Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Address Delivered to the Graduating Class of the Indiana Medical College, at the Public Commencement, Feb. 18, 1847
The first question before you for decision is, Where shall you settle? It is an important one. It involves so many considerations, and cov ers such a field of results, that the motive finally determining the choice will be the cynosure of your destiny. An error in the commencement of a mathematical calculation vitiates the whole process; so may an error in the outset vitiate your career. As a governing principle in choosing a location, I advise you to seek arich and populous district; or if your inclinations lead you to be among the first on the ground in some newly opened region of the west, let there be peculiar advantages, as navigation, water-power, mineral wealth, &c. Promising the most certain and rapid advancement. Avoid more than you would the pestilence, a poor, sparsely settled, incapable region, where listless ia activity might supercede energy where intellect might slumber; and where in the idle and tedious probation Of waiting for business, foul weeds might spring up in the mind and choke your professional aspira tions. Your success will mainly depend on the numbers that dwell around you, and on their ability to pay for your services. All other considerations are of secondary importance compared with these. There may be a choice, to be sure, in places possessed of these requisites, arising from personal adaptedness. One Physician may be better adapted to city life and practice, possessing a more disciplined ability in the art of prescribing, and-leaving prescriptions to be compounded by the Apothecary; whilst another may prefer a country life and prac tice, and can compound and dispense extemporaneously, with acquired facility and tact, and with a satisfaction or security he might not feel entrusting these matters to another. Taste, habits, education, &c. Grounding a preference in good and sufficient reasons, will guide you here. It is important that there be no fault in the place in the abstract; for should you find after a few years trial, that your location was an uh favourable one, much of your time and efforts, thus far, would have been spent in vain. It is a serious evil to be obliged to break up and begin anew.
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