The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-01-30
The President Addresses the N.
Y. Academy of Medicine,
On the Occasion of It's Semi
Centennial Celebration.
CREATES MERRIMENT.
He Tells How He Wanted to BE
a Doctor
Or a Sailor and Ended BY Do
ing Neither.

New York, Jan. 3O.-The occasion of
the celebration of the semi centennial
of the New York Academy of Medicine,
at Carnegie hall last night, was made
suspicious by the presence of President
Cleveland, who arrived in this city
early in the evening. The president
was invited to attend the celebration by
DR.. Bryant, who is president of the
academy, and also Mr.. Cleveland's pri-
Vate physician. Carnegie hall was
taxed beyond its capacity by the doc
tors and their guests long before the
exercises of the evening were begun.
On the stage and in the audience were
many leading physicians from all over
the United States The feature of the
entertainment was the presidents adj
dress, which excited much merriment
and good feeling. He spoke, in part,
as follows:
81 have anticipated the share as
signed to me on this occasion with con-
siderable trepiditiOn, for various rea-
sons. l have been chiefly disturbed, 1
believe, because of my inability to dis
cover satisfactory grounds for my
right to join the semi centennial of
medical association.
IF, in passing through that period in
boyhood when the desirable choice of
future activity seemed to rest between
running away from home to be a sailor
and staying at home to be doctor, l
inclined towards the more quiet and or
derby of these pursuits, this surely fur
nishes no basis at this late day for a
claim of relationship to the medical fra
ternity. Nor do l forget that less than
seven years ago 1 was accorded the
privilege of participating in the exer-
cises when the cornerstone was laid of
the building which is now the home of
the organization which tonight cele-
brates it's half century of useful and
honorable existence. But this incident,
which aroused an interest still undimin-
End tIca ola r 1sa470
hardly entities me to share in the fe-
licitations of those who have since borne
the burden of it's work.
In confessing, therefore, that I have
no right to even standing room within
the inner circle of the profession, I have
boldly and without the least authority
determined to speak to you as a repre-
sentative of the vast army of patients
and laymen. Al the outset, i desire
to remind you that you owe much.
Though largely in the majority, and
with plenty of members to spare, those
who are well conducted among US do
not vex you with hurtful competition.
Instead of making life hard for you,
we assist you by indulging in all sorts
of irregularities.
I'm these circumstances, when in per-
| feet health we venture to assert our
| selves, and tell you what is in our
minds, it is not fair to 1i<en us to a GER
tain person, who, when sick, saint
| would be, though very differently in
| clined when well.
| I'VE begin by conceding most hearth
| ly and without the least reservation
| the learning and skill of those now
! constituting the medical profession and
| the wonderful advance that has been
| made through their untiring labors and
| Investigations, in the alienation of hu-
| man suffering and the saving of hu-
man life.
1T may be this seems to you an ac-
| acknowledgements so much your due as to
| be hardly worth making. You should,
| made by those who were not born yes
terday, but who hold in lasting and
tender memory the ninistrations of the
| village doctor of SO years ago, and are
| now the living monuments of his faith
| full care.
Continuing the president spoke in a
| humorous vein of the steady advance
! in medical science and said the public
would soon expect to see the medical
| profession destroy the origin in the dis
| eases and ultimately usher in the day
when the only escape from the world
| will be by a passage marked odd age
exit.
| He thought perhaps the doctors should
| be given time to find employment. Then
| speaking in a more serious vein, the
| president said he hoped the advance in
| medical science would continue and he
| prophesied that there need be no fear
| that Americas contribution to splendid
results will be efficient.
| The speaker concluded as follows:
| You have demonstrated the peril to
/ health of unwhOlesome water and nox-
| ious surroundings; and yet much re-