The First Lecture of Medical School

My first lecture of medical school started out with this fascinating poem. I couldn't help but share:

Heredity I am the family face; Flesh perishes, I live on, Projecting trait and trace Through time to times anon, And leaping from place to place Over oblivion. The years-heired feature that can In curve and voice and eye Despise the human span Of durance -- that is I; The eternal thing in man, That heeds no call to die -Thomas Harding