present system, we desire to hear from him; but while his changes are a matter of experiment, while they are undergoing the ordeal of experience, we commend to his consideration an ancient Oriental proverb: Seasonable speech is silver, but seasonable silence is gold.

NECROLOGICAL.

WE are pained to announce the death of DR. JOHN SHELBY. This melancholy event, which had been expected for some months, occurred at his residence in this vicinity, on the 15th May last. The venerable deceased had more than touched the Psalmist's allotted period of threescore and ten. Up to within a few years past, however, his frame, early inured to the hardships incident to a rearing on a frontier border, had well preserved itself. Though not of extraordinarily robust constitution, till within a short time prior to his death he moved amongst the community in which he had spent the greater portion of his life, erect and vigorous. For some time previous to his final sickness, his manly form had showed evidences of yielding to the weight of years, which finally broke on the date above-mentioned, and one of the pioneers of Middle Tennessee, and of the medical profession of this section, was gathered to his fathers.

Dr. Shelby's ancestors were amongst the first settlers of this portion of Tennessee. He was born in the adjoining county of Sumner, and was the first white male child born in that county. The wilderness about him, populated with warlike tribes of Indians, was the cradle in which his youth was nurtured. Old Sumner has many spots made memorable by the conflicts of the advancing white and the receding red race, and in many of these the subject of this memoir, even in extreme youth, participated. It was in such a nursery that he acquired much of the sterling manliness of character which his later life exhibited.

This preparatory education well fitted him to engage as a follower of the heroic Jackson, which he did in the campaigns of that great man against the various tribes of Indians, whose hunting-grounds comprised the now fertile fields and teeming valleys of the South-west. He was also with this great commander at the defence of New Orleans in 1815.

Shortly after emerging into manhood he qualified himself as a physician, receiving his licentiate from the University of Pennsylvania, and at the time of his death was one of the oldest surviving graduates of that institution. For a long time in this city, and in the county of his nativity, he was identified with the medical profession. He had been many years withdrawn from the active duties of practice, and not many of his contemporary practitioners survive. The venerable Boyd M'Nairy, once his partner, preceded him to the grave by a few years. While engaged in the duties of his profession, he acquired an honorable fame as a discreet, judicious, and well-informed physician. His success laid the foundation of the large fortune which he has bequeathed to his heirs.

He had held various offices of public trust satisfactorily. He was for some years a member of the Tennessee Legislature, and was Postmaster of this city under the administration of General Taylor and Mr. Fillmore.

Much of the latter portion of his life was devoted to the development of his real estate, situated in this vicinity, and to the rearing of stock. He was the owner of some of the finest stock in the country, and cultivated that useful branch of labor with great zest and success.

He was a liberal, high-toned, public-spirited citizen, who performed his part well. The spirit of enterprise was strong in him, and generously encouraged in others. The medical institution with which we are connected was a beneficiary of his patronizing care, and recognizes in his removal the loss of a valued and much esteemed friend.

Dr. Shelby had lived a long time in this community, and his characteristics and pursuits brought him generally into contact with it. He sustained an untarnished name for uprightness, and lived and died respected. Though not intolerant, he was firm and decided in his opinions, and undeviating in the attainment of an object upon which he had fixed his desires. His life was a useful one, and his death has left a vacancy, and general feeling of regret.

General manifestations of respect were shown by the various public bodies of the city, and his fellow-citizens in private; and it will be long ere his memory shall pass away.

J. H. C.

Meetings were held by the Faculty of Shelby Medical College, his beneficiaries, and by the medical profession in the city, and appropriate resolutions passed at each, which, we regret to say, are crowded out by an unexpected accumulation of matter.

We are called upon to record the death of Mr. A. M. WELDON, of Mississippi, a student in the Nashville Medical Institute. This young gentleman had sojourned but a few months in the city for the purpose of prosecuting his medical studies, when he fell sick of typhoid fever, which in a few weeks, in spite of unremitting attention on the part of his medical attendants and nurses, removed him from this earthly scene. His modest, yet manly deportment, had even in a short time given him a hold upon the esteem of his associates, and his devotion to his studies augured promisingly for the future. His remains were conveyed to Mississippi. Resolutions of condolence and esteem were passed at a united meeting of the Faculty of Shelby Medical College and his fellow-students, which, for the reason stated above, cannot appear.

I. THE MEDICAL SCHOOL CONVENTION AND THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION.

WE deem the present attitude of the profession at large, and the Medical Schools, to be a matter of such moment, and the establishment of a better understanding so urgent a desideratum, that we have in our present number given the subject the first place in our original department. Perhaps a personal feeling has some share in dictating this step, as, having deemed it necessary to give our uncompromising opposition to a movement which had certain changes in view, but which we considered hostile to any well-considered plan of reformation, we have been naturally classed among those who are opposed to all improvement, and, by those who do not look very closely into things, have been considered an ultra conservative in matters relating to Medical Education, which will certainly be appearing in a new character to those who have been long acquainted with us editorially.

We commence with a statement of what has been done, which we hope to render a little more intelligible than the newspaper report of the proceedings which has appeared in the various medical journals.

It is known by most of our readers that a Convention of Delegates from the Medical Colleges was to meet at Louisville last May, prior to the sitting of the American Medical Association, for the purpose of "devising a uniform system of medical education;" the said Convention being requested by the committee of the Medical Association of the previous year, which invited it to meet, "to submit to the meeting of the American Medical Association in May, 1859, the result of their deliberations."

Those acquainted with our expressed opinions are aware that we have long advocated the convening of such a Council, and the necessity of such a body bearing a permanent relation to the medical colleges, but that we did not believe in the possibility or expediency of its originating at its first meeting any radical changes; believing that, as its sitting was limited to one day, any such proposed innovations could not receive the degree of consideration necessary to insure their due elaboration. Under these circumstances, we believed it best that the Convention should confine itself at its first meeting to the two topics of organizing itself into a permanent association and devising a code of ethics for the medical colleges, regulating their intercourse with one another, and settling some other points of usage. With the intention-should we get a hearing-of recommending such a course, we entered the hall appropriated to the deliberations of the Convention.

The first difficulty seemed to be the getting organized at all. We proposed a plan which had at least the merit of simplicity, and which was ultimately adopted, but not without half an hour's delay for debate, and half an hour more for a committee on credentials, which would all have been saved if our motion had been adopted when offered. We are not going, however, to array ourselves against the prerogatives of the Circumlocution Office: enough, our plan finally went into operation.

It now became apparent that of the larger colleges none of them had delegates in the Council. None of the New York colleges were represented; of the Philadelphia faculties, Jefferson College accredited delegates, but they were not there; Baltimore, Buffalo, Washington City, New Orleans, sent no delegates; of the New England colleges, only Harvard was represented; and the University of Nashville left its credentials in its trunk at the tavern.

On the other hand, twenty-one colleges recognized by the profession had representatives in the hall.

This failure of the Council to include the whole, or nearly the whole, of the schools, convinced us that the attempt to inaugurate any changes of importance was out of the question; for either those changes would be

only partially adopted, or the Quixotic attempt would be made to coerce those colleges which were unrepresented, by bringing to bear upon them the dictation of the American Association-a dictation which, as we should not be disposed to submit to it ourselves, we did not feel ourselves justified in invoking against those colleges which did not see fit to unite with us in forming this Council.

Our long-cherished idea, however, of a code of ethics for the medical colleges seemed still a possibility, and we were preparing a motion that a committee should be appointed for such a purpose, when Dr. Davis's motion for a committee to prepare business to be presented to the Council was made, and immediately carried.

Committees

This settled it in our mind that nothing would be done. of this sort never answer any purpose but one of these two, viz., either to prevent any thing at all being done, or to get something done different from what the general deliberative body desires. This committee

attempted the latter, but only succeeded in effecting the former.

For perspicuity, we append the resolutions it offered after another adjournment, wasting another hour of the short time assigned to the sitting of the Council:

Resolved, That this Convention recognize the great advantages to be derived from the action of the American Medical Association in prescribing the terms and conditions on which medical degrees shall be conferred and licenses to practice medicine shall be granted, and that any expression of opinion as to methods or periods of instruction from the American Medical Association should be received with deference and respect, and that all pains should be taken to enforce any rules or regulations recommended by that body.

Resolved, That this Convention earnestly recommends the American Medical Association to adopt such measures as will secure the efficient practical enforcement of the standard of the preliminary education, adopted at its organization in May, 1847, and that the Medical Colleges will cheerfully receive and record the certificates alluded to in said standard, whenever the profession generally, and the preceptors, will see that students are properly supplied with them.

Resolved, That no Medical College should allow any term of practice to be a substitute for one course of lectures in the requisitions for graduation.

Resolved, That hospital clinical instruction constitutes a necessary part of medical education, and that every candidate for the degree of Doctor of Medicine should be required to have attended such instruction regularly for a period of not less than five months, during the last year of his period of pupilage.

Resolved, That every Medical College should rigidly enforce the rule requiring three full years of medical study before graduation, and that the diploma of no Medical College shall be recognized which is known to violate this rule.