ADDRESS OF THOS. M. LOGAN, M.D., PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION. GENTLEMEN : Just two years ago there was witnessed a spectacle well worthy our contemplation! It was full of significance, and stands forth unparalleled, in the history of our divine art, from its earliest annals down to the present moment. Along the Atlantic slope of this vast continent-throughout the length and breadth of the land, from Maine to Mexico-were seen, gathering together, one hundred and twenty-one living, aspiring intelligencies,1 moved by one thought, nerved by one impulse, animated by one hope-the good of humanity! Abandoning, for the nonce, the peaceful pursuits of their chosen vocation, relinquishing its rewards, and exposing themselves to all the hazards incident upon velocity of locomotion, westward they steered their beneficent course, borne along the iron pathway cleaved across a continent! Annulling the opposing conditions of time and space, over three thousand miles they went-"skimming over the valleys, thundering across the rivers, and panting up the sides or piercing through the hearts of the mountains." Science having made subservient to their bidding those dynamic agencies, more potent than the Genii of Arabian fable, they accomplished in seven days the travel that once consumed more than as many months; and thus they reached the city of the Golden Gate-the Mecca of their pilgrimage. In the same spirit and with the same purposes with which we this day come together, they met their confrères from different 1 These western pioneers of the Association organized themselves, in connection with the members of the Pacific Coast, into a society, at the last meeting in Philadelphia, by the title of the "Rocky Mountain Medical Society," and elected Washington L. Atlee, M.D., of Philadelphia, President, and John Morris, M.D., of Baltimore, Secretary, to commemorate the auspicious event. All honor to the glorious one hundred and twenty-one! and widely distant regions. They met, not as the mere reflexes of other men's opinions, not to promote those objects which centre in self-interest, but as the independent representatives of a high-toned, liberal profession, to secure the benefits which accrue from singleness of purpose and unity of action. With views as comprehensive as the wide domain of science, they labored with the same unswerving perseverance which has characterized each and every session of this Association during its entire history. Having in four days accomplished the object of their high mission, they returned, noiselessly, like the great forces which control the universe, every one to his allotted sphere in life, and ere the lapse of another week, all were once more seen quietly fulfilling the daily duties of their noble calling. Such a spectacle of moral grandeur, I repeat, never before was witnessed in the history of our Association-never in the annals of medicine. Amazed and confounded, the disloyal in our ranks looked on with staggering doubt; the faithful took part with renewed trust-trust in the power of our organization, the power of its knowledge, and the power to make that knowledge disinterestedly available to the whole profession. As in that wondrous frame whose structure, functions, and relations compose our constant study, the sentient nerves feel keenest at the extremities, so we, the distant dwellers on the Pacific, remote from former centresthe ganglia of its gatherings-continue still to thrill with quickening memories of the benefaction, whose magnitude and value cannot be computed. Neither has the reflex action been lost upon the Association, but permanently stirred up to deepest depths, its members flowed back the following year, into Philadelphia, like a tidal wave of tenfold volume, in unprecedented numbers. Nor is the influence yet abated. Like yon mighty river, which sweeps with ever-living, ever-moving waters along the wharves and by the busy marts of this Empire City of the West, carrying rich deposits of fertility and plenty from State to State, in its annual overflowing, to bless the dwellers upon its shores and throughout the vast regions of its lengthened course, so we are here to-day, rejoicing in the strength of our numbers, to scatter far and wide, along the pathway of humanity, the benign influences and freewill offerings of our collective counsel and experience. Herein lies the great catholic principle of our Association. Having a common heritage and a common interest as Americans in each other's welfare and advancement, we throw our portals open wherever we are wel comed, and by the introduction of new material, assimilate new elements into the common mass. Migrating over our vast territory, as our Association has done for more than a quarter of a century -holding its meetings first in the North, then in the South, next in the East, and then in the West, it acts as the irrepressible light and air of heaven, imparting its vivifying influence in all directions. and infusing fresh energy into the monotonous existence of the medical practitioner. But the great principle does not stop here. By the influx and efflux of travel, and all the interchanging currents of social and professional relations, the precious germs of our discoveries are engrafted, as soon as known, upon the common stock, and the good fruit is spread abroad in all directions without stint or hindrance. In every city, county, and State, societies like ours are continually springing up, based upon the same unselfish tenets, the individual members, as well as the organizations themselves, being bound together by the adamantine chain of a professional and fraternal sympathy, which is destined to encompass the whole land with its ameliorative and recuperative influences. Everinore urging a broader and more complete culture, our Association calls upon all schools and colleges in the land, and upon all who teach in and control them, to exact a high and liberal preliminary education; not so much in ancient classics-though the grace imparted through them adds to the dignity and influence of the physician-but in modern languages, philosophy, and every department of physics and of knowledge; and thus, by the light of general science, to illuminate the technicalities of their special pursuits. Nor has its voice been raised in vain, for every day are being wit nessed the incipient symptoms of a tendency to that scientific training and discipline in inductive reasoning whereby the American mind possesses itself of knowledge at first-hand, without the intervention of European authority. Thus it keeps ever before our ardent gaze the speedy advent of the time foretold by the prescient Agassiz, on the shores of the Pacific, when, instead of sending our youth abroad to be instructed in narrow specialities and the ways of fawning and servility, our home universities will rather be thronged with students from the older nations, who, with the arts and sciences on a broader plan, will be taught to think and act as freemen, as active, independent live men, adapted to the wants of a progressive, practical state of society. If, in aught that has just been uttered, I have seemed to speak with the enthusiasm of the poet rather than with the soberness of |