The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-10-08
THE DEAD AUTOCRAT
President Eliot of Harvard
Speaks of Oliver Wen
dell Holmes.
HIS CONTRIBUTION TO MEDICINE
Professor Norton Regards Him as
the Last of The War Period
Literary Men--A Lover
of Life.

BOSTON, Oct. s, 1S94.-President Eliot
of Harvard College, speaking of the late
Or. Oliver Wendell Holmes, said:-
"His connection with Harvard was
through the medical school. He never
taught literature or gave any lectures on
literature. He taught at the Harvard
Medical School for thirty-five years,
where he was Professor of anatomy and
physiology, teaching also histology and
microscopy. He began when the Har-
ward medical school was not of much
account, but lived and worked in it
long enough to see it become important.
He taught the above branches until 1871,
when he became Professor of anatomy
alone, which he continued to teach un-
til 1892 In those busy days, when he
lectured in so many branches he used
to say that he occupied not a CHAIR
but ''settee" of medicine in the Har-
ward Medical School.
''Dr. Holmes was hard and faithful
worker and one of the brightest men
who ever lectured at the medical school.
He did a great deal to make the school
what it has become. He lectured regu-
larly five times a week throughout the
school year, and never failed to be on
hand. He was the most careful of men
in preparation of his lectures, and very
painstalking in his experiments. He was
very exact in dissection.
CONTRIBUTION TO MEDICINE.
"Mr. Holmes greatest contribution to
the worlds, medical knowledge was the
discovery of the fach that the puerperal
fever is contagious. He contended so
for years, and met with all sorts of ridi-
cule 1t is now, of course an axiom Of
medical knowledge. 1 once heard DR..
Osler of Baltimore say that this is one
| Of the greatest contributions that New
England physician ever made to medi-
cal science
Prof Charles Eliot Norton spoke feel
ingiy of Dr. Holmes. He had known
| him as a man of letters, and had been
acquainted with him for years. He is
! better able to talk OF Mr.. Holmes than
almost any other individual,
| inherited his brightness ana Wit from
| tional clergyman. One of his deacons
said of him that he fed the people saw
uus' Il, LAST 81 q OF 5R'OHIs HIS SCHOOL.
''The important point to remark about
| DR. Holmes death is that with hin,
has died a. particular class or school
of writer's in America that has no sue
| cessor He was the last of that famous
| group of five men-Emerson, Loweu,
| Longfellow, Whittier and hmself-firm
| friends aud all of the same stamp. 1
| remember some fifteen years ago Mr..
| Lowell remarked to me:-'Wendell IS
bound to outlive US all. He will live 10
write our biographies, and SO he has,
either in prose or in verse.
This school which is now dead, was
lgsta fglgfaYD Denoerafio m%sfe mora si f % aprang up
| in the good days when America was
most prosperous and gave the most
| hopeful promises, with new, free gov
|. eminent, untold resources, not yet de-
| veloped, a happy, roomy country, they
grew up optomistic and happy. Ihey
| had too touch of Puritanism. They
| all wrote with moral They were stirs
| red to write often, not so much from the
| impulse of the imagination, as because
| they were impelled to teach some lesson
| and do some good in that way. 1t was
| Just at the war period. and all combined
on the same side. They We're all war
riors in a sense, Their writings had
great effect. Their tone was always the
same and always had that moral tone.
Since the war there has been little
| in the development of the country that
would encourage young writers or BRING
| out school like that old one. Our
ideal has changed entirely. Before the
war the ideal of the average Americs9
was the bright man of letters; now 1t tS
unfortunately the millionaire. So, you
| see, his death marks the close of an inn
| portant epoch in the history of Ameri-
| can letters. The new writers, the best
| of them, are running now to story tell
ms FOND OF LIFE.
eHolmes was fond of life. He thor
| oughiy enjoyed himself He once. told
me that he knew of no greater good for
| tune than to be born of family noted
| for its longevity, and to be able to look
| forward to a long, happy life.
| "His life's work was completed. He
| had been declining of late years. There
was nothing new or original in his writ
| ings or sayings. He realized 1T himself.
| But still he was as bright as ever.
'tDr Holmes had a great love for Har-
ward He did Harvard an immense ser-
| vice as practical professor of medicine,
| and likewise as one of the foremost
| literary men of the day. 1 feel that
can say nothing further in appreciation
| of man whom | admired and loved.
know that his memory will always live
| AlLEATAhp INniH ATOMS