The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924104226232 
 
THE UNIVERSITY RECORDS 
 
 CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
 ADDRESSES 
 
 ON THE 
 
 FOUNDATION AND ENDOWMENT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ROSWELL P. FLOWER LIBRARY 
 
 Ithaca, New York 
 
 Published BV the University 
 
 August, 1901 
 
Cornell University Library 
 SF 777.C81L69 
 
 Addresses on the foundation and endowmen 
 
 3 1924 003 309 873 
 
 CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
 THE 
 
 Ulnmer Veterinary IGtbrary 
 
 FOUNDED BY 
 
 ROSWELL P. FLOWER 
 
 for the use of the 
 
 N. Y. State veterinary College 
 
 1897 
 
©bbreeBee ai fge (gxerctBee in QRecognifton of f0e 
 
 Sowttbation anb <Snboti?ment 
 
 of f^e 
 
 *In 1897 EoswELL p. Flowee gave to Cornell University five tliousand 
 dollars (85,000) to found a library especially adapted for the use of the 
 Faculty and Students of the New York State Veterinary College. By a 
 vote of the Trustees of the University in accepting this gift, September 21, 
 1897, the library thus founded was named the "Roswell P. Flower Library." 
 
 In April, 1901, Mes. Roswell F. Flower gave ten thousand dollars ($10,- 
 000) as an endowment to this library, the income of which is to be used 
 solely for the purchase of books and periodicals and thus to perpetually 
 keep the library abreast of the advances in all that pertains to comparative 
 medicine. In the library hangs a portait of Governor Flower and under 
 it a tablet with the inscription : "The Roswell P. Flower Library. Founded 
 1897." The exercises in recognition of these generous benefactions were 
 held in the Amphitheatre of the Veterinary College, June 12, 1901, at 12 m. 
 
Jnfrobucforg (Remarfia 
 
 BY 
 
 3<ico6 <&oufb ^c^urman, 
 
 gjresibenf of Comeff QJitttierBrt^. 
 
 TT FTER the death of our great benefactor, 
 ^~\ Henry W. Sage, who succeeded the founder 
 in the chairmanship of the Board of Trus- 
 tees, we were all at a loss to know •where a man 
 should be found to take the position which these 
 two great men had so admirably filled. There 
 was, however, in the Board, a man who by his 
 own unaided efforts, by thrift, industry, and high 
 character, had raised himself to a conspicuous 
 position in the financial world, and who, by his 
 exertions on behalf of the public, had won a dis- 
 tinguished reputation in the State of New York, 
 ■which he had served as governor, and also through- 
 out the nation, to which he had rendered in- 
 valuable service as a champion of wise public 
 policy, of sound finance, and of the rights, within 
 their respective spheres, both of capital and of 
 labor. 
 
By the unanimous vote of his colleagues, ex- 
 Governor Roswell P. Flower was elected chairman 
 of the Board of Trustees of Cornell University. 
 He had scarcely entered upon his labors before an 
 untimely death snatched him from us. His practi- 
 cal interest in the University had, however, mani- 
 fested itself, and by a generous gift he had estab- 
 lished a library for the Veterinary College, in the 
 foundation of which he had been a most efficient 
 agent. This library his widow has recently en- 
 riched with a perpetual endowment of $10,000. 
 And we have come together to celebrate briefly, 
 but not, I think, inappropriately, the beautiful act 
 of our gracious benefactress. I call, therefore, 
 upon Dr. Law, the Director of our Veterinary 
 College, for a short address on the scope and 
 functions of the Roswell P. Flower Library. 
 
©bbrcBB of 
 ■Btrecfor of i^t gtMu '^orft §)iait (oefm'narj Cotttge. 
 
 TT SEEMS proper that I should say a word on 
 -'- behalf of this college upon the good fortune 
 which has visited us in the endowment of our 
 library. Speaking for the teachers and students, 
 I feel warranted in saying that no gift could come 
 to us which would be more far-reaching in its bene- 
 fit, than that of the literature, past, present and 
 future, that bears directly upon our daily work. 
 A celebrated living medical teacher in advocating 
 the value of laboratories has referred to books as 
 the graves of living thought. This may be true if 
 the book is never taken from its library shelf, but 
 if it is read and studied it is far more truly the 
 seed of future thought and successful work. The 
 book is or should be the expression of contemp- 
 orary thought, the record of contemporary knovrl- 
 edge. Often, it is true, the thought is useless or 
 pernicious, but so is the word of the living man, 
 and so must be the book in which it is printed. 
 So called medicine has passed through its eras of 
 
superstition, of fetichism, of folly and of baseless 
 authorit}^, but it has successfully emerged into the 
 day which demands scientific demonstration, and 
 holds each doctrine or alleged truth as no more 
 certain than the evidence on which it rests. 
 
 The epizootic or epidemic is no longer attributed 
 to the wrath of Apollo as it was under the walls 
 of Troy; the Baal fire is no longer lighted and the 
 libations poured to secure propitious conditions 
 for man and beast; the white horse is not sacrificed 
 to avert the wrath of the thunder god; the horse 
 shoe on the door is less in evidence; the signs of 
 the zodiac are less assiduously studied to foretell 
 the results of operation or illness. Yet the clouds 
 and mysteries have not been completely dispelled 
 even in civilized lands; we still see and hear some 
 survivals of early cults. Even in 1865 a learned 
 priest and bishop pronounced the Rinderpest 
 which was devastating the herds on the fair fields 
 of England, a judgment of the Almighty visited 
 upon a people who sinned in literally worshipping 
 their live stock. In America to-day the high 
 priestess of the misnamed Christian Science tells 
 us that Christ used no drugs in healing, and that 
 the use of drugs is therefore an impious act. In- 
 consistently enough she and her followers use 
 other modern discoveries without compunction, 
 including the printing press and its product, for 
 the propagation of their delusion. 
 
 The 20th century physician and veterinarian are 
 dehveredfrom the danger of such vagaries, and for 
 them much of the older works are mainly valuable 
 as matters of history, yet even as such, they can 
 
at times throw an instructive light on problems 
 that confront us to-day. We can in them study 
 the special or local prevalence of disease, under 
 conditions that are not to be readily tound to-day, 
 (under primitive states of agriculture, wars, 
 famines, inundations, droughts, etc.) and deduce 
 from them conclusions corroborative or corrective 
 of present indications or ideas. The veterinarian of 
 to-day realizes that his knowledge is unrehable 
 unless it is in harmony with and based upon the 
 immutable laws of the universe, and rests assured 
 that under the same conditions in all respects, the 
 same result must constantly follow the same 
 cause. In place of dreading that his work may be 
 impious, he realizes that he is endeavoring to 
 place in motion the laws of God himself, and in 
 this he can confidently count on the Divine ap- 
 proval. 
 
 But no one man can for himself prove every 
 doctrine or truth, even in medicine alone. Even in 
 scientific enquiry he must take much on faith in 
 the workers who have preceded him, and he must 
 build on the solid foundations which they have 
 prepared. To do this he must have at his com- 
 mand the record of their work, and if that has 
 been done Avith all modem scientific precautions 
 against fallacj% and if it is endorsed by other com- 
 petent workers in the same field he can do this 
 with reasonable confidence. In this consists the 
 value of a library which shall keep the student 
 and worker in constant touch with the labor and 
 research of others. Without it the investigator is 
 liable to spend all his time and skill in resolving 
 
problems which have already been settled else- 
 where. Without it he is denied the data from 
 w^hich to deduce the present status of achievement 
 on any given question, and the material which 
 would suggest to him the burning question of 
 the hour; and the question Avhich, by an obvious 
 step forward, promises the most complete success. 
 He may be liberally furnished with brains, natural 
 ability, and training in scientific technic; he may 
 be endowed with that love of truth and earnest- 
 ness in w^ork that might accomplish miracles 
 almost under favorable conditions, but if he is 
 handicapped by an enforced ignorance of the 
 recent work in his own particular field of science, 
 he is likely to spend much of his splendid powers 
 and restless energy in comparativel}' barren fields. 
 
 I may, therefore, say with confidence that the 
 founding of the Roswell P. Flower Veterinary' 
 Library, followed by its endowment is the great- 
 est boon that could have come to this institution. 
 
 When on the recommendation of Governor 
 Flower the legislature of New York provided for 
 the founding of this college, there were available 
 in the University library over 5,000 volumes on 
 medicine, human and veterinary', and on cognate 
 subjects; but most of these dated back to a time 
 when medical doctrines and truths had not yet 
 taken on their most recent development. At the 
 time of their publication modem bacteriology was 
 in its infancy, and since that time many medical 
 truths had taken on a new meaning. In this par- 
 ticular direction it may be said that modem medi- 
 cine dates back but for fifteen or twenty years 
 
onl3^ Epidemeiology, epizoology, sanitary science 
 and police have been especially affected in this 
 way. The source of the microbe, the nature of its 
 toxin, its action on the animal system, its exclu- 
 sion, destruction, elimination, or its antidotes are 
 examples of the subjects that must now claim our 
 attention. It was most important that the new 
 institution should be furnished with the newer as 
 well as the older truths of medicine. This need 
 bears upon and is felt in every branch of medicine. 
 In anatomy, physiology, histology, surgery, medi- 
 cine, hygiene, prophylactics, therapeutics, and 
 sanitary police it must be constantly kept in mind 
 il we would reach sound conclusions. The new 
 knowledge pervades all and dominates at so many 
 points that the person who is ignorant of it is un- 
 questionably out of the race. He may hold a 
 position by reason of previously acquired public 
 confidence, and the community or the government 
 may keep his place secure, but, as a matter of fact, 
 he remains as a barnacle on the ship of state, or 
 to speak without metaphor, as an injurious em- 
 piric. 
 
 Before proceeding further we must note, that no 
 field in nature is wider than that of the microbes 
 and their products, and notwithstanding all that 
 has been accomplished in the past few years, none 
 presents a greater number of unsolved problems. 
 It is, and must long remain an open and prolific 
 field of research, and every 3^ear and every month 
 must bring us something new and valuable to add 
 to our treasured stores. In this we are not deal- 
 ing with things already fully accompUshed and 
 
therefore unchangeable as in history or geology, 
 nor with truths absolute as in mathematics. The 
 subject of our enquiry lives, and the sum total of 
 its possible living combinations furnishes a practi- 
 cally endless variety, and forbids the hope that we 
 can map out the field for all time and establish 
 conclusions that no future possible combinations 
 can modify. The movement toward this object, 
 must and will be constant and permanently ad- 
 vancing, and so must be the mind of the student 
 who would devote himself to medicine in any 
 form. He cannot afford to ignore what has sur- 
 vived and what must ever survive of the medical 
 lore of the past, but no less can he disregard the 
 most recent v^rork in contemporary research. 
 
 If we enter another branch of our subject we are 
 confronted bj' a verj' similar state of things. It is 
 not so long since the humoral pathology held 
 sway and all diseases were attributed to modifi- 
 cations of the liquids of the bod3^ It was an 
 enormous advance v\,'hen Goodsir demonstrated 
 the cells and nuclei as the centers of nutrition in 
 the organic being, and Virchow promulgated his 
 doctrine of cellular pathology. Later came the 
 demonstration of the cell network and plasma, of 
 the chromatin filaments and nodes, and of the 
 parts played by these and by the nucleus, nucleo- 
 lus and centrosome in the various modes of cell 
 division and growth. To-day on the basis of 
 these truths we have new theories and demonstra- 
 tions of life, of growth, of development, of heredity, 
 of variation, of atavism, of disease, of recovery, 
 of therapeutics. And the end is not yet. We 
 
 10 
 
are coming step by step, deeper into the arca- 
 num of life and the sources of things, but we can- 
 not for a moment suppose that we have reached 
 the actual foundation of existence, nor that we 
 have reached the knowledge of the endless modes 
 in which such truths have their bearing on 
 hygiene and medicine. 
 
 Wherever we turn we see the evidence of rich 
 har\^ests being gathered, and of springing seeds 
 from which richer harvests are soon to come. To a 
 center of science and research the revelation of each 
 new achievement is a sine qua non of a proper 
 standing and a successful advance, and unless our 
 library can reach out its arms into all centers of 
 activity in allied subjects, and bring the results to 
 our doors, our standing must be impaired and our 
 future clouded. 
 
 The facilities -which we have enjo3red in the past 
 for giving a thorough education in comparative 
 medicine, have led to results that are very gratify- 
 ing to the friends of the institution. Four of our 
 students have been called to the position of 
 teachers in other colleges, one is now in demand 
 at a salary of $2,500. Five were called to be 
 meat inspectors in the Bureau of Animal Industry 
 with salaries commencing at $1,200 a year, a 
 position reached through a civil service examina- 
 tion which the ordinary' veterinarian could not 
 face. In the regents examination for license to 
 practice, 50 per cent, of our graduates took marks 
 of 90 and upward and no one fell below the aver- 
 age mark of 80, while of those from other colleges 
 47.5 per cent, fell below 80, and only 12.5 per 
 
cent, obtained 90 and over. In the entire central 
 and western part of the state, none but graduates 
 of this college have, by a successful civil service 
 examination, become eligible to serve the state in 
 veterinary sanitarj' matters. Finally under the 
 Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research which 
 has just been organized with a preliminary fund of 
 $200,000, the request has come to us for a suit- 
 able man to investigate the nature of the milk 
 supply of the city of New Yoi'k. 
 
 It is in no invidious or boastful spirit that I 
 refer to these fadts, but rather to shov7 that we 
 have been faithful to the trust reposed in us, and 
 that the opportunities furnished have not been 
 wasted or negledled. As regards numbers the 
 students working here for a veterinary degree 
 have increased steadily at the rate of thirty to 
 forty per cent, per annum. 
 
 With such a satisfa6tory experience under the bet- 
 ter conditions, it was with no little anxiety that we 
 foresaw the approaching exhaustion of the gift of 
 Governor Flov^^er, so that excellent as our library 
 now is, it v^^ould be left v^dthout the means of con- 
 tinued vitality and growth, or it would have to be 
 maintained by the use of State funds, which would 
 introduce endless confusion in the matter of own- 
 ership. In our extremitj^ the matter was brought 
 to the attention of the Flower family by Professor 
 Gage and Mrs. Flower came promptly to our 
 relief with an endowment fund of $10,000, suffi- 
 cient to secure for the library year by year, and 
 month by month much of the freshest fruits of 
 research in the different subjects on -which the Col- 
 
lege is engaged, and to constantly inspire its read- 
 ers with the life and thought of active contempor- 
 ary work in ail parts of the world. 
 
 For the expenditure of nearly $4,000 of the ori- 
 ginal gift we have a very satisfaftory showing. 
 First, we have the librarjr of the late Dr. John 
 Busteed, of New York, the founder of the New 
 York College of Veterinary Surgeons, embracing 
 a number of rare and valuable books, dating from 
 the work of Carlo Ruini (1602 A. D.), to the pres- 
 ent time. This includes three hundred and four 
 bound volumes, besides a number of unbound 
 works, pamphlets, and water color illustrations. 
 To the veterinarian it furnishes a valuable history 
 of the science, while to the artist it provides the 
 classic folios of Gurlt, Stubbs, Brunot, Leblanc 
 and Trousseau, Snape, Blaine and Leisering, in 
 artistic, descriptive and surgical anatomy. 
 
 As a gift -we acquired the veterinary library of 
 Dr. W. L. Zuill, former dean of the veterinary de- 
 partment of the University of Pennsylvania, and 
 comprising one hundred and fourteen volumes,, 
 largely of classic veterinary works in the French 
 language. Eighty-nine other books have been 
 received as gifts, the largest individual donations 
 having been from Professor Gage, thirty-four; 
 United States Department of Agriculture, fifteen; 
 University of the State of New York, eleven; Dr. 
 Law, seven; Dr. Williams, five; (Mrs.) Dr. Wilson, 
 London, five; Dr. Fish, two. 
 
 Important modem works have been added by 
 purchase as they became available, until now the 
 the library contains 1,754 bound volumes and a 
 
large number of unbound, and receives a list of 
 thirty technical journals. 
 
 As there are $1,000 of the original Flower gift 
 still in hand it is proposed to add this to the $10,- 
 000 to form a fund the interest of which can be 
 used yearly for the purchase and binding of books. 
 The library rooms, shelving, supervision and inci- 
 dental expenses will be defrayed out of the college 
 income. 
 
 In this waj^ the permanence and high quality of 
 the library can be secured, it can be kept in touch 
 with the most advanced thought and work in our 
 various fields, and each successive class of students 
 and each successive incumbent of a college chair 
 can come to it for information, guidance and in- 
 spiration in a way that must redound to our 
 advantage in all coming time. For its past this 
 college has abundant reason to turn in gratitude 
 to the late Governor Flower, and in coming gen- 
 erations and we may hope centuries, the veter- 
 inary profession, the great live stock industry, the 
 comparative pathologist and the sanitarian, will 
 have reason to cherish the memorj^ of Mr. and 
 Mrs. Flower, whose wise generosity has made 
 possible this scientific storehouse that must fur- 
 nish for all future time a Mecca toward which 
 may turn the eyes and feet of the bus}"- ^vorkers 
 in our special fields. 
 
Concfubing (KemorflB 
 
 OF 
 
 (granb (jtqj^eto of «o«ernor Sfot»«. 
 
 TT IS with the deepest sense of pleasure I have 
 -^ Hstened to-day, as one of the Flower family, 
 to this fitting tribute to the memory of one 
 who so much merited the praise of mankind and 
 yet who so little sought it. 
 
 I may say that in the death of Mr. Flower, 
 Cornell lost a staunch friend and admirer, one -who 
 looked forward to a brilliant future for this Uni- 
 versity. 
 
 Mrs. Flower in her endowment of the Flo-wer 
 Library sought to carry out in her quiet way the 
 wishes of her husband as he vi^ould have done. 
 Were Mrs. Flower here to-day she would appreciate 
 the spirit in -which these memorial exercises are 
 rendered. She desires me to express her regrets 
 that owdng to illness her presence to-day is im- 
 possible. 
 
 I have been requested to convey Mrs. Flower's 
 thanks to President Schurman, Professor Gage 
 and the faculty of the Veterinary College for their 
 courtesy and kindness. 
 
 15