heart-rending expressions of torment which try the hearts

of kindred and friends.

We will now consider,

Fourthly, The disadvantages arising from this treatment. They may be summed up into

(a) The power and consequent danger of the remedy if used indiscriminately.

(b) The possibility of producing local inflammation and abscess in the part repeatedly punctured.

(c) The nausea and vomiting caused sometimes by the introduction of the narcotic in this manner.

(d) The possibility of the fluid injected escaping from the puncture or wound.

(e) The pain occasioned in some positions by the introduction of the operating needle.

Are these disadvantages really such that neither time, nor care, nor experience, can overcome them? Not at all. They are already overcome, and the way to do it has already been pointed out in these pages.

None but careless impostors would venture to use such a prompt and powerful, yet perfectly safe remedy in proper hands, indiscriminately.

Local inflammation and abscess in the parts punctured are not normal, but abnormal conditions of the operation, and cannot happen if due care is exercised by the physician.

The finger pressed upon the puncture for a minute, or a piece of sticking plaster applied, precludes all possibility of an escape of the fluid injected.

The pain of the operation is such as a child could bear easily, and ought in no case to deter any one from seeking relief by this mode of treatment.

And lastly, the nausea and vomiting caused sometimes by the narcotic may be diminished by the use of very small injections in the beginning, gradually increased, and by the proper application of remedies, such as bismuth, chloroform, &c.

MR. PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF THE MASS. MEDICAL SOCIETY:

THE return of this day of social gathering and friendly greeting almost unavoidably brings to mind those of our friends, who during the past year have been taken from their labors and duties to another sphere of activity. Twenty-three Fellows of the Society have died since our last anniversary. Some of them, at the age of fourscore, were enjoying the confidence and respect of the community in which they lived, and that inward peace which belongs to an honest man and good physician looking back upon a well-spent life. Others were in the midst of life and usefulness. Others again, full of hope and high aspirations, had just commenced the

* At an Adjourned Meeting of the Mass. Medical Society, held Oct. 3, 1860, it was Resolved, "That the Massachusetts Medical Society hereby declares that it does not consider itself as having endorsed or censured the opinions in former published Annual Addresses, nor will it hold itself responsible for any opinions or sentiments advanced in any future similar addresses."

Resolved, "That the Committee on Publication be directed to print a statement to that effect at the commencement of each Annual Address which may hereafter be published."

work of the profession. One fourth of the number perished in the service of their country. The surgeon who ends his career in the faithful discharge of duty deserves and ever will receive the grateful homage of every true physician. Love of country excites the admiration of all; and what greater love can a man bear his country, than to lay down his life for her?

One, yet in early manhood, an only child, inexpressibly dear to his father, a scholar, learned in his profession, his mind improved by foreign study, responded to the call of his country. Always faithful, chivalrous, dauntless, almost reckless of his life, he believed, with Baron Percy, his place of duty to be wherever a soldier fell; ready with instant aid for the wounded, he was ever in the thickest of the fight. He fell at his post. What more could we ask? He is held in grateful remembrance by his fellow soldiers who admired his humane bravery, and by his friends who knew the kindly qualities of his heart. What more could we wish?

Another,† the son of a most honored member of our Society, young, serious and thoughtful, has also fallen. Possessed of those qualities of mind and heart esteemed by all good men, peculiarly qualified for the duties of his profession, he gave himself to it in the spirit of a man who feels he must one day give an account of the lives of those committed to his care. Naturally averse to the strife and turmoil of war, he entered the army from a sense of duty.

* Samuel Foster Haven, M.D., fell at Fredericksburg, Dec. 13th, 1862. † Robert Ware, M.D., died in Washington, N. C., April 10th, 1863.

Exact and faithful in the performance of it, he could not but gain the love and respect of all around him. Worn down by arduous service, in a beleaguered town, amid the roar of cannon, he yielded up his pure spirit, faithful to his trust, true to himself, and true to the honored name he bore.

Quantâ de spe decidit.

Notwithstanding the evidence of the self-devotion of the practitioners of the Healing Art, and of their just confidence in its results with which its history teems, and of which the past year furnishes such bright examples, those are not wanting who doubt its usefulness and the certainty of its foundations. 1 This grows in a great measure out of a mental restlessness and tendency to scepticism, which seems to be rather a prominent feature of our times, leading to the raising of doubt and question with regard to well-received doctrines; which, because the doubters themselves cannot solve to their own satisfaction, they straitway conclude that no one else can. These discontented persons are not many, but they make up by noise and activity what they want in numbers, and soon draw together a floating class always ready to listen to the suggestions of others. They also allure those of a speculative turn, including many of the literary and in some respects more influential class, those whose studies lead them rather to a knowledge of ideas than of things, whose steps are guided not by the lamp of experience, but who, as has been said, bear about a dark lantern of theory, bright indeed within with the brilliancy of their own

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speculations, but quite unfit to keep them in the path of truth. They are much inclined to be systemmakers. If between a few facts they detect a similarity, it is enough for their excited imaginations, and it soon reäppears in a well-appointed theory, against all the contradictions to which they resolutely close their eyes. "I have heard," says Condillac, "of a "of a philosopher who had the happiness of thinking that he had discovered a principle which was to explain all the wonderful phenomena of Chemistry, and who, in the ardor of his self-gratulation, hastened to communicate his discovery to a skilful chemist. The chemist had the kindness to listen to him, and then calmly told him that there was but one unfortunate circumstance for his discovery -that the chemical facts were precisely the converse of what he had supposed them to be. Well, then,' said the philosopher, have the goodness to tell me what they are, that I may explain them on my system.'"*

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This unhealthy restlessness manifests itself not only in speculative matters, but in the estimate of physical truths. It is often seen "in a feverish anxiety to square the circle, trisect an angle, duplicate the cube, and detect perpetual motion," or in attacks upon the principles of astronomy. By one of these reformers its professors are charged with concealing the grossest of errors under the cloak of the higher mathematics, and building a flimsy edifice "with the calculus for stones and fluxions for mortar." member of the Royal Society of London, who boasts

* Sir William Hamilton's Metaphysics, p. 45.

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