of diseases, and even in the doses of the same medicines.

2dly. Let me recommend to you to record the history of the weather of every season; of the quality of those vegetable and animal substances which constitute the food of man; and, afterwards, to mark the diseases which accompany, or follow, them, with their changes and combinations, and the exact order of their succession to each other. You will thus acquire habits of attention and reflection, and be enabled to revive and apply, at your pleasure, all the knowledge you have accumulated in this way. For, however strange it may sound, I believe few physicians, who have neglected this practice, ever remember, correctly, the symptoms of the diseases they have attended, beyond the two or three last years of their lives.

3dly. You owe, gentlemen, a large debt of gratitude to your ancestors in medicine. This debt can be paid, only, by communicating the result of your experience and knowledge to your cotemporaries and posterity. Let no fact, therefore, however inconsiderable it may appear, that tends to lessen the mortality, or even the pain, of a single disease, sleep in your common-placebooks, or perish in your memories. The ocean consists of drops; and minute parts, collected and arranged in a certain order, are indispensably necessary to constitute the comely pillars and stately dome of the great fabric of medicine. Recollect, further, that the

services you render to your patients, in curing their diseases, may be considered as articles of commerce, which are exchanged for the means of your subsistence; but the services you render, by publishing your discoveries, will be gratuitous offerings upon the altar of humanity. They will, moreover, be honourable to our profession, for they will draw a line between your characters, as physicians and benefactors to mankind, and the sordid and vulgar traders in the health and lives of their fellow-creatures.

You begin your professional career, gentlemen, under the most auspicious circumstances. A new æra has commenced in our science. Natural history and chemistry have lately shed an unusual portion of light upon the theory and practice of physic. Habits of observation, ardour, and correctness in experimenting, and intrepidity in reasoning, have likewise succeeded a superstitious attachment to forms and names, in our schools of medicine. The effects of these new aids, and modes, of acquiring medical knowledge, have lately appeared in the diminution of the mortality of many diseases.

Improve, perfect, and perpetuate, what has been so happily and successfully begun by the present generation. We commit their unfinished labours to your care; and, while we are descending into the vale of life, we shall be consoled in reflecting, that the science we have loved and taught, from its encreasing advantages, will be more useful in your hands than it has been in ours.