I was astonished at his declaration and declined, saying that there were many other better fitted men in the city who would gladly comply with a request to make the address. I called his attention to my age, my not being a good speaker. He gazed at his library with its full quota of works on ancient literature. "Doctor," he said, "you have no doubt read that in the reign of Imperial Vespasian there were many men of thought and action who held body and mind together many, many years. Cato Censorius at the age of seventy-nine years transacted a large business with great success. Plato at the age of eighty-two devoted his last hours to intellectual work. Chrysippus in his seventieth year wrote his work on logic, Sophocles in his eightieth year produced one of the greatest tragedies ever written. Quintius Fabius when past middle age was appointed to a high office which he held for more than forty years. Hiero, King of Sicily, lived to be ninety years of age. Massinissa was a ruler for sixty years. Cicero did great work in extreme old age. Xenophanes, the Pythagorian, reached his ninetieth year and said his last years were his happiest. Goethe, Pindar, Colon, Newton, Socrates, all did good work in their old age. Harvey, when he discovered the circulation of the blood had passed his eightieth milestone. Michel Angelo did his superb mural paintings in Rome at an advanced age. Isaac Walton had a ready pen at ninety. Hahnemann at the age of ninety-one years was still in practice and actively at work on his materia medica. Call to your mind the age of many of the popes." Turning to his medical library, he said, "I can cite to you the names of many physicians who did good work at an advanced age. And now, sir, look at our own country. Our dear Doctor Howard's uncle did major operations in surgery at the age of eighty-four and continued his office work until the age of eightysix."

I called a halt. His auto-suggestion had entered my brain. I yielded. I assure you that I was astonished at his knowledge of history and his recollections of the ancients. If I could have our mayor with his magnetic power, as the clergyman and our Doctor Sherman as the physician, I could heal thousands with this combination of "Religion and Medicine" and build the finest church in the city. Medicine and theology would lead the van.

You may be interested in some recollections of the first medical college in northern Ohio and of the men connected with that. institution. I shall present a brief sketch of them as I knew them sixty years ago.

A farmer's boy, in a lumber wagon, I came to this city from

Huron County to attend lectures at the medical college at the corner of St. Clair and Erie streets as a member of the class of 1848 and 1849. For more than half a century the building was a land-mark for Clevelanders. The term began the first Wednesday of November and continued sixteen weeks. There were six lectures daily, Wednesday afternoon being set apart for medical clinics and Saturday afternoon for surgery. We had a large amphitheatre, a museum of morbid anatomy, and a general museum, the first in the state. The college library contained a thousand volumes. The museum contained fine specimens of birds of many varieties of hues and colors. There were also many animals and a great variety of fishes, most of them prepared by Professor Kirtland. This museum was visited by many people from out of the city. The books mostly used by the students were Wilson's Anatomy, Carpenter's Physiology, Druit's Surgery, Watson and Dunglison's Practice, Churchill's Obstetrics and Diseases of Children, and Gray's Chemistry. The matriculation fee was three dollars, the tuition fee was fifty dollars per term, while good board could be obtained for $1.50 or $2.00 per week. Students could make special arrangements to board themselves at a lower cost.

The faculty of instructors consisted of seven men. The names of these men and their chairs were as follows: Jared P. Kirtland, M. D., Professor of Physical Diagnosis and the Principles and Practice of Medicine; John Delamater, M. D., Professor of General Pathology, Microscopy and the Diseases of Women and Children; Horace A. Ackley, M. D., Professor of Surgery; John Lang Cassels, M. D., Professor of Materia Medica, Pharmacy and Botany; Samuel St. John, M. D., Professor of Chemistry and Medical Jurisprudence; Leander Firestone, M. D., Demonstrator of Anatomy. The President of the college was Rev. George E. Pierce of Hudson, Ohio.

The class of students numbered 248. Of these Ohio furnished 150, Michigan 32, Pennsylvania 33, New York 19, Iowa 11, Wisconsin 2, Tennessee 2, and Texas, Alabama, Illinois and North Carolina each one. Eleven states were represented. Two of these students had their homes in Cleveland. One was Proctor Thayer, who served as an assistant to Prof. Ackley and afterwards became a surgeon of both local and national repute. The other Cleveland student, Henry K. Cushing, became a physician of high standing, a citizen respected and beloved by all his associates. He received great honors, the most notable one being the dedication to him of the present Laboratory for Experimental Research, Western Reserve University.

My first Sabbath in Cleveland, which then boasted of a population of about 17,000, was spent at Grace Church, accompanied by Ed.

Crane, of Norwalk, O. As the contribution box was passed, he devoutly placed therein a dime, saying as he did so, "There goes two glasses of beer." It is needless to say that I did not attend services. with that student again during the session.

I now desire to call your attention to these pioneers and teachers of medicine in Northern Ohio with whom I was acquainted.

Prof. Kirtland was a great student, an energetic and forcible man. He had a certain magnetic power which compelled the love and respect of the students. He was a strong man of a nervous sanguine temperament but his strength was of a peculiar kind; it was passive rather than aggressive. His was a strength that seemed to yield to every influence, swayed by associates perhaps, yet was consciously bound to carry his desired end. Therefore he was the master-spirit of the faculty. Not only was he well versed in medicine and its collaterals but his general knowledge earned for him honors and respect from scientists of his own and foreign nations. His model farm on the Detroit road was a haven for rest. Here were the choicest fruits in the state. Over the walks were bowers of roses. He was a propagator, an inventor and a discoverer. He brought forth new varieties of plums, peaches, apples and grapes. In the year 1864 when I ventured an attempt to develop a large vineyard at Dover Bay, he pointed out the soil that would yield the choicest fruits and instructed me as to the best method of preparation. Later, he assisted me in classifying some new varieties of grapes. He was also an ornithologist, having prepared with his own hands many of the specimens now in the museum at the college. As an ichthyologist, he was an authority on fish, particularly on the habits of those in the northern lakes.

To me in 1863, his home was, indeed, the picture of an ideal country seat, as one saw it after the first frost had come, as if magician had transformed the summer green of the park into a mass of even more gorgeous colorings, while the autumn leaves, crimson and yellow, drifted down, perhaps a little sorrowfully, and lay glit tering on the soft turf under the clear sky.

And, to make the picture complete, the blue waters of Lake Erie rippled against the shores of the great, green pastures. The immense number of forest trees surrounding his home, exotics, evergreens, and deciduous plants, attested to his taste and fondness for arboriculture. Pines, chestnuts and cedars, the flowering dogwood, spruces and catalpas, were interspersed with the native woods of oak, beach, and maple. Truly this was a fitting place for one who loved nature as did Professor Kirtland. His low, one story house

covered with ivy, surrounded on all sides by trees, shrubs and flowers, suggested the hospitality which all received within its doors. Most fortunate was I to enjoy his friendship and to listen through the winter of 1848 to his course of lectures on Physical Diagnosis, the first course on that subject given by him.

All the students did reverence to Professor Delamater. He was a most practical teacher, well versed in his subject. He always lectured sitting in his chair, as he wes not very robust though he

was capable of much endurance. His venerable appearance as he

rode about in his two-wheeled chaise, made me feel that he must be a good and loyal family physician. No man could have been more devoted to his profession. To the poor he was always kind and generous, and from 1848 to the day of his death he did a very large professional business. He cared not for money except as it brought to him the necessaries of life. I think he was a man quite easily prejudiced against any one whose opinions did not agree with his own and he was ever ready to open an attack. He was a great favorite with his patrons and today their children and grandchildren speak lovingly of the old doctor. To be remembered for three generations is indeed a great tribute. It has been a wonder to me for many years that some one, in or out of the profession, did not erect a monument to his memory.

"We'll hide his loving memory in our hearts;
We'll follow in the pathway which he trod;
We'll make each day another step upon

The stairway leading up to him and God."

Professor Cassels was of a phlegmatic temperament, slow and deliberate in delivering his lectures, his pronunciation distinct and precise. He regarded materia medica the branch of study, a knowledge of which, if perfect, would make the most successful physician. I was deeply interested in his subject and after college closed entered a drug store where I had an opportunity to continue with advantage the instruction received from him. Since that time I have considered a knowledge of the action of drugs and the provings on those in health as the great keystone to our profession. I can even now call to mind the staid and genial teacher before his class with the correct painting in colors of the plants which were to be our lesson during the hour of lecture. I was particularly interested as he presented the colored plate of cimicifuga racemosa giving its general character, the color of its blossoms, the height of the plant

from four to eight feet, the calyx, the petals, the fruit and seeds, its medical properties and uses, the amount of its dose and the diseases in which it might be used with benefit. The action of this drug on healthy persons had not then been investigated, but since that time pharmacists have given it a thorough proving in both health and disease.

I will tell you why I was so deeply interested in this one plant more than others better known and of more value to the medical profession. Over seventy years ago, my father, while cradling wheat on his farm, was bitten above the top of his boot leg. For a few minutes he felt a stinging pain in the leg. Retracing his steps, he soon found a large rattlesnake coiled, his eyes sparkling and his rattles sounding the alarm to tell my father he was ready for the battle. The snake was soon dispatched, the leg ligated above the wound and suction applied to remove the virus from the wound Hastening home, my father sent for Moses C. Sanders, the leading physician and surgeon in the county. Meantime the leg became exceedingly painful and enormously swollen. The doctor was soon at his bedside but all his skill and treatment were of no avail. Hə finally told my father that there was no help for him and bade him farewell. With a wife and small children about him and dependent upon him, my father did not propose to leave this world if he could help it. He sent a messenger on his swiftest horse to bring an Indian doctor who lived two miles distant. The Indian soon arrived riding behind the messenger, the two men on the same horse, and went to work. A decoction of the cimicifuga was administered internally. Poultices of the whole plant were made and applied freely to the limb and to other parts of the body. The effect was marvelous. My father recovered and lived many years after that eventful day.

In one of his lectures Prof. Cassels said, "A knowledge of flowers and plants exerts a great influence over man's moral character. The contemplation of the varied beauty begets in us a love of peace and harmony, and while holding communion with them in our morning walks and noonday rambles, our feelings become softened beyond the avaricious scramble for power and dominion. Flowers and shrubs tastefully arranged around a dwelling are strong evidences that cheerfulness, comfort, and refinement, have an abiding place within. The cultivation of flowers also tends to strengthen our piety." I wonder how many of us might not be improved by the love of flowers in and about our home. Prof. Cassel's home was, inside and out, a garden of flowers and a bower of roses. His wealth