evident, gentlemen, that in the pursuit of the distinguished career for
which you are preparing, you are expected to make yourselves the
benefactors of your fellow-men. Now, in order to do so, it will not
suffice for you to understand the nature of the various diseases which
flesh is heir to, together with the specific powers of every drug
described in works on materia medica. The knowledge of anatomy and
surgery, and of the various branches that are taught by the many
professors with whom I have the honor of being associated in the work of
your medical education, no matter how fully that knowledge be mastered,
is not sure by itself to make you benefactors to your fellow-men, unless
your conduct in the management of all your resources of science and art
be directed to procure the real welfare of your patients. Just as a
skilful politician may do more harm than good to his country if he
direct his efforts to improper ends, or make use of disgraceful means;
as a dishonest lawyer may be more potent for the perversion than the
maintenance of justice among his fellow-citizens; so likewise an able
physician may abuse the beneficent resources of his profession to
procure inferior advantages at the sacrifice of moral rights and
superior blessings.

Your career, gentlemen, to be truly useful to others and pursued with
safety and benefit to yourselves, needs to be directed by a science
whose principles it will be my task to explain in this course of
lectures--the science of MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE.

It is the characteristic of science to trace results to their causes.
The science of _Jurisprudence_ investigates the causes or principles of
law. It is defined as "the study of law in connection with its
underlying principles." _Medical Jurisprudence_, in its wider sense,
comprises two departments, namely, the study of the laws regarding