unite with the peculiar cement employed in keeping the building together, the present plan was adopted.† "All the contemplated materials were easily got rid of except this huge Scotch pebble, owing to the trouble at finding a place for it in the purlieus of the building; until at length a coach, drawn by four professors, arrived from a neighboring place and carried it away, and it was found to fit well in the place allotted to it. It has since, by the handsome manner in which it is displayed in the front elevation of a building, vieing with this for solidity, brilliance and duration of materials, produced some unpleasant feeling in those who decided that it would not fit here." The distant sounds of drums, fifes and other martial instruments of music here suspended the invisible communicant's remarks. Volumes of smoke rolled through the skies in the direction whence the sounds came. These drew nearer and nearer, became harsh, discordant and grating. A large body of men, strangely accoutred, now rapidly approached, and I could discern a troop of mounted soldiers, armed with a novel kind of warlike weapons. These were huge lancets, scalpels and gorgets. Large sheets of printed paper, stamped with opprobrious epithets in five-line pica, answered the purpose of flags, and, on a nearer inspection, it seemed to be a regiment of surgeons. The doors of the great building were now violently thrown open, and a similar procession emerged from its apartments. A hostile disposition was soon evinced, and the combatants proceeded to immediate and desperate battle. It was, however, soon over. Desirous to render what assistance I was able to the wounded, I approached the field of battle. Many had been slain, but I found a great number only wounded. On washing away the blood I observed that each one of the killed and wounded was marked by his name on an engraved breast-plate. I particularly remarked among the names of the slain those of Professional Dignity and Harmony. The first appeared to have been killed in the onset, and the other had evidently fought desperately before he yielded, being covered with wounds. Among the names of the wounded I read those of Propriety, Integrity, Truth, Decorum and Justice. But so desperate were the wounds that I hastily left the field to seek some other and more experienced aid. Breathless I retraced my steps to the building, hoping to find a physician or surgeon whose humanity would induce him to lend assistance; but what was my astonishment to find stains on it, from the gush of blood issuing from this fatal contest. The first assault had been made with great guns, and a few shots had penetrated two of the Namely, that of transferring Dr. Physick to the Chair of Anatomy. pillars of the building. A dense mist from the reeking battleground obscured the whole structure. I found myself alone, and called loudly but vainly through the empty halls on Humanity and Decorum for aid; when, at length, observing a crowd of physicians and surgeons standing at a distance, I beckoned their approach. They, however, obstinately resisted all solicitations to enter the field. Believing it possible that they had not understood my signals, I approached and inquired querulously who and what they were that so sullenly looked on this devastating carnage, and why they did not afford succor. They were, they said, the physicians and surgeons of the city in which these feuds originated; but to my second interrogatory coolly replied that they were mere lookers-on, and would not enter into disputes, which their hearts and heads taught them were unnecessary and ruinous, and of which they most cordially disapproved. And as each one had a larger or smaller volume in his hand, bound in black, and containing, I found on inquiry, more or less personal complaint, which he was receiving to lay at the door of the great medical edifice, I could not blame them for their determination.* I returned to the building and invoked its inhabitants, who had now entered it, by all the names of its founders to send for some healing balm for these deadly wounds. But, instead of succor craved, I had proscription thrown on my head from one window, hatred from another, cold water from a third, and from the angry group which looked out of all I was received with frigid suspicion and distrust. "Begone! intruder," cried they, with one voice; "we desire no balm for these feuds. It is only on terms of utter extermination of our enemies we are willing to make peace." Indignant as I may naturally be supposed to have felt at this unjust and impolitie denunciation, and conscious that good motives alone actuated my conduct, I was on the point of recriminating, when I thought my path was crossed by the shadow of the vener able man I had once seen in the hospital giving clinical lectures, and imploring "still one minute more for instruction." * He was habited, not as he then was, but in the costume of a This all refers to the truly troublesome condition of Medical Education in the early twenties. Almost every practitioner of any prominence unconnected with the University of Pennsylvania had his private school for medical students, and many were the squabbles and fights. Dr. W. P. C. Barton, while Professor of Botany in the University, applied to the Legislature during the session of 1818-19 for a charter, intending to start up a rival medical school; this attempt was very nearly successful. Such affairs must have caused very strained relations between a great many of the physicians in Philadelphia. In the Philadelphia Medical Society the discussions were very warm and lengthy, and the daily press was also used by the contestants to air their views. From all this fomenting sprang (in 1825) the Jefferson Medical College, to which Dr. Barton change his allegiance, which, for the University, had become very slight by this time. prophet, and it was only by his peculiar physiognomy that I recognized him. A large black cowl was drawn carelessly over his head and shoulders, while his silvered locks strayed from under it, and by separating on the forehead discovered a wreath of green and imperishable holly twined round his wrinkled brow. A sackcloth robe drawn tight to his waist by cincture of scintillating gems invested his aged frame and tottering limbs. His sorrowful eyes were fixed on the building, while the furrows of his keen visage were filled with floods of galling tears. Overcome withal by his mysterious appearance, I did not venture to address him, not knowing, indeed, whether he was a sprite of the glens, a being of this, or a spirit of the other world. A deep, sepulchral voice soon convinced me that he was the latter. He waved a wand of mistletoe which he carried in his left hand, while with his right he grasped mine and drew me rapidly away. 66 Come, young man, from the vicinity of that tottering pile," said he; "see ye not that it is falling?" And here sobs of grief choked his utterance. When a little recovered, he addressed me in these prophetic words: "Some of the inhabitants of that structure are academicians of Laputa and Balnibari. They are projectors of so wild a cast that they seem to verify the old observation that there is nothing so extravagant and irrational which some philosophers have not maintained for Truth.' They possess the power or claim the prerogative of extensive monopoly, and edicting bulls of excommunication and ruin. They act, in some of their freaks of self-aggrandizement and fame, like harlequins of a fair, before a mixed and tumultuous concourse of people, who, according as they are directed by minions in the crowd, evince a pandemic impulse in their favor and applaud them for their charlatanical tricks. They domineer with ill-judged intolerance over all without their walls, and then wonder that they are jealously watched. They set themselves up, though but two or three of a whole body, as umpires of merit and awarders of just praise, taking care to foster or protect none but those willing to be trammelled by subserviency to their will. Yet scrutinize this self-appointed caucus-this fag-end of a distinguished public assembly. It has not even the aspect of a deliberative association nor the physiognomy of an impartial tribunal of professional merit, equity, or justice-nec color imperii, nec frons erat ulla senatus. They have power, but, like the evil genius, they blindly use it to destroy themselves. Tyranny produces, in a country and a profession like theirs, the most ruinous effects. Dissolute monopoly and extravagant thirst for unearned fame will abuse a cause which, judiciously conducted, would produce an influx of solid reputation. The spring of that spirit which should move such a body is relaxed by intolerance or snapped by arbitrariness. They, by intemperate exercise of their ill-used talents, sophis tically confound their power with a sense of justice and prudence. And they will perceive too late that it is only when power and justice are the same that they can exert the former to the stretch they have extended it, consistently with wisdom or even self-interest itself. They will find that vain and idle speculation and purloined effulgence will never penetrate beyond the mist which envelops the community. "Be assured, then, that such measures are as certainly ruinous as they are manifestly impolitic and unjust. Where there is such repeated confiscation of character to satisfy self-interested views the treasury may grow rich, but it will groan ere long, with its ill-acquired wealth burst its enclosures, and waste its coin on the greedy onlookers who cry scrambles,' and each catches what he can get! 66 Already rival institutions are performing this part, and it will be surprising if the natural and just causes of blame at home, united with the force of novelty and exaggerated odium abroad, do not eventually seduce away the youthful concourse which in my day filled that mansion. "Where there is no dignity there can be no philosophy, and where sophistry reigns truth cannot stay. Wonder not, then, if ere a few short years rapacity after fame, inveterate deafness to the merits of others, and a sordid desire to accumulate wealth at the expense of duty shall raze with the earth this once gorgeous structure in which you have taken so much interest. And that such will be the result I prophesy! "Once earnestly engaged in decorating it by my toil, I have not ceased to haunt its walls with parental solicitude. I have heard the discourses delivered in it, and insinuated myself into its secret council chambers. Though I confess I have found several occupying the places of dignity, truth and science, and honestly and perseveringly pursuing their ways, some who occupy the highest seats in the synagogue remind me of Burke's pathetic reflection on the state of philosophy and learning in France during the period of its cabalistic anarchy. Alas! the age of chivalry is done, that of sophisters and self-aggrandizing calculators has succeeded, and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever!'" And having said this he struck me with his wand, the darkness was dispelled, the building became visible, he mysteriously pointed to the fifth moonstone pillar, saying, "Observe, think and judge for yourself," and vanished into air! A tumult arose from the lobbies of the building, which I found occasioned by the pupils running hastily, some to the north and others to the south to finish their studies. The sudden noise of their footsteps and vociferations awakened me, I presume, for I found myself in the act of taking leave of them as I now, gentlemen, do of you. |