Title page from the published version of Comegys’ lecture.
In the mid-1850s, C.G. Comegys delivered the introductory lecture at the start of the new session of the Miami Medical College in Cincinnati. It was printed for general distribution in 1856.
Comegys chose as his topic(s) the medical profession in general and, as a closing argument, the need for the medical profession in the United States to have legal protections. He begins with an overview of the College’s particular history, focusing on distinguished alumni and their contribution to the American profession.
Interesting to a modern audience is Comegys’ bland discouragement of the students:
If you are rapidly seeking and expecting success; if your honors are to come easily, and your emoluments abundantly, I am pained to say you have chosen the wrong road. (7)
This may seem slightly strange to a 21st century reader who might expect a speaker to talk about high student debt, but probably not low professional returns! Still, this fits well with the rest of Comegys’ argument that the medical profession is being devalued by “quacksalvers” and charlatans: “Those who have studied the art find themselves confounded with those who have not the least notion of it.” (15) His push for legal protections for the medical profession comes at least as much from concern for the status of doctors and physicians as it does from concern for the health of the paying public.
As always, for more from the Medical Heritage Library, please visit our full collection!