Blow your own trumpet is the watchword of the day. Sound your charge and ride over somebody, or somebody will sound his charge and ride over you.

The people exercise the same principle in employing a doctor that govern them in purchasing a barrel of flour; they buy where they can buy the cheapest. They read the newspaper, give credence to and patronize the author of the miraculous cures published in its columns, laugh at the doctor when portrayed on the mimic stage, and are continually on the qui vive for new methods of cure, patronize fortune-tellers, blue glass speculators, cancer curers, magnetizers, natural bone-setters, etc., etc., and perchance only consult the medical man to evade the stigma of a coroner's inquest. The public see and criticize the rapid and imperfect manner in which doctors are made in this country, and is it any wonder that it entertains distrust and feels a want of confidence in our honored art?

It seems as plain as the noonday sun on the dial of time, that the mechanic of yesterday, working at his trade from week to week, suddenly seized with a cerebral hyperæmia, with his little box of medicine and popular guide, is the driving physician of to-day; that the tanner of a quarter of a century, failing in business and bankrupt in fortune, arrogates the dignified air of the medical man, and by dint of presumption and church influence hides the tanner under the toga of the doctor, and, with menial services, flattery and sycophancy outstrips the educated practitioner in the race for success, and steals away his patronage; that the blacksmith and carpenter, no longer content with their "roast beef and two dollars a day," turn doctors next and hammer into sick humanity the laws of health and the cure of disease, at two dollars a visit, "medicine extra." The cobbler reads a popular work on medicine, becomes inspired with "the divine art of healing," hies to some distant village, hangs out his shingle as doctor, practices a few months, writes to the Dean of a medical college, complaining of the legislature as a hard taskmaster enacting a most unrighteous law to deprive him of the right to practice his profession, urges extreme poverty, perhaps a large and sickly family, that prevents him from attending lectures, proclaims his devotion to his loved profession, tells of the great

good he is accomplishing, refers to the merciless attacks of his enemies to injure his professional standing and drive him from his field of practice, and finally, by the payment of his lecture fees and the price of his diploma, secures oftentimes the coveted parchment which entitles him to a seat in this Institute, and makes him the PEER of those whose lifelong studies and wellearned reputations have purchased for them the respect and confidence of mankind. How applicable to all such unfitted aspirants for medical honors are the lines of Lessing:

"Tompkins forsakes his last and awl,
For literary squabbles,-

Turns doctor next; but his trade

Remains the same, he cobbles."

These too frequent examples of medical incompetency are no uncertain shadows of fancy, but are the painful evidences of fact, a fact no candid practitioner can question or attempt to controvert. It is this very laxity in educational matters, touching the possession of a medical diploma and the right to legally practice our art, that has brought down upon us the reproach that at the present time envelops our calling; and if we would regain our former status, if we would place our profession in the proud position it once enjoyed, I repeat it, look to the education of those whom you would invest with the sacred office of physician.

I do not express these views as affecting the standpoint of homœopathy. I speak of the laxity of medical education generally in this country, and believe that the only way to accomplish the end in view is, not to advise and recommend wise and proper provisions for securing a liberal preparatory education in literature and science before the matriculant enters upon his medical studies, but to enforce upon our colleges a uniform preparatory education that will enable students to enter upon their medical curriculum with minds well stored with "scientific" knowledge, having especial reference to habits of correct reasoning and philosophic inquiry.

The able and interesting reports of Prof. D. Thayer, of Boston, chairman of the "Intercollegiate Committee," in 1875, as also that of Prof. A. E. Small, chairman of the "Committee on Homœopathic Colleges," in the same year, fully embrace all that

is to be said upon this very important subject, and I earnestly recommend that the present session of this Institute will practically inaugurate additional reform in this direction; a reform that will place the homoeopathic colleges in this country on a more advanced plan of medical education than has heretofore been attained by our professional rivals.

It is high time that the line should be drawn between those students who have by faithful and earnest study earned their medical degrees, and those who have purchased, or obtained by favoritism, their legal passports into the profession.

Gentlemen, having invited your attention to this subject, I leave it with you, feeling the fullest confidence in your zeal and ability to advance the right and retard the wrong.

In conclusion, permit me briefly to allude to the distinguished services and great personal worth of one who but a year ago occupied this chair, and to whose memory these sombre weeds testify the affectionate regard and fraternal reverence with which his name is held by the members of this Institute. He is gone. "Though lost to sight, to memory dear." He needs no panegyric, no pæans of praise, no complimentary peroration from your presiding officer. His works are his imperishable monuments,— his good deeds, his wise counsels, his friendly admonitions, and his deep interest in the welfare of this Institute, are continual memorials of his excellencies as a man and physician.

Truly has it been said, his best blood and life were devoted to the success of the "World's Homeopathic Convention," and his crowning glory is the priceless legacy left to us by his indefatigable services and the rich treasures of knowledge donated to the cause we all delight to honor.

Sacred be the imperishable tablet erected to his memory. His life ended in the very zenith of its usefulness to his medical brethren and good to his fellow-man; and it ended covering him with honor and our profession with glory.

"Rest he shall have now,-his work is o'er,
Rest on the beautiful, evergreen shore.

Over for him all the sorrows of life;

Lulled into quiet all noise and all strife;
Labors are ended, reward-endless life."

DR. L. H. WILLARD, of Allegheny, Pa., moved, and it was carried, that the address be accepted, with the thanks of the Institute therefor.

It was further moved and carried that the address be referred to a special committee, to report thereon to the Institute during the present session.

T. P. WILSON, M.D., Vice-President, taking the chair, appointed the following Committee on the President's Address: L. H. Willard, M.D., Allegheny, Pa.; S. P. Hedges, M.D., Chicago, Ill.; D. H. Beckwith, M.D., Cleveland, O.

THE PRESIDENT, resuming the chair, appointed the following committees:

COMMITTEE ON CREDENTIALS.

T. FRANKLIN SMITH, M.D, of New York.
C. H. VON TAGEN, M.D, of Chicago.

S. H. ROBINSON, M D., Laporte, Ind.

AUDITING COMMITTEE.

JOHN E JAMES, M D., Philadelphia.

PHILO G. VALENTINE, M.D., St. Louis, Mo.
E. DARWIN JONES, M.D., Albany, N. Y.

ROBT. J. MCCLATCHEY, M.D., of Philadelphia, General Secretary, then presented the report of the

COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION.

The report stated that the committee greatly regretted being compelled to announce that they had been unable to complete the Transactions of the World's Homeopathic Convention The protracted illness of Dr. Dunham, which commenced shortly after his return to Irvington, in the full of 1876, and terminated in his greatly lamented death, in the latter part of February last, had prevented the preparation for the press of a large mass of papers in his hands, and these had come into the hands of the General Secretary for completion, who had found it impossible to have even one volume of the proceedings ready for this meeting. The General Secretary, however, reports that so much has been already printed, and that the MS. of the remaining portions is in such a state of forwardness, that both volumes will, in all probability, be ready for delivery, to members and others entitled to receive them, within three or four months after the adjournment of this session.

The Committee of Publication desire to call the attention of the Institute to the fact reported by the General Secretary, of the very scanty material furnished for the making up of a historical and statistical report of the rise and progress of homœopathy in the United States, as a part of the proceed

ings of the World's Homeopathic Convention, notwithstanding the time afforded for the preparation of such material, and the acceptance of such work by numerous sub-committees. One great State, with an important homœopathic record, has furnished not one line of history; and another great State, with a still more important and interesting homeopathic record, has furnished little or nothing beyond a series of disjointed fragments in the shape of printed reports of societies, institutions, etc. To gather the history of homeopathy in these States and others, therefore, the General Secretary has been compelled to consult the periodical literature of our school, at a great loss of time and expenditure of unnecessary labor, and doubtless the history of homoeopathy in the United States will, for these reasons, be defective and unsatisfactory, especially as not one line of it has passed under the masterly hand of Dr. Dunham, who possessed, in so marked a degree, the ability to bring order out of a literary chaos.

Your committee desire instruction in regard to one of the papers of the World's Homeopathic Convention, a lengthy and valuable monograph on the various preparations of Mercury. It was the opinion of Dr. Dunham that this monograph, which was, in his opinion, very valuable, should be published as a third and supplementary volume, in boards, should the funds for the publication of the Proceedings of the Convention admit of its being done. Your committee, however, have learned that the author has caused it to be published in Germany, and they wish to be instructed under these circumstances.

On motion of Dr. J. C. Burgher, of Pittsburg, Pa., the report was accepted and referred to the Committee of Publication. THE PRESIDENT: The next business in order will be the presentation of the

REPORT OF THE TREASURER.

E. M. KELLOGG, M.D., of new York, Treasurer, then presented his Annual Report, which was, on motion, referred to the Auditing Committee.

THE TREASURER then made the following supplementary

statement:

Mr. President and Fellow-members. The balance in the hands of the Treasurer, which has just been reported to you, will all be absorbed in the publication of the Proceedings of the World's Homœopathic Convention of 1876, and cannot be counted on for any other purpose. As you are all aware, during the past two or three years the annual volumes have been published from six months to a year after the meetings of the Institute, or in other