looked very unpromising." At this stage of the lecture, the Doctor noticed a winking and smiling in the class, and turning to the House Physician, he said, sharply, "What does this mean, sir!” when he replied, “This is not the patient, sir, to which you have reference. He died three days ago, this is another." The lecture here ended, and the class dispersed.

Two other gentlemen signed my diploma. They filled respectively the chairs of Surgery and Materia Medica, but as one of them is still living, and the other so very recently deceased, delicacy forbids my delineating their characters. I can only permit myself to say that when, nearly a half century since, they entered upon their professorial career, the expectations they then excited have been more than realized. In no respect have they been inferior to their illustrious associates. The name of VALENTINE MOTT will for all time be connected with American Surgery, and that of JOHN W. FRANCIS with American Medical Literature.

Besides the gentlemen who constituted the faculty in 1816 and '17, there were three others. who had previously filled important chairs, and whose lectures I attended.

JOHN AUGUSTINE SMITH, M. D., adjunct Professor with Dr. Post, was a man of very vigorous intellect, extensive acquirements, and great energy of character. He was a splendid lecturer, a great logician, a close reasoner, an independent thinker, and a ripe scholar. His connection with the College terminated by his accepting a call to the Presidency of William and Mary College, in Virginia.

JOHN C. OSBORN, M. D., Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children, was a gentleman of fine literary taste. He was called to the chair of Obstetrics from Newbern, in North Carolina, where he enjoyed an enviable reputation, and a very lucrative practice. His lectures were written with great care, and some of them were perfectly elegant. Still he failed to interest his class as much as it was expected he would from the character he brought with him. He was very irregular in his attendance in the lecture room, frequently coming late, and occasionally failing to appear at all. This was attributed mainly to the nature and extent of his professional engagements, for Dr. Osborn very soon took rank among his compeers as a practitioner second to none.

In the delivery of his lectures, he was closely confined to his notes, seldom raising his head to look at his audience, noise and inattention never seemed to disturb him. He read his lecture in a low, monotonous voice, more like a bashful school boy repeating his task, than a learned lecturer instructing others. His countenance was expressive of thought rather than of action; his person, anything but commanding. He was of middling size and quick step, but his health seemed feeble. His inveterate habit of taking snuff greatly injured his naturally low voice. His ample snuff-box was always open before him, and but very few minutes ever passed without his having recourse to it; neither was he at all particular to brush away the unsnuffed portion of the generous pinch, paying but little attention to personal appearance. Dr. Osborn was considered a close student of nature and of books. He possessed a remarkably retentive memory, and could recite poetry by the hour. He died in 1818 in the West Indies.

JAMES S. STRINGHAM, M. D., Professor of Forensic Medicine, was a highly educated gentleman, possessing talents and acquirements well adapted to the position assigned him. If

degree of attention to hear all he said. He was a man of very few words, and in his lectures, which were delivered without any notes before him, there never seemed anything redundant nor anything lacking. He never repeated what he had once uttered, there was no need of it, the impression was perfect where the attention had been given. It was his uniform custom, at the commencement of the course, to relate the story of the "Doctor's Mob," in which he and his associates once came near losing their lives at the hands of an infuriated rabble, excited by the heartless impudence of a student holding a half dissected limb out of the hospital window, and showing it to some boys below, telling them it was the leg or the arm of their mother. He always accompanied this story with words of caution, putting students on their guard not unnecessarily to excite the public mind, always too sensitive on such subjects.

Of all the lecturers to whom it has been my privilege to listen, whether in this country or abroad, none has left impressions of respect and veneration so profound as those produced by this delightful man-this model lecturer. Dr. Post, rarely, if ever, employed anecdote for illustration. He never seemed to need such

help. His language was always chaste and in good keeping. The most fastidious could take no offence, and yet every thing was clearly and thoroughly explained.*

WILLIAM HAMMERSLY, M. D., Professor of Clinical Medicine, was, in point of size, much the same as Dr. Hosack, but unlike Dr. Hosack, his movements were slow and measured. He stooped a little as he walked, keeping his eyes, for the most part, on the

*A former student of Dr. Post's, and still an honored and an active laborer in the field of medicine, says, in a recent letter to me:—

"I think it was in April, 1819, that this incident occurred. Mrs. D. had been an old patient of Dr. Post's; her only son had studied medicine with him, and was highly prized by him, and the only remaining child, a young lady aged 17 years, had died the November previous. The mother was utterly prostrated by her affliction, and a diminished income induced her to leave her old home, where her children were born. She requested me to mention to the Doctor that she wished to settle his bill for medical services, saying that no money could ever repay him for his kindness and attention to her family; she wished to settle the bill before she left the old home. I mentioned it to the Doctor, once or twice, at her request. I will never forget with what earnestness he said Mrs. D. is a devoted christian, an example to christian mothers, nothing but the grace of God could have sustained her under her heavy afflictions. I sincerely sympathize with her. I will make out her bill immediately, will you have the goodness to deliver it to her? That evening I called upon the old lady and presented a sealed letter to her, which she opened in my presence, saying it was just like Dr. Wright Post, and showed me the contents;-the bill for medical services amounting to $150, receipted in full, and a check, payable to her order, for $200.