CENTENNIAL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND JOHN C. HEMMETER, M.D., Phil. D., LL.D. B. MERRILL HOPKINSON, M.D., Secretary FINANCE THOS. A. ASHBY, M.D., Chairman 1125 Madison Avenue MUSIC B. MERRILL HOPKINSON, M.D. Professional Building HONORARY DEGREES JOHN P. POE, LL.D. PROGRAMMES, PRINTING, INVITATIONS, ETC. PRESS AND PUBLICATION OREGON MILTON DENNIS, Esq. RECEPTION T. O. HEATWOLE, M.D., D.D.S BANQUET COMMITTEE 1103 Madison Avenue ORATORS W. CALVIN CHESTNUT, ESQ. Calvert Building OREGON MILTON DENNIS, LL.B., Law Department C. V. MATTHEWS, DD.S., Dental Department CHARLES CASPARI, JR., PHAR. D., Pharmaceutical Department THOMAS FELL, A.M., LL.D., Academic Department OPENING ADDRESS OF DR. HENRY M. WILSON. ALUMNUS 1850-CHAIRMAN OF THE MASS MEETING OF ALUMNI OF ALL DEPARTMENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, ON JANUARY 22, 1907. It is a charming custom, especially observed among the English-speaking races, to celebrate the home-coming of families at stated times. This custom also obtains among certain colleges and universities, when the years have speeded into the centuries. In preparation for such an occasion we have met tonight. The centennary of our old University draws on apace, and it has been deemed fitting that her sons should embrace the opportunity to testify their love and kindly memories of all the past of her history, and their God-speed for her enlarged duties in the future. As one of the oldest, if not the oldest of her alumni here present, I can look back beyond the half-century mark. I entered her halls in '48, and can speak with confidence of the value of her teaching. Whatever was known to science at that time was faithfully taught, and that, too, by men as competent as any in the country. I recall the peerless anatomist, Joseph Roby, the brilliant clinician and auscultator, William Power, the scholarly Chew, and the old Emperor, as we used to call him, Nathan R. Smith, than whom a greater surgeon did not live in this country, or indeed in any other. But why linger on an old generation of professors, when their successors, whom you all know, have so ably sustained and advanced her reputation. As a matter of fact, our Alma Mater has never fallen below the highest standard, either in men or methods. As special investigations have been made, or discoveries appeared in any part of the world, she has at once given her students the knowledge of such work. She has encouraged specialties in her curriculum, and so her Dental Annex has been noted for thoroughness and success: her Legal Department has been served by some of the most learned talent of the bar, and she has sent forth many with her imprimatur, who are to be defenders of the State and its citizens either with the "serge or ermine." She reaches the century mark with no semblance of senile infirmity. Her step is all the firmer, and her voice has still the ring of the trumpet, as she beckons her sons to the front and points onward. She steps upon the threshold of the century, not alone or unattended. Her jubilee is enriched by another trophy. Her ægis now covers another college of liberal arts-St. John's College, of Annapolis, which comes to us not as a weakling, but full-grown and strong; whose hand we grasp in token of common rights and common privileges, and to whom we extend a right-royal welcome to all the old home affords. But I must not forget that distinguished representatives of her different faculties are here present, and I will no longer detain you from the pleasure of hearing them. |