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CORRESPONDENCE.

THOS. W. BLATCHFORD, M. D.,

Sir-In compliance with a resolution of the Alumni Association of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Medical Department of Columbia College, unanimously adopted at their Annual Meeting, held in the City of New York, on the 15th inst., I beg leave to request for publication, a copy of your address, delivered before the Alumni, on the occasion of their third anniversary.

I need hardly presume to think that you will refuse to comply with their request, when I consider, how imperfectly the limit of the allotted time, enabled you to give expression to your interesting discourse, the publication of which would preserve in an enduring form the characteristics of some whose names are associated with the early history of the College.

Accept, Dear Doctor, the assurance of my esteem, and believe me to be,

Yours Truly,

JOSEPH H. VEDDER, M. D., SEC'Y.

FLUSHING, near New York, March 20, 1861.

JOSEPH H. VEDDER, M. D., Sec'y, &c.,

Dear Sir:-Yours of the 20th is received. Having acknowledged myself the humble servant of the Alumni in consenting to prepare an address, when the request for its publication is conveyed in terms so flattering, I cannot refuse it. I herewith place a copy at your disposal.

Your friend,

THOS. W. BLATCHFORD.

TROY, 25th March, 1861.

OFFICERS

OF THE

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION,

FOR THE YEAR 1861-62.

President-THOMAS W. BLATCHFORD, A. M., M. D., Troy, N. Y.
Vice President-RICHARD S. KISSAM, A. M., M. D., New York.
Secretary-JOSEPH H. VEDDER, A. M., M. D.,
Treasurer-HENRY B. SANDS, M. D.,

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Flushing, L. I.
New York.

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Alternate-W. C. ROBERTS, M. D.,

Louisville, Ky.

Cincinnati, O.

United States Army.

Philadelphia, Pa. Washington, D. C. United States Army. Davenport, Iowa.

New York.

Orator-D. TILDEN BROWN, M. D., Bloomingdale Lunatic Asylum.

New York.

*Died April, 1861.

ADDRESS.

GENTLEMEN ALUMNI:

It gives me pleasure to greet you here this evening. Though a stranger to most of

you, I feel my heart beating in unison with

yours, while we are here contemplating the onward progress of this venerable Institution. She loses nothing in comparison with any in that galaxy of Medical Colleges which now dot the face of our widely extended country. Though not the collegiate pioneer in teaching Medical Science in this country, her predecessors were, very few. The high standard of Medical Education she at first assumed as essential in those who were to become the guardians of the public health, she never has lowered.

For one-and do I not speak the sentiments of all on whom she has conferred her honors ? -for one I have always felt an honest pride in being able to say, I graduated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York. During her incipient struggles for an honorable

existence, it is true she encountered many severe trials. There was not that concert of action. and good feeling between the teaching and the governing powers which was desirable. How much more good she might have accomplished had there always existed the same amicable understanding between these two bodies as now, no one can tell. The Medical Faculty however never had but one end in view, they determined to keep their standard as high as public sentiment would sanction.

Long, long years have passed since he who addresses you sat as a humble learner here. Most of those, then his associates, have already passed away. The ranks of the teachers too, as well as of the taught, have been thinned out by that lynx-eyed executioner Death, and of those few of us who remain it will soon be said, we

too are gone. This evening many beloved companions are missing with whom I here associated-Bliss, Rodgers, Wagner, DePuy, Ives, Helme, Beck, Scudder, Gunn, Sullivan. These shared with me the pleasant hours of pupilage, but they are not here now, they have been summoned hence. Their memories however are embalmed on many a heart beside my own. I cannot think of them on an occasion

like the present without childish emotion. Subsequent attachments may be strong, but the fibres of early friendships penetrate the center of the soul-the very bottom of the heart; and then early friends how few! when three score years are passed. Moore understood these chords of undying friendship when he wrote:

"Long, long be my heart with such memories fill'd!
Like the vase in which roses have once been distill'd—
You may break, you may ruin the vase if you will,
But the scent of the roses will hang 'round it still.”

The subject I have selected for my theme on this interesting occasion is Our Alma Mater in her Infancy. I can speak of her incipient exertions with the more correctness, because I was then among the youthful witnesses interested in her welfare and, with my companions, as usual with young men, stood ready to contend earnestly for her rights. It is well known too, that early impressions of passing events generally retain their vividness with a tenacious grasp. As we advance in life, all later scenes may be obliterated from the memory, or remembered only with a mere glimmer of reality. The individuals, the building, and the surroundings, connected with her early history have with

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