who have achieved eminence, as a child Doctor Gunn showed some of those traits of character which explain in a great measure his success, especially his love of mechanics, and a distinctly quick and logical mind that some anecdotes which I shall relate will prove.

The family homestead being located on the main stage route from Rochester to Canandaigua was so conveniently situated that, encouraged by the reputation the Gunns had for hospitality, travelers often stopped there, and clergymen and other men of education made short stays with them. Doubtless, the wits of the young Moses were sharpened and stimulated by frequently listening to the conversation of educated and cultured men, this in some measure accounting for his nimbly-acting mind. One day, when only a little fellow, he was tinkering at a homemade vehicle, and a brother teasingly asked him why he did not hitch. up the old dog and make him pull the wagon. Moses replied that he was too old. The brother retorted "I am going to kill this dog, for he is too old and useless, and takes up too much room," when instantly Moses flashed back, "if you are going to kill everything that is too old, you had better go in a kill your grandmother,"

Again, dissatisfied with The 97 asked why he had been so called, and being told his mother that it was the name of his grandfather, who was a courteous amiable old gentleman, whom his parents hoped to have him emulate, he quickly answered, "that is a good reason but I could just as well have emulated him without his name." When barely five, one Thanksgiving day he was overlooked when some delicacy was handed around. Turning to his aunt he reproachfully said, "Whatevr that was you didn't pass it to me." At once the dish was handed him when with sly humor he said, "Oh, never mind, I do not want it, only I like to have folks pass me things when I am around."

Like straws which prove which way the wind blows, these anecdotes show that the quickness of perception, power of logical deduction, and sense of humor which characterized his after life, even at this early age, were unusually developed.

I would especially ask for the attention of the undergraduate students to the brief remarks I shall make concerning Doctor Gunn's boyhood. Although for a time, as will be seen, seriously handicapped by ill-health, enjoying no special advantages over his fellows, yet, availing himself of every opportunity, however unpromising it appeared, he actually converted what would have been obstacles to others, into opportunities for planting his feet on the lowest rungs of the ladder of As Longfellow says:

success.

"All common things, each day's events,
That with the hour begin and end,

Our pleasures and our discontents,
Are rounds by which we may ascend.

We have not wings, we cannot soar;
But we have feet to scale and climb
By slow degrees, by more and more,
The cloudy summits of our time."

Sent early to school, from twelve to fifteen years of age he had for his tutor a young theological student, a resident in his father's house. Finally, entering the Bloomfield Academy he continued his studies. there until attacked by a serious illness, his behavior during which showing how his strong will could compel his suffering body at any cost to obey that which approved itself to him as right. Thus, during part of this illness he rode to school, at times suffering so much that he could only permit his horse to walk, while the pain in his side made it almost impossible for him to sit upright in the saddle, but, recognizing the evils of such an attitude in the young, he sternly resisted the inclination.

Undismayed by his illness he displayed much fortitude. Instead of succumbing and abandoning the hope of completing his education, he accomplished what he could and devoted himself to the recovery of his health. The execution of this project requiring extreme care for two years and finally a change of residence and a sea voyage, shows the mental fibre possessed by this youth, and the discipline of patience required must have served to mould his character with finer lines and into more compact form.

A few months after his return from his voyage he commenced the study of medicine under Doctor Edson Carr, of Canandaigua. That the same keenness of observation, and accurate correlation of the facts thus obtained were as prominent traits of character during his student days as they had been in his childhood is proved by a remark of Doctor Carr evidencing the opinion this shrewd observer had early formed of Gunn. Walking side by side one day, the wind blew a corner of the doctor's cloak over Gunn's arm, when the pupil remarked, "How proud I should be if your mantle could fall upon my shoulders." Gazing keenly at him for a moment Doctor Carr replied, "My boy, you will wear a greater mantle than mine." Doctor Carr enjoyed a high reputation as an operator and was greatly admired by his pupil, yet on one occasion after assisting his preceptor in the performance of an operation, Gunn remarked to a friend that if he ever met with a similar case he would treat it after a radically different method. Years after, in a number of instances, the truth of his youthful previsions was justified by his results. Such independence of judgment coupled with a well-balanced mind such as Gunn possessed, was one of the chief reasons for his early success; when sure he was right, he did not hesitate to contravene professional conventions.

A former student of Doctor Carr's, our own Corydon L. Ford, then Demonstrator of Anatomy in Geneva Medical College, on his occasional visits to his old preceptor was struck by Gunn's "earnestness in whatever he undertook," and especially "his enthusiastic devotion to the study of anatomy." Upon the observations thus casually made by Ford depended the after life of young Gunn. I am anxious in thus selecting from the mass of material at my disposal the really epoch-making events of Doctor Gunn's life, that students may recognize how at any period of life a man as he really is, not as he wishes to appear, is often

subjected to an unsuspected scrutiny upon the results of which, all unknowingly to himself, his future in great measure may depend.

In October, 1844, entering the Geneva Medical College, Gunn was at once conceded to be a man of unusual promise, and Dr. Ford's originally high opinion was so justified that, when the latter's health prevented him from conducting his work in practical anatomy, he entrusted to the young undergraduate the instruction of his classmates, thus giving the opportunity Gunn needed. Ford afterwards said that Gunn in performance of these duties evinced so much aptness and skill in instructing others, that his future success as a teacher and operator were clearly foreshadowed. Even at this time young Gunn, encouraged by Ford, and given a chance to show his capacity as a teacher, when talking over the future, indulged the hope that he and Ford might at no distant time be associated in a medical school, Ford as the Anatomist, Gunn as the Surgeon. To paraphrase the Shakespearean saying, the wish became the father to the thought, and the thought induced Gunn to bend all his energies to translate his thought into a reality.

The quickness with which Gunn availed himself of an opportunity, which most would have failed to make adequate use of, is shown by a circumstance which occurred just before his graduation. The college received, too late to utilize for the session, an unclaimed body for dissection. There being no means for preserving it Doctor Gunn was allowed to use the body for purposes of instruction. He packed the body in a large trunk, and receiving his diploma on Tuesday, left his home for Ann Arbor on the Monday following the day of his graduation. Two weeks after leaving home he made his arrangements and commenced lecturing on anatomy, which proved so successful, that in succeeding years he repeated this course accompanied by dissections and demonstrations. This was the first course on anatomy ever given in Ann Arbor, and probably the first in Michigan. I am credibly informed that these lectures and demonstrations were given in the basement of the old court house which occupied the site of the present building.

In July, 1849, Doctor Gunn was appointed to the chair of Anatomy in the University of Michigan to which was added the Professorship of Surgery early in 1850. In 1854 it was deemed advisable that Doctor Gunn should teach only Surgery, and in June of this year Doctor Corydon L. Ford was appointed to fill the chair of Anatomy. Thus at last the youthful dreams of these two enthusiastic men were realized, one taught Anatomy and the other Surgery in the same medical school. The year previous to his appointment by the Board of Regents—1848— Doctor Gunn married Jane Augusta Terry, only daughter of J. M. Terry, M. D. The fruits of this union were four children, the eldest of whom, Glyndon, was accidentally drowned in the Detroit river in the summer of 1866. The remaining three children survived their

father.

In 1853 he changed his place of residence from Ann Arbor to Detroit, where he remained until called, in 1867, to Rush Medical Col

lege. From 1853 to 1867 he made two weekly trips to Ann Arbor, during each session, to deliver his lectures on Surgery. Recognizing that he should pattern his teaching after the best models he determined to spend the winter of 1849 and 1850 in visiting the medical schools and hospitals of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, before delivering his first course of lectures at Ann Arbor to the entering class consisting of ninty-two students. I cannot refrain from quoting some of Doctor Gunn's keen observations upon the difference in the medical atmospheres respectively of Philadelphia and New York. He justly considered that Philadelphia then was, from the medical standpoint, the Paris of America, and while this visit preceded my student days some twenty-six years, in my time this was equally true. "There is a medical atmosphere which is really refreshing," says he in a letter to his wife. "You see the M. D.'s in this City of Brotherly Love have a kind of hospitality peculiarly their own." This remark was evoked by the hospitality that men who had won great names in medicine accorded this young aspirant for fame, such men as Charles D. Meigs, Joseph. Pancoast, John Neill, Professors Mutter and Horner, all insisting upon his accepting numerous social invitations and making him free of their homes, merely because he was a member of the same profession. Doctor Gunn then goes on to say in this same letter, "The New Yorkers have a good deal of suavity, but the politeness of the Philadelphia doctors is extended in the way of generous hospitality, and almost every member of the profession that I have met seems to be imbued with the same disposition. As I said before, Philadelphia contains a medical atmosphere that is most refreshing, and if you could see the way the doctors do it up here, you would admire the profession more than you now do."

Urged by patriotic and humanitarian motives, and recognizing the fact that, in modern parlance, the battlefield was one of the surgeon's laboratories, he joined the Army of the Potomac on September 1, 1861, as Surgeon to the Fifth Michigan Infantry, remaining in the service until failing health compelled him to resign in July, 1862. Returning to Detroit during a three-weeks' leave of absence, in December and January, 1861-62, he crowded into this time his quota of lectures at Ann Arbor and rejoined at Alexandria. Leaving this place with his regiment Doctor Gunn served through the Peninsular Campaign until his resignation in July, 1862.

Like many other men at that time he was an enthusiastic admirer of General George B. McClellan, and with generous indignation expressed in his letters his opinion of the politicians who, he said, marred the General's plans. This was in accordance with his character, for if, after what he considered sufficient deliberation, he arrived at an opinion, to this he would cling most tenaciously, notwithstanding valid arguments to the contrary. This trait of character I frequently observed in our mutual intercourse. Both as an illustration of his capacity of unburdening his mind in well chosen language, as well as to call attention by his burning words to the unrewarded heroism of the profession

you medical students are about to enter upon, I shall quote a portion of one other letter.

"You say that Mrs. R. complains that Surgeons are never alluded to after a battle. No; why should they be? Poor, benighted souls; did anyone dream for a moment that a surgeon's field had aught of glory about it? No; the glory consists of carnage and death. The more bloody the battle, the greater the glory. A surgeon may labor harder, must labor longer, may exhibit a higher grade of skill, may exercise the best feelings of our poor human nature, may bind up many a heart as well as limb, but who so poor as to do him honor? There is no glory for our profession. We may brave the pestilence when all others flee; we may remain firm at our posts when death is more imminent than it ever was on the battlefield; but who sings our praise? Does the world know who the physicians were who fell at Norfolk when yellow fever depopulated that town? Does it know who rushed in to fill their places? And of those who survived can it designate one? Did they survive to receive fame? Yet those men were braver than the bravest military leader, for theirs was bravery unsupported by excitement or by the hope of fame. No; there are none so poor as to do us reverence. And thank God there are few of us so unsophisticated as to expect it."

While this is lamentably too true, yet it is the glory of our profession that unlike the soldier, striving neither for glory nor for promotion, the medical man simply does his duty because it is his duty.

I cannot refrain from citing an incident in order to impress upon the minds of medical students that the welfare of a patient should be paramount to every other consideration. Although what I shall relate happened upon the battlefield, as has just been pointed out, the same, nay a higher kind of courage is often demanded when facing disease, as is daily done by the rank and file of the profession. In a skirmish against one of the hill tribes on the frontier of India, an officer was severely wounded in advance of his troops as dusk was coming on. One of the large arteries was wounded and death from hemorrhage was imminent. The surgeon of the party ran forward and in comparative shelter compressed with his fingers the artery, arresting the bleeding. While the location of the fire of the enemy shifted, it continued. Doubting the efficiency with which he was compressing the artery, night having now fallen, the surgeon deliberately lit a match instantly causing a hail of bullets to fall around him, and then finding his patient in great danger of being wounded a second time, arranged an efficient makeshift to take the place of his fingers in arresting the bleeding, picked up his patient at the greatest risk to his own life, carried him to the rear, tied the severed artery, and saved him! What is the rush forward with victorious thousands compared to such an act of heroism? I am glad to say that this British surgeon received the Victoria Cross for Valor, but who receives any recognition, as Gunn says, when deliberately facing death from loathsome disease?

Although much of interest remains concerning Doctor Gunn's life