and examples of living or deceased jurists? Have they possessed tutelary gods or goddesses? Antiquity yields them no such tribute. Was it in sarcasm that Arbuthnot said, "Law is a bottomless pit; it is a cormorant, a harpy that devours everything"? Was it in satire that Otway declared, "Law is a torment of all torments"? Crabbe has said—

"Law was designed to keep a state in peace,
To punish robbery, that wrong might cease;
To be impregnable; a constant fort,

To which the weak and injured might resort;
But these perverted minds its force employ,
Not to protect mankind, but to annoy;
And long as ammunition can be found,
Its lightning flashes and its thunders sound."
Samuel Butler represents the lawyer,

"With books and money plac'd for show,
Like nest-eggs to make clients lay,
And for his false opinion pay."

Shakespeare describes the judge—

"And then the

Justice

In fair round belly, with good capon lin❜d,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances,
And so he plays his part."

While Pope, to exhibit the injustice of the law, has said:

"The hungry judges soon the sentence sign,

And wretches hang, that jurymen may dine."

Recall the numerous cold dinners we have taken. How many choice dishes have been consigned to the garbage-box, but which we had indulged the hope of enjoying ourselves, detained perhaps from the

meal while in attendance at hamlet or hospital upon some abject pauper invalid, or while assisting at the birth of some unfortunate being whose prospective heirloom is a discordant hand-organ and phthisical monkey! Have any of the legal profession been drawn hither on this public anniversary occasion,to such, a word. The opportunity is constantly afforded you, when examining medical experts as witnesses, to ridicule medical science, to entangle opinions, to overcome testimony with jest, and perchance thus to exonerate a worthless client. When occasion is presented to us of trying the merits of our steel, you are prostrate before us, and it is ignoble to smite even fallen foe. I have availed myself of quotations from laymen to playfully give an Academical tit for a courtly tat. Remember that in our apothecary's hall you no longer find

but in their places you observe, in Gothic alcoves, the busts of Hippocrates, of Galen, of Harvey, of Laennec, of Mott, of Francis, and of Stevens; the pill-boxes remain, but they are filled with dragées; in place of musty seeds, and old cakes of roses, you find tinctures more potent and savory than the sparkling ruby wine; extracts containing the concentrated virtues of forests, and chemicals more subtile than disease.

We recognize in members of the legal profession wise counsellors, incorruptible judges, learned statesmen, -it is the charlatans, like the medical empirics, who are the chief objects of our derision. The regular

medical profession offers its heart and hand to the legitimate legal profession; nay, let us form a triple alliance, and include in the bond our clerical brethren, for whether we travel north, south, east, or west, wherever suffering humanity is to be found, there we should observe the clergy, physicians, and lawyers conscientiously united in aiding the interests of soul, body, and estate.

Mr. President and Fellows, I will no longer trespass on your patience, and will hasten to conclude my remarks. Though I have been compelled to omit many points relevant to my subject, and have but loosely thrown together scattered thoughts, I have endeavored to explain some of the causes which have retarded the development of medical philosophy, and to exhibit its present claims to the highest regard. For these many centuries our science has been moving in the stream of time with wind and tide against it. It has never, for a moment, been carried backward, nor has it ever dropped anchor, but by constant and short tackings has made steady though slow progress. Our craft has been sharpened by attrition with the current, and skillfully managed that the tacks are longer and the speed greater. We are even anticipating the coming of some great genius who can aid it by an impetus to steam along against the elements of obstruction which will always necessarily oppose it.

But how few, comparatively, can be the triumphs of therapeutics while man is wedded to his present habits. Man for the most part fails to accomplish the natural term of life by reason of his folly. What mortification and feelings of incompetency do

we experience on losing a patient by death-though we may feel persuaded that the subject of disease was a victim of an hereditary taint, and perchance, in addition thereto, of his own enervating practices. The Lacedæmonians in the selection of their wives were as fastidious in regard to the physique of the ladies as in respect to character and social position. A heavy fine was imposed upon their king, Archidamus, for marrying a diminutive woman. "For," said they, "she will bring us a race of kinglets instead of kings."

It becomes the duty of this Academy, in "the promotion of the public health," to instruct the community in reference to sanitary science, and thus aid in the establishment of a race of robust beings, ill disposed to disease, and fitted to cast it off if seized by it.

Dr. Holmes has correctly said

"To guard is better than to heal;

The shield is nobler than the spear.'

There are many terse hygienic precepts recorded in the writings of others than those of physicians. Shakespeare has said-

"And many strokes, though with a little axe,

Hew down and fell the hardest-timber'd oak;"

and elsewhere has remarked-

"Purge and leave sack, and live cleanly."

Dryden, in reprobating sedentary habits, has playfully written

"Better to hunt in fields for health unbought
Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught:
The wise for health on exercise depend;
God never made his work for man to mend."

Should mankind resolve from this hour to be guided by hygienic principles, this Academy could scatter its forces, and its Fellows seek new fields of labor. After appointing a committee to preserve its archives, we could on this, its twenty-second anniversary, disband, and in parting adopt the words of the Moor of Venice-

"Farewell! Othello's occupation's gone!"

And what a change would soon be observed in the appearance of our race. Fagnani need not search the land for types of the Muses, but could sketch his neighboring maidens. The sculptor, in typifying the Apollo Belvidere, need not mould together the foot of one, leg of another, thigh of another, trunk of another, arm of another, and head of neither one of the others, but could model from his first virile visitor. Moping melancholy would be buried with the forsaken mortars and pestles, and for its gloomy face we could observe the reality of Milton's conception-

"Jest and youthful jollity,

Quips and cranks and wanton wiles,
Nods and becks and wreathed smiles,
Such as hang on Hebe's cheek,

And love to live in dimple sleek;

Sport that wrinkled care derides,

And laughter holding both its sides.”

Then would the period of human existence be prolonged to its utmost physiological limit, and venerated age enjoy a euthanasia as described by Crashaw :