The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1883-01-26
valedictory Address OF DR.. Holly, the
Retiring President, to the
Academy OF Medicine.

| "tfsSP''"~'y3 PAAfS S"S"""'
tinged with melancholy, you will
not be surprised If / bring to your
remembrance things belonging more
to the old and forgotten, the dim and
shadowy long ago, than the living
present of to day.
In this hurrying stream of human
life, when many run to and fro, and
knowledge is greatly increased |;
when every hamlet and certainly
every town has its Seminary Of Learn
ing or at least its men of letters !;
when everything that keeps in the
front, must of necessity n owe as the
lightning express or be left as a
scarcely discernable speek, way back
in the misty past. None Of us can
afford to be loitercrs in this era Of
the worlds progressive life. And
yet there are times when the fast
moving train must slow down stream,
and whistle on breaks if she would
safely reach the terminus.
And so may we, the votaries Of
science, belonging as we may, to
tireless profession moving onward
with the steady pulse beat of our
own hearts and resting only as the
heart rests in the brief sleep of its
rhythmic movements, stop and think
perhaps retrospect the past, correct
our dead reckoning and pechance
forecast the future.
! Gentlemen, few thoughts on
vital statistics and the medicine of
the future will comprise the burden
of our thought on this occasion.
We look back 800 years and by
the light of the most authentic history
carefully note the conditions sur
rounding human life at that compar-
atively recent period and compare
them with the present.
The population of France at this
period to which we refer, might be
counted in ten or twelve millions.
England proper, at that time had
a population of little over 1000,
900, but a little more than is found to-
day within the municipal walls Of
| London, her own and the worlds
mighty metropolis. London at that
time had population of about $780,
900, the births numbering nearly
400 annually and the deaths about
the same, except on plague wears,
when the deaths were often 10000 to
10000. To-day, in London alone,
the births are not far from 1900
weekly and the deaths about 1000,
and her entire population about a.
100000 and the British Isles claim
about 10000, 900 inhabitants.
France has without doubt tripled
her population in three centuries.
Germany, instead of the mighty
empire Of 100000 she possesses
to-day, then was so feeble she had to
cringe among the other powers to
preserve even her nationality. The
other nations Of Europe were equally
small and Insignificant.
And what shall we say more ?
Space would fail us to 60 over the
world with the staticians eye as APP
piled to that age and to this; one
more must suffice, the United States
of America, then unborn, now with
her 100000
The thoughtful mind inquiries at
once how is this? Some potent
conservative power, noiseless as the
dew of eve, but more powerful than
Oceans mighty waves, has certainly
been at work to effect so great a
change in period of time, in the
worlds history comparatively so
short. Undoubtedly more than one
conservative influence has had to do
with this wonderful change. Schol-
ars no doubt will to a certain extent
differ as they undertake to classify
and arrange them.
Christianity itself in its purer form,
with its wonderful power upon the
human heart and consequently up
on the whole human race, might be
said to be just coming forth from her
long sojourn in the wilderness, in the
beaufiful metaphor IF Hebrew roetrv