The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1905-05-12
What DR.. Osler Really Said

s'SASiilllit tAillellcaH. ue Seli
sational press has 50 unfairly
distorted what DR.. Osler really
said in his Valedictory address at Johns
Hopkins university on the subject of
men over forty that we take this OPP
porrtunity of quoting his own words.
His plan of chloroformins men over
sixty sinks into a humorous perverson
of Anthony Trollope's whimsical sug-
gestion:
II have two fixed ideas we'll known
to my friends, harmless ObsessiOns with
which l sometimes bore them, but
which have d direct bearing on this i'm
portant problem. The first is the COM
ty years of age. This may seem shock
ing, and yet, read Alright. the worlds
history bears out the statement. Take
the sum of human achievement in aC-
ton, in science, in art, in literature
subtract the work of the men above
forty, and, while we should miss great
treasures, even priceless treasures, we
should practically be where We are to-
day 1t is difficult to name a great and
far reaching conquest of the mind
which has not been gi,en to the world
by man on whose back the sun was
Still shining. The effective, moving,
VitaliZing work of the world is done
between the ages OF twenty-five and
forty years--these fifteen golden years
of plenty, the anabolic or constructive
period in which there is always a bal
ance in the mental bank and the credit
it still good.
In the science and art of medicine
there has not been an advance of the
first rank which has not been initiated
BY young or comparatively young men.
Nesalius, Harvey, Hunter, Bichat,
Laennec, Nirchow, Lister, Koch--the
green years We're yet on their heads
when their epoch making studies were
do
man is sane morally at 80 rich men,
tally at 40, wise spiritually at 5O-or
never. The young men should be en-
couraged and afforded every possible
chance to show what is in them If
there is one thing more than another
upon which the professors of the uni
Nerslty are to be congratulated, it is
this very sympathy and fellowship
with their junior associates, upon
whom really in many departments, in
mine certainly. has fallen the brunt of
the work. And herein lies the chief
value of the teacher who has passed
his climacteric and is no longer
productive factor; he can play the man
midwife, as Socrates did to Thesetetus,
and determine whether the thoughts
which the young men are bringing to
the light are false idols or true and no
BILE births.
MY second fixed idea is the useless
v
the incalculable benefit it would be in
commercial, political and in profess
SlOnal life II, as matter of course
men stopped work at this age Dome
tells us in his 'Biathanatos' that by the
laws Of certain wise states seXagenarii
We're preciptated from bridge, and in
Rome men of that age We're not adj
mitted to the suffrage, and were called
depOntanl because the way to the SEN
ate was per pontem and they from age
were not permitted to come hther In
that charming novel, the Fixed PERIOD
Anthony Trollope discusses the prac-
teal advantages in modern life of a
return to this ancient usage. and the
plot hinges on the admra bic scheme Of
college into which at so men retired
for year Of contemplation before a
peaceful departure by chloroform That
incalculable benefits might follow such
scheme is apparent to any one who,
like myself. is nearing the limit, and
who has made careful study of the
calamities which may befall men dur
ing the seventh and eighth decades!
Still more when he contempates the
many evils which they perpetuate uncon-
sciously and with impunity. AS it can be
maintained that all the great advances
have come from men under forty so the
history Of the world shows that a very
large proportion of the evils may be traced
to the sexagenarians-nearly all the great
mistakes politlcally ana socially, all OF the
worst poems. most Of the bad pictures. a
majority of the bad novels, and not few
of the bad sermons and speeches. It is not
to be denied that occasionally there is a
sexagenarian whose mind, as Cicero re-
marks, stands out Of reach of the bodv's
decay. Such a one has learned the secret
of Hermfppus. that ancient Roman who,
feeling that the silver cord was loosening.
cut himself clear from all companions OF
his own age, and betook himself to the
company OF young men. m.nglng with
their games and studies, and so lived to
the age Of 153. puerorum halitu refocillatus
ct educatus. And there is truth in the
story, since it is only those who live with
the young who maintain fresh outlook
on the new problems of the world
The teachers's life should have three
periods-study until twenty-five, investiga-
ton until forty, profession until sixty at
which age l would have him retired on a
double allowance Whether Anthony
Trollope's suggestion of a college and
chloroform should be carried out or not
have become little dubious, as my own
time is getting so short