The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1895-06-03

Who closed their minds to the truth o
! scientific observation, arid refused tt
welcome the light that was pervadini
| the world. But the question reaches
magnitude and Importance entirely
too great for this occasion, though it af
| fords us a glimpse of the natural scope
and grasp of his cultivated mind.
The Albany letters Of Dr.. Bronson, OF
which | now present you with only the
first one of the series of six, were i'm
mediately given to the press and Were
copied by all newspapers on this contin.
emit and in foreign lands They con.
stituted the earliest and most complete
dissertation on the nature and treat
ment of Asiatic cholera then in exist
ence and written as it were, at the bed
side, they furnished a graphic account
of the unchecked march of the pesti-
lence across the continent, studied and
recorded under the careful observation
of a most competent Investigator. His
views of the pathology and proper
treatment of cholera were everywhere
approved and adopted; and they gave
direction to medical practice through
out the word, and in after years they
made in therapeutic knowledge.
Unconsciously to himself, as I believe,
the secondary, but more transient eff
feet of these letters was to cause the
name of Henry Bronson to become IA
miliarly known to medical men wherev-
er the pestilence gathered it's victims;
and If these events had occurred i'm the
present generation, and If he had 50
chosen, he certainly would have re-
ceived, as he would have merited, the
highest civic and professional honors
that could properly have been conferred
upon him
With his strong individuality, and his
great force of character, and with his
exceptionally high qualifications for
maintaining an independent profession
al standing, it would only have been
natural if he had soon tired of the sec
ondary position he was them occupying.
However that may have been, it was
not long after his return from Canada,
and making his final report to the hon
orable committee that had sent him
abroad, before we find him, at the ur-
gent solicitations of his father. and of
the leading citizens OF his native town,
returned to Waterbury. Here he easily
held the foremost rank as medical
man of rare attachments. as he doubt
less would have dome anywhere, and be-
gan at once ~ country practice, large
from the first, which rapidly became ex-
tended over a very wide field, and soon
was counted as by far the largest in
Connecticut, and probably in New Eng
land.
During the closing days of that year,
1882, DR.. Bronson was waited. upon by a
commission of medical gentlemen from
Philadelphia, offering to him the fiat
terlng proposal to become president of
the leading meAical college there The
was entertained and dis
cussed. But after a conference of the
most free and confidential nature. it
was mutually concluded that the only
apparent obstacle to his prompt ac-
ceptanee of the invitation was his
youth, FIe had only then completed his
twenty eighth year
In the beginning Of the year 1888 we
find our young friend engrossed with
the ardous labors of a. country doctor
to perform to the fullest ex-
tent every duty that could properly be
Of him.
His long rides on horseback, over the
hill country of northern and western
Connecticut, and over the line into Mas
sachusetts. and up and down the Hous-
atomic valley, In the Intense heats of
and the severity of the win
Ler's cold, were at first invigorating to
mis- constitutional health.
But after few years of such hard
Ind unremitting discipline to which
we're added the peculiar anxieties and
wearisome details common to such a
life, his health began to show signs of
and 1T was with reason feared
Dy his friends and himself that, like his
wo brothers, ONE of whom was a phy-
sician, he was in great danger of fall
ng a victim to that fell disease which
annually has claimed as its own the
most promising youth of New England
And we feel Obliged to add to the infiu-
snce Of his incessant labors, and con-
slant exposures to great extremes of
the general impairment of
lis health and the weakening of the
powers of resistance against disease,
,aused by his experience at Montreal,
TOub WHICH pfODdply NE NEVER eHllTeiy
recovered.
In the autumn of 1889 it became evil |
lent to himself and his friends that he |
would be compelled temporarily to re- |
inquish his practice and seek recupera- |
ion in milder climate. He left New |
Fork in November by a small sailing |
-essel bound for the Mediterranean, and |
fter long and uncomfortable voyage
vas landed in Genoa, very much i'm |
,roved in health. Spending the most !
r.yhng months Of the winter in Rome |
nd Naples, visiting more than once |
UGH places of interest as Pompeii and |
he made the ascent of
resuvius, going up to the very rim of |
he crater. His daily journal, kept for |
he pleasure of his family, is exceeding
Y full and interesting in its connected |
ecord of the usual series of Incidental
Experiences met with by tourists, and
that he left behind him in It
ly nothing unvisited worthy of record
d notice. Taking passage by steamer
t Civita Vechia, he visited, and critical
: explored Marseilles and Lyons, and
assing slowly by diligence across
rance to- Paris he found himself in
lore congenial surroundings. Here he
egan again his pedestrian excursions,
islting and describing all the most
oted churches, monuments and locali-
es in Paris, especially those of histor-
Into 10 HyicifaI have |