Moral Principles and Medical Practice | Page 2

very life, fosters the vigor of his youth, promotes
the physical and mental, aye, even the moral, powers of his manhood,
sustains his failing strength, restores his shattered health, preserves the
integrity of his aging faculties, and throughout his whole career
supplies those conditions without which both enjoyment and utility of
life would be impossible.
The physician, indeed, is one of the most highly valued benefactors of
mankind. Therefore he has ever been held in honor among his
fellow-men; by barbarous tribes he is looked upon as a connecting link
between the visible and the invisible world; in the most civilized
communities, from the time of Hippocrates, the father of medicine, to
the present day, he has been held in deeper veneration than the
members of almost any other profession; even in the sacred oracles of
Revelation his office is spoken of with the highest commendation:
"Honor the physician," writes the inspired penman, "for the need thou
hast of him; for the Most High hath created him. The skill of the
physician shall lift up his head, and in the sight of great men he shall be
praised. The Most High has created medicines out of the earth, and a
wise man shall not abhor them. The virtue of these things is come to
the knowledge of men, and the Most High has given knowledge to men,
that He may be honored in His wonders. By these He shall cure and
shall allay their pains, and of these the apothecary shall make sweet

confections, and shall make up ointments of health, and of His works
there shall be no end." (Ecclus. xxxiii. 1-7).
2. It is well to remind you thus, gentlemen, at the opening of this new
year of studies, of the excellence of your intended profession; for you
cannot help seeing that a science so noble should be studied for a noble
purpose. In this age of utilitarianism, it is, alas! too common an evil
that the most excellent objects are coveted exclusively for lower
purposes. True, no one can find fault with a physician for making his
profession, no matter how exalted, a means of earning an honest
livelihood and a decent competency; but to ambition this career solely
for its pecuniary remuneration would be to degrade one of the most
sublime vocations to which man may aspire. There is unfortunately too
much of this spirit abroad in our day. There are too many who talk and
act as if the one highest and worthiest ambition of life were to make as
large a fortune in as short a time and in as easy a way as possible. If
this spirit of utilitarianism should become universal, the sad
consequence of it to our civilization would be incalculable. Fancy what
would become of the virtue of patriotism if officers and men had no
higher ambition than to make money! As a patriotic army is the
strongest defence of a nation's rights, so a mercenary army is a dreadful
danger to a people's liberty, a ready tool in the hand of a tyrant; as
heroism with consequent glory is the noble attribute of a patriot, so a
mercenary spirit is a stigma on the career of any public officer. We find
no fault with an artisan, a merchant, or a common laborer if he estimate
the value of his toil by the pecuniary advantages attached to it; for that
is the nature of such ordinary occupations, since for man labor is the
ordinary and providential condition of existence. But in the higher
professions we always look for loftier aspirations. This distinction of
rewards for different avocations is so evident that it has passed into the
very terms of our language: we speak of "wages" as due to common
laborers, of a "salary" as paid to those who render more regular and
more intellectual services; of a "fee" as appointed for official and
professional actions; and the money paid to a physician or a lawyer is
distinguished from ordinary fees by the especial name of "honorary" or
"honorarium." This term evidently implies, not only that special honor
is due to the recipients of such fees, but besides that the services they

render are too noble to be measured in money values, and therefore the
money offered is rather in the form of a tribute to a benefactor than of
pecuniary compensation for a definite amount of service rendered.
Wages may be measured by the time bestowed, or by the effect
produced, or by the wants of the laborer to lead a life of reasonable
comfort; a salary is measured by the period of service; but an honorary
is not dependent on time employed, or on needs of support, or on effect
produced, but it is a tribute of gratitude due to a