experience pleased the ignorant, his violent criticisms of everything preceding him appealed to the unschooled Protestant mind; indeed, he compared his cause with the fight of Protestantism against Catholicism; his very violence tallied with the revolutionary spirit of the time; the mysticism of the medicinal power of a substance when reduced to an unthinkable minimum was a stunning exemplification of the superiority of the spirit over the body; the ridicule and persecution to which his teaching and his vehemence exposed him were claimed as martyrdom.'

Moreover the homeopathists had a real martyrdom. Some sixty years ago the regular profession of the United States turned against them with the same vehemence that was exhibited by Hahnemann himself and his first apostles. That was taken by the American public as unfair; it always takes the side of those who are or appear persecuted. From that time dates the success of homeopathy in America, and its conquest of the hearts and minds of a large portion of the public. That is why homeopathy had a longer life than any other system which was the outcome of any man's mere thinking or mere imagining. Indeed all systems are of that origin, Stahl's, Brown's, Rademacher's, Thompson, no matter who it was. To-day, however, medicine has reached that period of evolution which no longer permits it to be called a system. Since it came to be studied like one of the natural sciences, like biology, there are no schools any more, but simply medicine. Homeopathy has also undergone changes like everything mortal in its own ranks. We in New York know that better than most States. Twenty-five years ago there were in our city a hundred medical shingles with the title homeopath painted on them. I believe there has not been one these ten years. The examination papers of the State Board of Examiners are the same for all the three Boards, with the exception of those questions which refer to materia medica. A goodly number of the practitioners who are called by the public by their former name, never use it themselves; there is no doubt that many who

graduated from a homeopathic college and are called homeopaths by the ever faithful ladies of the hotel piazzas, are satisfied to be practitioners of medicine. And I have reason to believe that the time is not distant when there will be no school, no sect, but medicine only. If a practitioner after having, by passing his examinations, satisfied the people of the State that he is competent, choose with the consent of his patient to regulate his therapeutical measures to suit himself or his patient, that is his own taste or business. For remember what we have sworn to in our Hippocratic oath: "I will follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patient." But I believe firmly that in a short time we shall have one Board of Examiners in place of three, and one solid body of medical men willing and competent to fight for the welfare of the public against quackeries of all sort.

In New York State we had year after year to convince the Legislature that the claims of so-called osteopathy and other just as pretentious but less aggressive Christian Sciences were contrary to common sense and the interests of the people. When lately I read before the Committee of the Legislature the following alleged definition of osteopathy-it cannot be learned by heart- as contained in the bill in which they asked recognition and a special Board of Examiners - please to listen: Osteopathy means that science or system of healing which treats diseases of the human body by "manual therapeutics for the vital remedial forces within the body itself, for the correction of misplaced tissue and the removal of obstructions or interferences with the fluids of the body," all without the internal administration of drugs or medicines - and asked them whether they understood what it meant, and told them that I did not, I knew that this Legislature at least was proof against the claims of Osteopathists to have a Board of State Examiners of their own.

A few weeks ago a patient with the symptoms of a weak heart muscle, asked me whether I approved of his having consulted,

upon the advice of a friend, an osteopath. When I told him that I did not approve of being insulted by his asking me whether I consented to his consulting a quack he appeared crestfallen, and left. He reappeared after some little time to apologize as he said for having proposed a question I disliked to hear. My reply was: Do not apologize to me, apologize to yourself. can understand that there are ten thousand Catholics in New York who are cured of certain nervous diseases or disorders by kneeling before a Maria, or by praying to a saint; I can even appreciate that hysterical men and women are benefited by the confidence they have in what they are pleased to call Christian Science; but it takes a frame of what you call your mind, and a mental darkness which are not intelligible to me, to believe that any disease can be influenced by the anatomically and physically impossible feat of twisting a spinal bone this way or that way."

Gentlemen, I have seen graduating classes passing before my eyes and out of view these forty-five years. Many of them whom I bade Godspeed have passed away, many have filled their places with success and renown, others have disappeared from sight without leaving their imprint. Still there are opportunities for everybody. It is true enough that health, circumstances and luck have a good deal to do with the happenings of whosoever is mortal. But there is nobody that is not to a great extent responsible for his fate. Self-made men endowed with principles and endurance are frequent in every trade and profession. Some rules indigenous with every ethical man should be followed; and perhaps it is unnecessary to urge them here. Still, permit me to express in words part of what I should wish you to mind.

You have been under-graduate students until this commencement. Let it be the commencement of your post-graduate study. I take it that you have learned enough to be able to learn more. I once read of the happiness of him who does not know he is no doctor. That happiness should not be yours. Whoever would have stood still with his achievements of 40 or 50 years ago,

would be a hopeless mental corpse. The good doctor of only 20 years ago would be a musty relic to-day if the progress of study and of science had passed him unnoticed. Constant attention and work alone will keep you young and abreast of the time. Follow closely the literature of your science and art. Collect a library of your own according to your means. Be sure to take half a dozen medical magazines, one of the great weeklies, a few high grade monthlies and quarterlies, and one historical journal. For as without the knowledge of the history of your country you cannot understand its structure, or without that of the embryo the full development of the body, so without that of your science and art you will not be a citizen in your profession. It is a pitiful sight to learn that many efforts are thrown away only to rediscover what should have been known. I remember the disappointment our patient and great O'Dwyer experienced when after years of hard work and close thinking he learned that a third of a century previously Bouchut came near accomplishing the intubation of the larynx in membranous croup. It is true that after all the world is ringing with his praise, but years were spent by him in unnecessary preparations.

When your private library does not suffice, turn to public collections. Where there is none, create one. There should be no county society without either a circulating or a permanent library. You will always find friends in the association of American librarians, and in the large libraries of the country. That of the New York Academy of Medicine alone furnishes much valuable material to several dozen of medical libraries all over the Union.

Try to remain in or improve your contact with all the branches of medicine. There is, it is true, nobody who can know all the various specialties or practice them-Seneca said 2,000 years ago: "The man who is everywhere is nowhere nusquam est qui ubique est - but you should know enough of them to appreciate their relations to the entire organism. Those of you who mean to practice a specialty, I advise you to go into general

practice first, and build up a specialty in later years on the strength of your general knowledge and attainments. Those who expect to obtain a reputation and riches out of premature limitation, will not attain success. That such a one cannot reach distinction in his own profession goes without saying; for those specialists who enjoy the confidence and respect of the profession have worked and are known for their general and broad information. But he cannot even impose upon the hearts and purses of the laymen for any length of time before he is found out. The homely saying that you cannot fool all the people all the time is correct. It may be true that there are many reasons why we should not have a high opinion of the discernment and discretion in matters medical of a large part of the public. For there is too much clairvoyance, Christian lackof-science, medical sectarianism, and medicine-chest quackery, and too much dilettantism amongst our well-clad and well-fed semi-instructed, but uncultured and mentally unbalanced classes. But if there is any science or art in which the dilettantism both of the narrow specialist and of the busy-body lay adviser is detrimental, it is medicine. We have been told that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. That is a mistake. knowledge that is dangerous it is ignorance. But do not stick to your books alone. leaders only when they open your eyes to see the world with. You cannot learn medicine from books alone any better than you can chemistry or politics. Look for bedside experience. Unfortunately, however, there are very few teaching institutions in our country in which clinical instruction is what it should be. Few under-graduates study in schools with hospitals of their A mechanic is expected to learn his handicraft before practicing; but the medical student is permitted to practice on his fellowmen without having the required schooling. That is what gives so much probability to Ughett's story of a Scotch king who would not admit a doctor to his own land except after

own.

It is not

They are masterful