Excerpt from Introductory Lecture Delivered at the Opening of the Albany Medical College, in the Anatomical Theatre, January 2, 1839 Contemplating this brief summary, which is but a feint and imperfect outline of the collateral departments im mediately connected with the duties of our profession, we cannot fail to be impressed with the elevated and profound qualifications it demands; nor can we suppress an involuntary shudder at the hardihood of the illiterate empiric, who ventures upon the high responsibilities of the divine art of healing, without preliminary, and even without thorough education. Indeed it is not the least among the wonders of the age, that intelligent and eu lightened men Will commit their own persons, their wives and little ones, their stomachs, lungs and brains, to the terrific experiments of quackery, until they become the self-immolated victims of these murderers of the human race. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.