Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-06-22

it is yours to hand to the world the little
casket that first contains them-je%els of al
fection then in mothers eyes, and later per
haps the saviors of country-the benefactor'
of a race, or perchance a stalwart clutchel
after patronage. Presidents, senator's, gov
ernors, generals, all touch your palm as they
enter the ring of life's pavilion, and would to
God none of them, in after life, ever touched
palm less nnocently
Infancy is soon lost in youth, and youth
soon evolves the man, and then comes the tug
of war--a war merely for existence it may be,
possibly for large accomplishments,
but it is all war, real war,
with wounds and breaks and all sorts
of disaster When every other profession
runs off the track or bursts its boilers, rolls
over the precipice, clashes its train, sub
merges its marine, it is yours to bind up and
give back to life. Just here all other science
retires-retires to the background and is 81
lent. Just here You are pre-eminent. Others
allow or incur distinction, you step in with
restoration. Could we stop here, gentlemen,
you would be Gods, but alas, there is one
all gentleness ard with all human
skill, but at that point, natures
subtlely eludes you ana we die. The dead
never comes back to give a final opinion of
you, hut as you were with us at the first and
have done so much for us all through life thus
far, we that are living verify believe that we
will not be disappointed in you at the last,
aud hence we welcome you 20 st. Paul
To conclude, gentleman, you embody and
Illustrate the grandest profession of the age.
Your decisions, your permissions and
your denials interlace all civilized life and em-
| brace all activities of commerce and invention.
You conserve energies and regulated luxury,
without your sanitary guardianship great
cities would be impossible and great assem-
blies hazardous. Much of the worlds enter
prise, as to-day astonishingly conducted, would
languish but for your assistance. Many
achievements would have been lost in The past
in an early grave but for the recovery and
preservation drawn from your ranks.
In all these words have not sought to eX-
aggerate. | believe speak simply the plain
truth. There Is much more | might say, if
time permitted, of the hardshlps and manly
d4votions and personal sacrifices of the pro-
fession to which you belong. | am by no
means unfamiliar with many of these charc-
| teristics of your professional life. My father
was physician. Three brothers of mine fol-
lowed IN his footsteps and have encouraged
the succession by educating a willing son
to take place in your humble ranks. You
Will not wonder, therefore, that it is a source
of pleasure to me, Gentleman, to greet you
here to-day.
| Be assured you are welcome, and will only
y
dents, practically benifcent as you are from
the very nature of your calling; whenever in
individual character, to all that is professional,
| is added personal courtliness and Christian
| love and morality, you become angels of
mercy; worthy namesakes of the Great Physi-
clan Sin whom all live and move and have our
| being"
| Gentlemen, bid you welcome to ST. Paul.
| Dr. David Leasure was then introduced. and
| r. Al D.
ciety delivered the following address:
| address of WelcOme on the Part of the
Physicians of Ramsey County.
| Members of the Minnesota Medical Society
and Gentlemen: On me, as president of the
Ramsey County Medical society, devolves the
pleasant duty of bidding YOU hearty welcome
to your capital city, the metropolis of new
empire. 1t affords me much satisfaction to do
this at the request of the worthy president of
the State society, and as this is likely to prove
q very interesting and responsible meeting, on
account of the prospective meeting of the
American Medical association in st. Paul next
June, in may not be deemed presumption in
me to briefly allude to it at this early stage of
your proceedings.
At the request of the president of the Mime
sofa State Medical society, who represented us
at its late meeting in Richmond, Va, sustained
by previous invitations from the municipal
authorities of st. Paul, that associations decided
to accept our invitation, and now it devolves
upon us to unite with the profession of the
city and the autho. fties and citizens to give
such q reception to the visiting professional
brethren on that occasion as may be due to
their great worth and the honor of our State,
constituting, as it does, the gateway to that
wonderland, the "New Northwest" where but
IL. IL
portion of the great American desert. There,
at the head of navigation on the 'Father of
Waters" the city of st. Paul and her beautiful
daughter, Minneapolis, will combine to give
our Eastern and Southern friends an idea of
the vast resources of the land beyond, where,
within an hour by rail to-day, twenty years
ago the -whoop of the savage echoed over
the plains, and his recedng footprints were
red with the blood of his slaughtered victims.
But, under the influence of a young but
mighty civilization, the land lies peacefully
under the summer sun, ripening millions of
acres of waving wheat into golden harvest.
There can be no doubt as to the course the
Minnesota State Medical society will take to
give fitting reception TO the representative
delegates of the profession assembled from
every portion OF the continent. The
profession of st. Paul extend to you
most cordial welcome for your
own sakes, and Will endeavor TO make it pleas
ant for you, well knowing that you yourselves
will make it profitable.
These organized annual reunions are well
calculated to keep alive the professional ardor
of every true lover of a profession deriving its
origin in an antiquity so remote as to antedate
all signs and written language, and which has
always had for its motive the cure Of sickness
or the alienation of pain. 1t has been said
that the true physician, like the poet, must be
born with the divine instinct strongly latent in
him, or no aTaount of study and preparation
can develop him into successful practition-
er. Whether this be true or not matters little,
so long as so large proportion of the men,
bers of the profession prove by their works
that the best energies of their lives are devoted
to the furtherance of its missions of mercy.
OF no other human calling can it be said that
the individuals composing it devote their time
and health and talents to objects which, if
accomplished, must curtail their own emolu-
ments, and lessen their individual consequence,
as do the members of our profession in pro-
noting a knowledge of the laws of health,
and urging forward sanitary measures to pre-
vent the sickness that, if permitted to super
vene, would put money in their purse and add
to their personal consequence.
During the forty years that have. been in the
profession, many changes have taken place,
few of which, while you bear with me, l will
enumerate, but it will be impossible to give
more than glance at even those few, for ours
is progressive science, and after centuries of
wrangling over theory and dogma, we have
learned to take truth wherever we find it, and
apply it to the healing of the sick, regardless
of its origin. We have learned to be taught
even by an enemy, and some of cur most val
ued progress has been made under the fagel-
lations of professed enemies. We have pro-
gressed quite as much in unlearning hoary er-
rors as in finding new truths, and it is sug-
gestive of the philosophy of the times, and of
its influence on our profession, that no theory
or dogma is so sacred that we will not aban-
don 1t as soon as We find that it has been
founded upon insufficient or false data. The
advances made in the methods of study and
observation have made many changes in what