Transcriber's note: This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects. Italics are delimited with the '_' character as _italic_. The few minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please see the transcriber's note at the end of this text for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation. ---------------------------------------------------------------- SKETCHES FROM THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE Ancient and Modern. =AN ORATION= DELIVERED BEFORE THE HUNTERIAN SOCIETY, AT THE LONDON INSTITUTION, ON THE 13TH FEBRUARY, 1867, BY W^M. SEDGWICK SAUNDERS, M.D. LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS, EDINBURGH.—VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE HUNTERIAN SOCIETY.—TREASURER TO THE NEW SYDENHAM SOCIETY.— EXAMINING PHYSICIAN TO THE EAST INDIAN—SCINDE AND DELHI—BOMBAY AND BARODA—GREAT SOUTHERN OF INDIA—CALCUTTA AND SOUTH EASTERN —AND OUDE AND ROHILKUND RAILWAY COMPANIES.—MEDICAL OFFICER TO THE CITY OF GLASGOW LIFE ASSURANCE CORPORATION AND THE METROPOLITAN FIRE BRIGADE, &c.—AUTHOR OF THE “CAUSES AND PREVENTION OF CHOLERA” AND “REPORTS ON CHOLERA IN THE CITY OF LONDON, 1866.” PRINTED AT THE REQUEST OF THE COUNCIL. _For Private Circulation._ LONDON: PRINTED BY M. & W. COLLIS. 50, BOW LANE, CHEAPSIDE, E.C. 1868. ORATION. Mr. President, I purpose to devote the time, which your indulgence has placed at my disposal this evening, to laying before you the results of some inquiries into the origin and history of medicine and of the medical profession; regarding the subject rather from a _social_ than from a _scientific_ point of view. My scheme will introduce you to some of your old acquaintances; not for instruction, but to remind you of those passages in their lives which may have been pressed out of your memories by the sterner realities of professional duties. An inquiry into the origin of medicine must begin with the history of man himself, since pain and death are the inevitable conditions of his existence; and the desire to mitigate the former, and postpone the triumphs of the latter arose from, and has kept pace with, the development of the various diseases to which time and circumstances have subjected him.