own Washington was but twenty-five when he covered the retreat of the British at Braddock's defeat, and was Commanderin-Chief of all the Virginia forces. Alexander Hamilton, at twenty, was a lieutenant-colonel. Thomas Jefferson was but twenty-three when he drafted the ever-memorable Declaration of Independence. Coming down to the present day, we find Dr. W. J. Lusk, a fellow alumnus, at the age of thirty, filling a professorship in two different medical colleges, and of late has been elected to fill the place in Bellevue Hospital made vacant by the death of our late lamented Honorary Fellow, Professor George T. Elliott, whose charming eloquence was listened to on our last anniversary occasion by many who are now within the reach of my voice. Death, although the common lot of all, sad in any walk of life, is more deplorable when invading the fields of usefulness, has entered our own circle. Professor Elliott was one of the first elected to honorary membership in our Order, and during the whole period of his life was ardentand zealous in his endeavor to advance its interests. When called upon to fill any position on our programme, he never failed to comply with the solicitations of our committee. He was a man of powerful intellect, the friend and eulogist of our society; the scholar, the gentleman, and the teacher, the pride of the student, the profession, and his native city; of unwearied public spiritedness, venerable for his useful life and entitled to the gratitude of the profession and public for his exertions to diffuse the benefits of our science, and raise its disciples to that station to which its liberal studies entitle them. In the palace of the rich, the hovels of the poor, and within the walls of our own hospital, he was one to attend all with conscientious care.

"With gifts of science and skill,

To turn away each threatened ill,

To watch beside the bed with tender care,
With earnest sympathy each grief to share ;
And from the couch of languishing and pain,
Raise the patient to the joys of health again."

But alas! he has paid the debt of nature, and has gone to fathom the mysteries of another world. His good deeds and imperishable name are recorded upon the table of fame. No more shall the midnight bell summon him from his slumber to sooth the anguish of pain. Let us all remember that "The

generation of men are like the waves of the sea. In quick succession they follow each other to the coast of death. Another and another still succeed and press on the shore, then ebb and die, to give place to the following wave. Thus are we wafted forward, now buoyed perhaps by hope, now sinking in despair; rising on the tide of prosperity, or overwhelmed with the billows of misfortune. Sometimes, when least expected, the storms gather, the winds arise, and "life's frail bubble bursts." Be cautious then, nor trust the cloudless skies, to placid seas, or sleeping winds. Forget not there are hidden rocks; guard, too, against the sudden blast. Be faith your pilot, and you will be safely guided to the haven of eternal bliss. As the time has now arrived, my fellows, when I am to retire from the office with which I have for three years been honored, I am desirous of leaving with you my best wishes and best counsel. As President of this order I have endeavored, to the best of my ability, to preside with impartiality over your interesting and profitable deliberations; to vindicate the principles of our institution; and while inculcating upon our members a regard to its duties, to impress the profession at large with a favorable opinion of its design and tendency. You have expressed in the most flattering terms your acknowledgment of my fidelity and your appreciation of my zeal. To have acquitted myself in any degree to your satisfaction, in my official capacity, and in my public vindication of the society, is a circumstance upon which I shall reflect with grateful sensibility so long as I live. My particular thanks are due to my associates in the executive board and the members of the society at large, for the honor they have distinguished me with. In surrendering the emblem of authority to my successor in office, it will be done with the firm conviction that the interests of the order, under his direction, will be looked after as zealously in the future as they have been in the past. My association with Dr. McWhinnie has brought us together at the banquet. the bedside of the sufferer in the hospital, and at the residence of the private patient in affluent circumstances. Be assured that he is distinguished with most commendable characteristics; his motto is: "Do nothing but what is right, and submit to nothing that is wrong." He is onward in duty, unflinching in the hour

of danger, and unyielding in the work assigned him. When he puts his shoulder to the wheel, a movement of the superincumbent weight is bound to take place. Now, my fellows, in conclusion, remember that unity is the golden chain which binds together our willing hearts and holds together our happy society; the principle on which dependeth internal harmony and its outward prosperity. May its links never be broken. May our example and conduct in life prove a high recommendation and fair illustration of our principles, and reflect the brightest honor upon our character and profession. Finally, brethren, farewell. Accept the best wishes, as you share in the best affections, of my heart. The special relation in which I have stood to you will with this evening cease, but the gratitude arising from it will ever remain.

Madame Alfred then sang an aria, "Come, Bells," by Donnizetti, in a style which evinced fine culture and rare musical talent.

The Hon. John R. Brady delivered the Honorary Address, which was a rare gem of racy wit, anecdote and poetic story, keeping the audience in a continuous grin.

The next feature in the programme was the installation of officers for the ensuing year.

After the officers were duly installed by the retiring President, Dr. HARWOOD, President elect Dr. MacWhinnie, delivered his inaugural address as follows:

Ladies and Gentlemen:

'Twas just one year ago I had the honor of functionating as a High Priest of Oratory upon the rostrum, amid very different circumstances and surroundings, however, from those which now obtain. Then the reign of terror had commenced, and a final examination hung over my devoted head like the sword of Damocles-a position of affairs that those of you who are upon the anxious seat can fully appreciate. The dreaded weapon descended, not to cleave my much exercised imagination, bat, like the wave of the magician's wand, to dispel the mists and doubts and fears which shrouded the coveted culmination of all my mental labors, disclosing my tiny bark securely launched upon the troubled, tempestuous sea of pills and

calomels-enabling me to cry out in borrowed phraseology, "Now is the winter of my discontent made glorious summer by a happy issue out of troublous times, my stern alarms changed to merry greeting, and all the clouds that lowered upon my life in the deep bosom of the past buried, forgot." Now with a flourish of trumpets and burst of rhetoric that only my illustrious friend and predecessor could at all do justice to, I am again ushered upon the scene as President of the noble Order of Esculapius.

'Tis generally supposed the blarney-stone is only to be found in the green isle of Erin, and is eminently Irish; but methinks its twin element has lately been discovered amid the green mountains of Vermont, the exact locality thereof not altogether unknown to Vermont's verdent son, from whose mouth hath just proceeded a saponaceous flow that throws the best of efforts off the far-famed Pennsylvania oil wells wholly in the shade. The process of soft-soaping to which I have been subjected, in view of a native diffidence of manner and disposition of which I am the unfortunate possessor, makes the task of addressing you difficult. But I would not that a hill of difficulty should rear itself into a mountain of impossibility; yet am I in a strait betwixt two, and what I do I wot not. If I say anything to the Class of '71, I will be encroaching upon the peculiar province of the gentleman whose duty it is to respond to that sentiment; and if I sound the praises of the O. Æ., I will be caught poaching upon the domain of my noble Duke, Burchard by name; so that, between Scylla and Charybdis, I am in much danger of being swamped in the maelstrom of à sermon without a text, in which case my congregation have my deepest sympathy.

Some of those before me are but beginning to wade in the brooklets of medicine, and are making mud-pies upon the banks; others, venturing upon deeper water, are paddling their canoes upon its streams; while not a few are about to launch their full-rigged ships upon the broad expanse of an uncertain, turbulent, therapeutic ocean-an ocean bounded by potters' fields, country churchyards and city cemeteries, whose green mounds and cold gray pillars raise their heads in constant

warning, proclaiming man's mortality and the end of medical effort.

No doubt the voyage is commenced with feelings warm and prospects high; but do not flatter yourselves that all will be plain sailing. You will encounter the trade winds of success and adversity, dark, heaving storms and fretful calms; and unfavorable weather may tend to drive you upon the shoals and quicksands of quackery; legal sharks may beset your course with open maw, to swallow each advantage; but keeping your decks well cleared for actions in mal-practice, your helm well down, take for your guiding-star Industry, Honesty and Truth; thus will you be enabled to safely ride the crested billows of misfortune, and securely anchor in the calm haven of a clear conscience and contented mind. If, however, you attempt to sail your bark on the principle that the world owes you a living, with folded arms and sleepy eye, Micawber like, lazily scanning the horizon, even expecting something to turn up, my word for it the cold chilly winds of December will find plenty of rents in your rigging, through which to whistle the dirge of a profitless existence.

On the other hand, haste to get rich, the greed of gain may induce you to cruise upon forbidden waters; yea, even to join the squadron of that pirate crew who prey upon the credulity of a gullible public, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame. If such be the case, do not mask your guns, and so steal upon your victim in guise of honest craft; hang out the black flag, with its skull and cross-bones at once; display it upon every rock and fence; drive tandem; write for the newspapers; go in for one country, one destiny, one Beecher; run for President, if you will, but for God's sake do not seek to cloak your misdeeds under cover of a diploma from a respectable medical college, thus, assassin-like, foully stabbing the mother which nourished and cherished you, your Alma Mater.

Life is a strange anomaly, but death is a deeper mysterywith both, none are brought into more intimate relation than the medical man; his life is one varying scene, but a single stride divides the glittering drawing-room, with its tinsel and gas jets, from the sky-parlor of the tenement house, where the