ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.—STEPHENS. 143 Nothing can be more distasteful than to see men of apparently good abilities waiting for some one to come and help them over difficulties. Be your own helper. If a rock rises up before you kick it out of your way or climb over it. If you want money earn it; if you want confidence, prove yourself worthy of it, and do not be content with doing what has been done in your profession, surpass it if you can; but bear in mind that sticking to the old rut is only the right policy so long as no better way presents itself, and when you have discovered that way, be not slow to improve it. I charge you to be punctual in all your dealings; to be punctual in all your appointments, is a duty resting upon you, no less obligatory than common honesty. An appointment with your patient, or brother physicians with whom you may be called in consultation, should be considered a contract, and if you do not keep it, you are dishonestly using other people's time, and consequently their money. By lack of punctuality in meeting your engagements promptly, which by exertion you might have done, you are guilty of a gross breach of etiquette. You should make punctuality not only a courtesy, but a point of conscience. Nothing inspires confidence in a physician sooner than this quality, nor is there any habit which so soon saps his reputation as a good doctor than that of always being behind time. Seeing that he is not conscientious about his appointments, the people readily conclude that he would be as careless about other duties, and they will refuse to trust him with matters of so high importance as surround the sick and dying. Thousands of doctors have failed in the very outset, because of being too slack in fulfilling their engagements, and meeting their obligations in even matters of smallest import. In all your transactions and engagements of every character fulfill your promises, and be sure that you do not promise too much, more than you are capable of doing, especially the promise to cure diseases, where other doctors of riper years and greater experience have failed. In a word, gentlemen, be men of honor; what a glorious title it is, to be called a doctor of honor. Who would not rather have the title than anything kings can bestow. He who merits it wears a jewel within his soul, and needs none upon his bosom. His word is his bond, and to take unfair advantage of his brother physician is not in him. To quabble and guard his speech so that he leads others to suppose that he means something that he does not mean, even while they can never prove it, would be impossible to his frank nature. He looks you square in the eye and says straight out the things he has to say, and he does unto others the things he would that they should do to him. "All the law and the prophets hangs upon this." It's the golden rule, the all sufficient code of medical ethics to the honorable physician, and he needs no other so far as his dealings with his medical brethren are concerned. I charge you also to make sunshine wherever you go, among all classes, and to do this you will only have to show kindness to all. Such a course will give you friends, wherever you may chance to wander, whether you dwell with the savage tribes of the forest or with civilized races, kindness is a language understood by the former as well as the latter. To show kindness it is not necessary to give large sums of money, or to perform some wonderful deed that will immortalize your name. It is shown in the tear dropped with the mother over the bier of her departed child; it is the word of sympathy to the sick, the discouraged and the disheartened; the cup of cold water and the slice of bread to the thirsty and hungry one. Let no ease or indulgence contract your affections, and so wrap you up in selfish enjoyment as to cause you to forget the distresses of human life. Think of the solitary cottage, the dying parent and weeping children, and endeavor to so write your name on the tablets of their hearts by acts of kindness, love and mercy. I charge you that you be not too vain and wise in your own conceit. Vanity in a doctor is like opium and other poisonous medicines, it is beneficial in small, but injurious in large quantities. Be not so greedy of notice or popular applause as to be forgetful of the fact that the same breath which blows up a fire, may blow it out again. Some would be thought to be great things who are but tools or instruments, like the fool who fancied he played upon the organ when he only blew the bellows. Some doctors gas too long; if they would gas in and then stop it might do very well, but many continue until they gas out again, and the people find they are nothing but gas. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.-SIBLEY. 145 In conclusion, allow me to say, you have chosen a noble profession, decide upon a noble purpose in that profession. Take it up bravely, bear it off joyfully, lay it down triumphantly. Be industrious, be frugal, be honest, deal with kindness to all who come in your way, and if you do not prosper as rapidly as you wish, depend upon it, you will be happy. Let us so live that when in the evening of life the golden clouds rest sweetly and invitingly upon the golden mountains, and the light of heaven streams down through the gathering midst of death, we may have a peaceful and joyful entrance into that world of blessedness, where the great problem of life, whose meaning we can only guess at here below, will be unfolded to us in the quick, consciousness of a soul redeemed and purified. VALEDICTORY ADDRESS. Delivered at the Nineteenth Annual Commencement of The Medical and Dental Departments of the University of Tennessee, at Nashville, March 22, 1894. BY A. JAY SIBLEY, M.D., OF GOLDTHWAITE, TEXAS. How singularly are the thought, speech and action of man influenced by the locality in which he lives, and moves, and has his being! I I feel this impression to-night, for I have stood on the Gulf of Mexico and seen the wild waves wash the white sand. have stood upon the Plains and seen them stretch out in the distance until they appeared illimitable. I have stood among the Rocky Mountains and seen them lift their rugged forms until their snow-capped summits seemed to mingle with the sky. Yet I feel and know that gulf, plain and mountain are but a dim miniature, a mere symbol, of the greatness, grandeur and glory of that inter-oceanic realm to whose eastern coast the Atlantic brings the rays of the rising sun, and upon whose western boundry his setting beams linger until he sinks into the bosom of the Pacific. No wonder, therefore, that such a country should become an inspiring theme to science, philosophy, history, poetry, oratory, and even prophecy. That there was a purpose and design by Providence in preparing this country equal to the wonders here wrought there can be no doubt. In this vast and varied territory all the cosmic and geologic changes which have taken place in any part of the globe are represented. Even in the glacial epoch there were movements here greater, and on a grander scale, than anywhere on earth. Where rivers now flow through deep canons, beautiful lakes once spread their crystal waters; And from the bosom of plains And where now stretches a dessert there once rolled the billows of an American Mediterranean. Thus North, South, East and West, nature, with mountains, plains and plateaux, with rivers, lakes and streams, with hills and dales, gulfs and oceans, with latitude, longitude and varying altitude, and a corresponding variety of climate, soil and production, has laid the foundation of an empire so vast and with resources so incalculable as to tax the faculties of the human mind to their utmost capacity in attempting its comprehension. Was this empire not intended for the enlaregment of Japheth, as promised by Nahic prophecy, when he should dwell in the tents of Shem? Indeed, the very possession thus held by the Japhetic race is larger than the combined nations of Europe. Senator Ingalls recently said in his lecture here: "All the people of the United States could be clothed, housed and fed in the Lone Star State." She possesses the land and capacity to grow all the cotton "ecessary for the world's consumption, and a sufficiency of grain to feed the whole human family, as well as flocks and herds in sufficient number to furnish meat for every person on the globe. If a solitary State of this Union can truthfully boast of such possessions, how great becomes our wonder and admiration when we consider the vast domain of this great republic. It is both literally and metaphorically true that light comes from the East, but it is equally true that this light kindles into a blaze of effulgent splendor in the West when night has wrapped |