CldLZ. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES ROBERT ERNEST COWAU ADDRESSES DELIVERED ox THE OCCASION- OF THE DEDICATION OF COOPER MEDICAL COLLEGE BUILDING, LEVI C, LANE, A. M./M. D. (JKFFERSOX AND BERLIN), PROFF.SSOR OF SURGERY, AND MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS, LONDON ; EDWARD R, TAYLOR, ADDRESSES DELIVERED ox THE OCCASION OF THE DEDICATION OK COOPER MEDICAL COLLEGE BCILDIXG, LEVI C, LANE, A.M., M.I). (JKFFERSOX AXD BERLIN), PROFESSOR OF Sl'RGERY, AM) MEMHER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OK SURGEONS, LONDOV ; EDWARD R, TAYLOR, A. I.. I'AM KOKT A niMPANY, fKJMBKS S\S !KASi-l- l .5 8 1 . ADDRESSES DELIVERED ON THE OCCASION OF THE DEDICATION OF COOPER MEDICAL COLLEGE BUILDING, BY LEVI C. LANE, A. M., M. D. (JEFFERSON AND BERLIN), PROFESSOR OF SURGERY AND MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS, LONDON; AND I;Y EDWARD R. TAYLOR. The exercises were commenced by conferring the Med- ical Doctorate upon the Students who had recently graduated in Pacific Medical College, (the name which the institution bore prior to its recent incorporation under the name of Cooper Medical College,) the formula used j? by Dr. Lane, (the donor of the property, and President : of the institution,) being in language as follows: CC Z3 Candidates for Graduation : In the olden days of scholastic learning, the approach =3 of the candidate to the baccalaureate threshhold was the scene of severe contest between him and the guardian authorities ; " and the witnesses to that occasion were entertained by the clangor of lances sharply wielded in dialectic battle, in which the candidate was compelled to prove himself fitted for the honors in question. Dis- mantling this famous ceremony of its ancient dress, 1 will still preserve the spirit of the same by formally announcing to those who are present to witness your graduation, that 4 you have complied with all the regulations of the Pacific Medical College ; that you have successfully passed the annual examinations of a three years' course of medical instruction in that institution ; in fine, that you have well run the appointed curriculum. As a reward therefor, the directors and faculty of the Cooper Medical College, under which name the former institution is now incorporated, have instructed me. its President, to confer upon each of you the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and to give to each of you the diploma of this institution as perpetual and universal evidence of such promotion. DR, LANE'S ADDRESS, Afterwards Dr. Lane delivered the following valedictory address : Candidates for Graduation in the Science of Medicine : There are times when it is well to forsake the usual road and to pursue a pathway hitherto untrodden. The present occasion in the history of our school gives such license, and permits me to cast aside the ceremonious dress with which the valedictory address is usually invested. During your long training of three years, medicine enough have you had, and mingled therewith a due amount of moral axioms and monitions ; for your Faculty strongly believe, and diligently teach, that the professional character is sadly incomplete, unless high scientific training be con- joined with equally high morals. Besides, in the classic words of your diplomas, the same fact is reiterated. Leav- 5 ing. therefore, in a measure, these things aside, I invite you to accompany me in a journey which I recently made to the Sierras. There let us breathe afresh, and learn some- thing new from the high as well as from the humble forms of nature, for we find the two commingled in the closest society. As examples of the lowly, I will first invite your attention to a blade of grass beneath a pine-tree, a leaf from the pine, and a hillock of ants near the root of the tree. Near the eastern end or head of Lake Tahoe, and near the foot of the mountains which form there the wall of the Jake, now stands an aged pine, if some covetous axe has not been laid at its root ; and as I saw it a year ago the dense foliage of this tree did not allow a broken sunbeam to reach the earth around its huge trunk. In this sunless shadow a single blade of grass had sprung up, battling, as it grew, with a constant shower of missiles, yet defiant of javelin and Minnie-like cones, it had risen to a respectable height, and bending to and fro seemed to be bowing a welcome to me. Without the stimulus of noiseless sym- pathy, or the encouragement of approving applause, unaided by any but its own innate powers, this child of Nature had fought the battle of life well, and won the palm of successful existence. Napoleon-like it had survived a missile warfare where danger was as rife as at Lodi and Marengo, and was waving the banner of unscathed life. But its kinsmen, the scattered remnants of which were visible, had been less fortunate ; destiny had assigned to them the lot of defeat, yet one was moved with sympathy for their misfortune, and felt like applauding them, as once did Napoleon when meeting, on the road, wagons of the wounded which his own army had defeated, he turned his horse out of the way, and lifting his hat, he said: "Honor to the unfortunate brave." But, turning to our victor again, I observed that it had not only lived, but the numerous flowerets adorning its purple crown gave proof that, obedient to the laws of its being, it was providing for an ample succession. Whether these children, emulous of parental example, have equaled their mother in dogged struggle against adversity, or whether they have fallen in the pitiless warfare waged against them; whether they have drawn fair or dark lots from the urn of Fate, is not known ; yet the sight of that one victorious stalk of grass remains with me as a pleasant memory, teaching what perseverance, even on a small scale, can accomplish ; and the example taught by it is deserving of your imitation; for in the lower as well as in the higher walks of your professional lives, adversity must come ; amidst its javelins learn to stand unflinching unyielding. Besides this lesson learned from this frail endogen, it teaches yet another, for growing from the inside, and send- ing out its shoots from the centre, so that the young and tender ones are surrounded and protected by the older and stronger leaves, it offers a perfect instance of self-develop- ment ; thus growth and defensive fortification keep pace with each other. So in man, as in this little plant, per- manency of character arises rather from inward than from outward growth, and if such character be your aim, start from the inside and thence grow. In the solution of life's 7 problem all depends on starting aright. Further illustration of this is the following incident : Some years ago. when in Berlin, I was an occasional listener to the lectures of the famous Helmholtz. On one occasion his hour was occupied in the solution of a problem of physics on the blackboard. The work consisted of a long series of algebraic quantities, presented in the form of equations. The final result reached, showed that an error had been made in some part of the work, when the professor started back and sought for the mistake. It was only after much worrying review that he found that a slight error had been made in the very com- mencement of the solution, and this little blunder had not only clung to the succeeding links of the work, but it grew as it progressed, and at the end wholly vitiated the conclusion. In another stroll, while reading an epitomized summary of philosophy, in which a plea was made for philosophic study, and the utility of the same defended against the encroachments of natural science, the author showing in the work that the conclusions of Leibnitz were singularly close to and coincident with the discoveries of Newton ; in the midst of these abstract reveries, my attention was called to something more concrete, in the form of a pine-leaf that dropped on my page, and for a time became the subject of thoughts, which are here offered. Looked at, the fallen object was needlc-shapen, half faded and quite in the sere of leaf-life, and not half as long as a line of my philosophic lecture; an insignificant, dimin- utive thing apparently, yet if one lifted it up and listened to 8 its story, he heard there much that is curious and instructive. This story is as follows : A few months ago it lay with a number of its fellows infolded in a brown bud, its destiny then being decided by its position on the parent-stem, for according as it occupied basial or apical site, it might become leaf, sepal, petal, stamen, pistil, or germ of a future tree ; but it was assigned a position in the first class, leaving the other destinies to its superjacent brethren, viz: it became a leaf, and consequently part of the breathing apparatus of the huge organism to which it belonged ; a breathing organ like that of the fish, unfolded instead of infolded; but unlike that of animals, there is an alternation of function here, that of the day being the reverse of that of night. This pulmonic vesicle of ever-acting chlo- rophyl has intimate affinities for air and light, and through the interchanging interaction between the subject and these media, the marvellous processes of plant life are main- tained. This is an enviable and admirable breath-cell, since in the meshes of its delicate histology the hand of disease does no marring by the planting of tubercle cells ; nor are its perfect walls disfigured by distending emphysema or collapsing atelectasis. Hence the pine with its incom- parable breathing apparatus does not prematurely languish with phthisical decay. The nutritive elaborations accomplished in this tiny workshop, were done noiselessly by the genius of organic life ; in that laboratory no clashing was heard of the cruci- ble, mortar, blow-pipe and furnace ; the attentive ear could have caught no sound of bustle or confusion, as the chemist 9 was building his part of the colossal fabric : but with unerr- ing aim he plied his craft, now selecting this, now rejecting that piece of building material, and so thoroughly accurate was he in all the details of his art. that without redundance, defect or mistake, he accomplished his task perfectly and without ever recurring to the archetypal sketch; and with equal accuracy and even more marvellous detail, the task was done when the workman's hand fashioned the floral leaflet, the staminate crown, the pistillate utricle, or the microscopic germ of a future conifer. Besides, this leaf, though so insignificant in form, and in power apparently so feeble, had been more successful than the Titans of old, since it had caught the divine sunbeams and moulded them into chains, whereby the organic elements of the pine are held together in ever-enduring matrimonial union, and as forms of potential tension they become the equivalents of so much force in Nature's exchequer. The fallen pine-leaf has had but a brief existence, measured by a few months of time only ; but during this time it has done its work so well, that it has contributed to the growth of its parent, and affixed there a tablet that, untarnished by storm, season or time, will last for generations. Hence, the tiny pine-leaf falling on the page of Fichtc's subjective idealism, when one unfolded its scroll and read the curious history written there, was more replete with wisdom than I could find in the abstruse formula- of mental philosophy; and thought, going a step further, told me that the great life-tree of humanity has likewise its leaves, of 10 which each one of us is a representative, each destined, if he works well, to leave upon the parent-trunk a little tablet. From the fallen leaf, my attention was next called to a hillock of ants near by ; but, as its story is rather a long one, and also to follow the order of Nature in which the little and the great are equally commingled, we will next stroll to a cluster of pine-trees, seven in number. These natives of the forests, each one several centuries old, had grown to their present strength and stature within a few square yards of earth ; nay, more, may grow for ages yet to come. The savant Flourens, from a study of the life-time of animals, and deriving his rule from the period which is required for the animal to become fully grown, taught, in regard to the measure of human life, that the normal limit of man's life should be one hundred and twenty years. Tried by Flourens' rule, which, I regret to say, he failed to illustrate in his own life, the pine should live unendingly, since it never ceases to grow ; it remains always in the freshness of youth life and growth being coeval. The lover of antiquity need not go abroad to find objects to which he may do homage, for these trees have records of years upon them which antedate English civilization ; but, unlike man, in whose face the markings of the years are traced, these trees have folded up the records of by-gone centuries, and buried them deeply in their hearts. When one contemplates these trees, as examples of constructive skill, the study is full of interest and novelty. 1 1 This union of strength and majesty of form is the product of two factors time and molecular force and these, in magnitude, are inversely proportioned to one another, the factor time being the greater one. In a lecture which I once heard delivered by Becquerel, Professor of Physics at the Museum of Natural History, Paris, the idea was ren- dered probable that the processes of growth resident in the radicles of the plant are dependent upon electrical action. As in the animal body it has been demonstrated by Du Bois Reymond that there are constantly playing electric currents between the centre and circumference of living muscles and nerves, so it is probable that the terminal radicle of the plant is but a galvanic cell, consisting of two fluids- one the fluid of the adjacent earth holding numerous saline materials in suspension, and the other the organic fluids of the plant, the two being divided by a thin wall of vegetable substance. By a similar arrangement we know that elec- tricity is set free and matter precipitated on the separating wall. In the plant the material thus precipitated from the outside, traverses by endosmosis the wall upon which it has been precipitated, and, being once admitted, becomes plastic matter. This galvanic element, superior to the chemist's, dispenses with amalgamation in order to constantly work, nor does it need cleansing, since the precious matter deposited on the plate is food for the plant, destined to be converted into bark, wood and leaf tissue. The latter, as before shown, becomes an ulterior refining and finishing workshop, in which the cruder matter, passed up from below, under- goes its final elaboration and refinement. 12 'I hus \ve see that from materials abstracted from the earth, and which are so minute that no tactile corpuscle could appreciate them, nor auditory ossicle be moved by them 7 though they had fallen from a mountain height, nor could retinal rod perceive their impact I resume from such minute stones this edifice has been created, and in height made a peer of the Pyramids. The voyager of the Rhine never fails to visit Cologne ; or, as the Romans called it, Colonia, or Colony. If he remembers his Tacitus, this spot is remarkable to the trav- eler for having been the witness of a victory of words over swords, for it was near here that Germanicus quelled, with a few well-chosen words, a dangerous, mutiny of the Roman army. But, besides this and other associations, mediaeval architecture draws most persons here. Some centuries ago it was proposed to build at this place a cathedral, which, in architectural grandeur, should surpass anything then existing, and all the famous architects of the world were requested to furnish plans for the same. Among those competing was an ambitious builder, who, desirous of outstripping all the others, made a league with Satan (a personage, probably, not a little interested in the matter,) that if he would aid him in devising plans that would excel all the others, he should have his soul after death. Satan accepted the offer, and furnished a plan which, being the wonder and astonishment of all, was accepted as the best. But, like most fraudulent transactions, the architect's secret leaked out, and the faithful of the church were much morti- fied at the ill-pi igh't in which the builder was placed ; and for the purpose of finding some refuge for him, they con- sulted Saint Ursula, who told them if they would secure the thigh-bone of Saint Peter, and place the same in the builder's hand when he came to die, it would nullify his pact with Satan. Thereupon an embassy was sent to Rome, the bone secured, and given to the builder. Satan, having discovered the trick that had been devised to defraud him of his rightful plunder, visited the builder, snatched the plans away from him, and, venting maledic- tions on his head, declared that thereafter no one should know the plan, nor in future should anyone know the archi- tect's name ; and, true to Satan's prediction, the plan of the original architect is not known, nor does any one know his name. But a better fate awaits our temple- pine than has befallen the old Cathedral of Cologne. The architectural plan, according to which it was built, has been revealed to us by Galvani and Volta, the quivering foot of a frog touching the opening-spring of this great revelation. How profoundly impressive, then, the thought, when seated among this group of pines, that countless electric batteries are at work under one's feet countless forces, infinitely little, which the hand of Time applies slowly but incessantly upon the long arm of the lever that hoists the building material to the summit of this loftv fabric. As o *" motive weights, Time silently adds hours and days to his arm, never ceasing until he trains the ascendant over the o O counterpoising material. Hut whence comes this building material ? This introduces the lake and the mountain 14 two other great objects of nature, to which we will next direct our attention. But before doing so, let us make a short diversion from the high to the lowly, and study a hillock of ants which have chosen the shadow of the pine as the site of their home ; and as we do so, the intense activities of this busy community rivet both eye and thought to the spot. Coming nearer to the ant-hill, and questioning one of the outstanding sentinels as to the polity, counsels and government of this little commonwealth, one learns not a few lessons of practical instruction. Though this insect occupies a low step in the scale of animal life, its neural centre having neither convolution nor other mark of intel- lectual ascent, yet one soon learned that what brains the ant does possess are well used. As proof of this, the wise of all times have borrowed instruction from the ants, and held them up as examples worthy of imitation. The Hebrew sage counsels the sluggard to go and learn wisdom of the ant ; but the sluggard of our day, who has learned something of natural history, says that nothing can please him better than to have such an example to follow, as it has been observed that ants do not commence their labors until late in the forenoon. Perhaps the ant of Palestine was an earlier riser, as it is not probable that Solomon would have made such an error. The ant can also boast of having suggested to Virgil one of his finest lines, and to La Fontaine one of his most popular fables. In this fable we are told how a light- hearted and frivolous grasshopper spent his precious sum- 15 mer hours in song and merriment, taking no lessons from passing time or current events ; with no fear of a comincr hour which would weigh with remorseless balance his uttermost garnering; nay, more, even smiling, when allusion was made to the future. Finally, the frosts of winter came, and found his storehouse empty. In his direful necessity, the profligate repaired to the castle of the ants, begging for food, but received as answer, that as he had sung during summer, so now he might during winter. Besides these examples of wisdom for practical guides in life, chosen from the many which have been furnished by the ant, you will be pleased to learn that chemistry has received no trifling aid from its labors ; moreover, that this little insect has been an indirect co-worker with us in the healing art, viz: it has furnished man with a delicately com- pounded substance, to-wit. formic acid, which needed but the addition of one element to it to render it the most perfect of pain-annulling agents. This gift of the ant to man was unheeded, and remained in the chemist's labor- atory, a useless thing, until a Frenchman, by accident, added chlorine to it and gave the world chloroform. Hut man, with his wonted nature to ignore favors and obliga- tions, as if to blot out all recognition of the favor which has been done him by the ant, has changed the nomenclature of chloroform from the terchloride of formyle to the ter- chloricle of methyle. Besides what we have learned from these insects, allow me to repeat the apostrophe which one of their sages made: to me, as I sat musing at his side: i; To quote the language i6 of your great Heyne, concerning the markings of the sala- mander's tail, there is more wisdom in the hieroglyphics chiselled on my sides than in the combined philosophy of Spinoza, Kant, Schelling and Hegel ; the substance of the first, the subjectivity of the second and third, veiled under the mystic forms of the I and the not I, and the reason of Hegel, are mere vapory words; and though the meta- physical student may find pleasure in them, yet these are but useless words and intangible fancies ; but if the hiero- glyphics on my sides be truly translated, the true wisdom of life consists in useful occupation, whereby prudent pro- vision for the future is made, avoiding all occupation where shadow is mistaken for reality." The formic sage retired, and left me to reflect on the lesson which he had given ; and to none is the lesson more appropriate than to you, whose hearts are full of youth, hope, and the future ; for, when the frosts of winter have come, it will be of incalculable import to each of you, whether as the grasshopper you have idly sung the summer away, or, like the ant. have filled your storehouse with stores. As we made our digression to the ant-hill, we were on the eve of considering the sources whence is derived the building material of the pine-tree, and this introduces the lake, on whose shores these meditative ramblings were made. As one stands beside Lake Tahoe, and endeavors to form, in its diverse features, a conception which may be given in words, these features are so numerous that one knows not how to commence the portrayal so as not to distort the picture, and he stands in that wavering uncer- tainty with which Scott has described one of Scotland's lakes : " The mountain shadows on her breast Were neither broken nor at rest ; In bright uncertainty they lie, Like future joys to Fancy's eye.'' At the foot of our group of seven pines, with one shore lying in our State and one in Nevada, lay this emerald gem in a framework of mountains, whose sides were covered with pine forests, and whose crests, here and there, were crowned with snow; emerald gem I have called it, yet it rather deserves the name of the most precious of stones ; for, as Kepler conceived the fixed stars to twinkle like diamonds, because of their revolution, so the face of this lake, borrowing hue from sky, sun and cloud, presents a play of colors not excelled by a moving diamond, and as such, constitutes the brightest jewel in the diadem of two sister States; and securer than the Koh-i-noor, or the crown jewels of England, it will glitter there forever, since no prince's gold nor despoiling conqueror can ever wrest it from its Sierra casing. Besides its matchless charm of coloring, our lake is equally remarkable for the purity of its waters; the water taken some distance from the shore is free Irom all admixture of foreign matter; a grand crucible in Nature's hand, where hydrogen and oxygen exist alone, unmixed with baser matter." These waters, like a peerage jealous ol a long and unalloyed lineage, are recruited only from ice and snow i8 on the surrounding mountains, the ice and snow in their turn having sprung from clouds that arose from the lake ; water, cloud and snow being the links of a never-breaking chain; for existence, whether in the form of organic or in- organic phenomena, moves in fixed circles or orbits, which, according to Goethe, and more especially as elucidated by the master-mind of Moleschott, are governed by fixed iron and eternal laws, and this chain of recurrino- action origin- o o ates in the heat of the sun, or, as Helmholtz would have us believe, from bodies falling on the sun; hence, in the face of the lake, with its many-colored features, along with the overshadowing cloud, and the snow on the mountain, we have glimpses of that conserved force which, born among the stars, disappeared in the fields of space, and, Arethusa- like, reappeared in these forms. In the lake we have a true picture of the medical practitioner's life in its varied experiences, for, as it at times has its smooth unruffled face, so he has his days of smooth, even tenor, in which not a ripple occurs to vary uniformity; while these, again, are succeeded by those of rude and dis- astrous misfortune, in which failure and disaster mock each effort of the professional hand. In the midst of such shocks the man stands stupefied and dejected, half ready to believe that the principles of his art are valueless. In such trials the physician may receive comfort from the reflection that a certain amount of error is inseparable from all human effort, and that to reduce such failure he must ever be ready to meet it with renewed and more vigilant toil, for the storms on the lake of life will not continue always, but, perhaps, 19 even to morrow, its frowning waves will sink to repose. From the lake, too, examples of this may be taken, that amid the fiercest tempests, the deep water underneath re- mains unmoved; and, as the waves of Tahoe are broken and brought to rest by their fixed Sierra wall, so the adverse billows which harass human life fall harmlessly when they strike against a well-disciplined mind. A remarkable quality of the waters of this lake is their nearly uniform temperature; and though this degree in the deeper points approaches freezing, yet, except at the margin near the shore, it never freezes. This is accounted for by the absence of organic or other matter; hence is learned that purity of character gives independence; and, though winter is so near, yet these waters, secure in their in- corruptible freedom, mock his efforts to place his hands upon them. Hence the lesson to you of adorning your professional mantles with the pearls of independence and integrity; adorned with such qualities, dishonor will vainly essay to grasp you in its wintry hand. From the many-colored waters we turn our eyes to the mountains, which are a framework in which our lak^ picture is contained. As evening approaches, strange, weird shadows lie on their rocky summits; distance, sunlight, shadow, resting against a sky of peerless purity, all making a picture of such sublime character that words, let them be never so carefully chosen and cunningly mingled, can never reproduce its correct timings. Colors, not words, and a master-hand like that of Bierstadt and Mill only can repre- sent this scenery. 20 To increase, if possible, the strange sublimity of the scene as the sun sank behind the mountains of the western shore of the lake, numerous fires were seen that had been lighted by the native Indians. The smoke and flames of these fires, gleaming among the evergreen forests, re- sembled watch-fires and reminded me of Uhland's lines: ' \Vhen the tower-bell tolls once below, And the watch-fires on high do glow, Then I'll descend the ranks among, Brandish my sword and sing my song. I am the mountain boy." When the sublime impulses awakened by the view of this scenery have given place to cooler reflection, or, rather, when ecstasy has given place to analysis, one finds that nature here has indulged in forms of architecture in which Byzantine, Gothic and Moorish forms appear; nay, more, as the uncertain light of evening renders the view less distinct, one can easily conceive that he sees in the distance the many-pinnacled cathedral of Milano, with its towers and chiselled statues; but this Sierra cathedral, with its towers and statues chiselled out of gneiss and granite, escapes the discoloring touch which time has left on that at Milano, since draped in a snowy mantle, the former remains white forever. The less imaginative chemist and geologist see in these rocky masses the building material of all plant and animal life. These are the primitive elements, cast up by volcanic force, from which plant and beast derived their solid con- stituents. These elements in Nature's treasury are far more valuable than gold and silver; the latter are mere 21 glittering baubles that she has formed to amuse her infant, man; while the former constitute the coin, current at her treasury. In the book of organic life, Nature traces with a pencil composed of these elements, the primordial sketch of every living thing. Yet as these mineral principles exist in yonder rocky turrets, they are locked up faster than ever miser's chest was closed against burglar's hand, and their security is still increased, since even in their fastnesses they are moulded into crystal forms of adamantine hard- ness. But how unlock this iron safe, so securely barred against intruders? The keys thereto are tempest, wind, and ice, and released from its prison, this precious dust takes shape as bird, animal, forest meadow, leaf and flower. Hence the tiny grass-blade, the group of pine-trees, the hillock of ants, and all this landscape of beauteous forms, are the offspring of yonder mountain; and when this landscape, with all its inhabitants having accomplished its destiny has vanish- ed from existence, then Nature, re-combining the scattered elements and adding new ones from her mountain store- house, will produce again a new landscape to delight the eyes of other generations. In our visit to the heart of the Sierras, we have seen some of the architectural wonders reared by the hand of Nature. I now call your attention, as I close, to another, reared by the hand of Art in this building. To render her work enduring, and to erect a fabric that would defy the wasting touch of years, Art has borrowed from the Sierras, blocks of granite, and from the earth, indestructible 22 building material. As such, it now stands complete in all the matchless perfection which care and study could devise a monument to Elias S. Cooper, the prime originator and ardent promoter of medical education on the Pacific Coast. In the last days of his fatal illness, I accompanied Cooper to the heart of the Sierras, with the hope, as he thought, that the breath of the pines and the mountain view might bring some relief to him ; when, finally, it became plain that all was in vain, and that the fatal shaft could no longer be eluded, he spoke calmly of his impending dissolution ; it was manifest that premature death was arresting but half finished much that he had purposed to do, and, at various times, during his illness, the destiny of the school which he had founded, was the matter of intense solicitude. As Time, on a recent occasion, realized the wishes of a French patriot, who, dying before the establishment of the Republic, for which he had toiled and suffered so much, bade his old servant come and proclaim it over his grave, whenever that event should occur, so this audience, here seated, twenty years after Cooper's death, in sight of his last resting-place in Lone Mountain, in doing intellectual homage to his memory, announces that his work still lives. The granite tablet over the portals of this building, lasting as that of the Pantheon, whereon the memory of Bichat is emblazoned, announces the same truth ; and the trained hands and cultured minds, who annually shall depart from this temple of learning, bearing scrolls on which his name is inscribed, will widely proclaim the same, and bear evidence that his work was not in vain, but that " He builded better than he knew." Could he have foreseen this, as mortality was laying its cold fingers on his heart, it would have caused it to beat for a moment again with freshened life, and would have thrown a beam of pure light athwart the gloomy shadow that coming death was projecting over him. EDWARD R, TAYLOR'S ADDRESS, Ladies and Gentlemen: The occasion of our assembling is most auspicious and interesting. Not alone are we here for the purpose of bidding God-speecl to those who have just been honored with the Doctorate of Medicine, but we are here as well for the purpose of dedicating this edifice to the sacred cause in which these graduates are now enlisted. And how appro- priate, how beautiful this structure ! Solid, yet not heavy ; simple, yet not plain ; costly, yet not pretentious. Being the work of a sincere heart, it is itself sincere. It tells no lie. It is exactly what it pretends to be. Its brick are not of the common sort, covered with plaster, and made to stand for what they are not a wretched counterfeit ; but they are of the finer sort that can afford to look into the eye of the world with the serene gaze of truth. Here we have no tawdry, meaningless ornamentation ; no disjointed effects ; no inharmonious relations ; no ill-adaptation to purpose ; but we, happily, as is rarely the case, have the reverse of all these. This edifice, the construction of which has excited so much public interest and curiosity, is, in truth, as a piece of architecture, a credit to the city a thing o f beauty and a joy forever, as every work of true art always is. Here, indeed, will Science find a fit abiding-place ; here, indeed, may she, surrounded with all things needful, delightedly work out ameliorations for suffering mankind. This building is not the result of a sudden impulse. It has been the dream of a life-time ; an object to be attained, if attainment were humanly possible. There is nothing in connection with it that has not received the most thought- ful, the most affectionate consideration. There is no stone here that is not cemented to its fellow with the love of humanity and of science ; and so cemented, may we not justly hope that this fabric will endure so long as man shall feel for man. He who has wrought this work, has long lived among us. No name in this part of the world is more closely inter- woven with medicine and with medical teaching than his. He has pursued his favorite studies with a persistence and self-abnegation which only those can appreciate who have had the honor of his intimate acquaintance. But nothing- has been permitted by him to stand in the way of his duties as a teacher. In truth, these duties have ever been iirst in his thoughts, and it was solely at their call, that he caused the barren sand-hill of a twelve-month ago to bear the architectural flower whose blossoming we now celebrate. From the very beginning of his connection with medical teaching, now many years ago, such a structure as this, with fullest equipment, became one of the great aims of his life. That aim he has pursued steadily and unswervingly to its final achievement. That he has lived to see this day. is to him the supreme blessing. From the resources which have resulted from his professional labors, these stones have 26 risen ; and they, together with the ground on which they stand, have been conveyed, as an unreserved donation, to a corporation but recently organized the COOPER MEDICAL COLLEGE organized without capital stock, and with no view to pecuniary profit, and for the sole purpose of making the gift effective. This munificent donation is burdened with no condition whatever, except the single one that the property shall be solely devoted to the purpose of medical instruction. Should it ever be diverted by the corporation into any other channel, then the City and County of San Francisco are to take possession of it for public purposes. On behalf of Cooper Medical College, I am here to say that the corpora- tion accepts this noble gift, and in its own name, and in the name of Medicine, to thank the donor for this, the culminating deed of a great career a deed which is itself so eloquent that commendatory words seem lifeless in comparison. The money value of the donation is indeed great for it bears the singular distinction of being the costliest gift of the kind ever made to medicine in the United States but why speak of dollars and cents; for as compared with the spirit which prompted the offering, and which now vitalizes it, millions are as dross. The name ''Cooper Medical College" is significant and highly felicitous. It tells a story worth hearing and worth remembering. ELIAS SAMUEL COOPER was one of the most remarkable men among the many remarkable men that illuminated the early life of California. He was born with an ingrained love for the things of medicine, and early took to the scientific study of the human body, with a zeal that knew no abatement till death cut prematurely short his brilliant career. Almost from the hour of his gradua- tion he began to give private lessons in anatomy ; and from that time up to the hour of his fatal illness, he continued a teacher. Like thousands before him, his labors in the interest of his fellow- man were unappreciated, and against him was raised the hand of ignorant persecution. But he "still toiled on, hoped on," content if he could but gain the approval of his own conscience, and extend the domain of his medical knowledge. In the midst of his labors, the star of California, then blazing in the far west, caught his eye ; it seemed to call him ; he obeyed the call ; and here he landed in the early spring of 1855. He had scarcely set foot upon the soil before he recommenced his professional labors with increased ardor, for here he found the climate particularly well adapted to successful dissection and the operations of surgery. It followed, as a matter of course, that he should soon become widely known, by reason of his great knowledge and skill as an operating surgeon. Being a man of great force of character, and endowed with exceptionally strong faculties for organization, he became the leading spirit in the formation of the State Medical Society, which, after some years of vigorous life, fell, only to rise again to renewed usefulness. These natural abilities, coupled with an energy that knew no relaxation, and a geniality of temperament that drew his friends to him as with ''hooks of steel," enabled him to draw around himself an able band of teachers, who, catching the spirit of their leader, at once embraced their labors with the utmost en- 28 thusiasm. And thus, in this unpretentious but earnest way, was organized the first Medical College ever organized west of the Rocky Mountains. What these men lacked in equipment, they made up in zeal and knowledge, and in that close contact with the student; which is impossible in large institutions. The classes were small, as, under the circum- stances, they could not but be ; but the teaching was thorough and conscientious, and the students singularly earnest and hiofh-minded. Some of them are now amono- o o the most reputable practitioners of medicine in this city, and one of them has long been an active constituent of the present Faculty an honored son of an honored father. These pioneer teachers worked faithfully and well. They " scorned delights, and lived laborious days." They did good work the one imperative thing for man to do in this world did it not in the open blaze of day, but in quiet se- clusion, and with no hope of pecuniary reward for the time and labor spent. Not for them the greed of gain, or the hand-clapping of the multitude, but simply the luxury of quiet hard work in the way of self-appointed duty. The world knows nothing of such labors ; scarcely ever hears of the men who perform them; but what treasure the laborers lay up! treasure "more to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine gold ; sweeter, also, than honey and the honey- comb." The majority of them have passed away to ' the silent halls of death," leaving memories we love to linger i o o over, and names which are a precious heritage. But some of them, happily, have been spared to meet with us on this memorable evening, and, as we greet them, our welcome 2 9 swells to rejoicing, seeing them, as we do, still earnestly cultivating the vineyard which has known their labors for so many years. There seemed to be something inherently vital in this pioneer school. There was, it is true, the break of a few years following Dr. Cooper's death ; but, with that excep- tion, it has pursued an unbroken course, until to-day we see it taking possession of this valuable property, and entering upon a new career resplendent with promise. The early days of the school were days of hard struggle ; but to the intense nature of Cooper, difficulties were but incentives ; '' And as .l-'.neas ' Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder The old Anchiscs hear,'' So did Cooper, upon his strong shoulders, bear this infant school through every peril that threatened its life. But with his death, disintegrating influences set in, and ere long its voice was heard no more. F"or a few years only this silence continued. The school was not dead ; it did but sleep. It lay with all its potentiality still within it, and awaited, like the spell-bound beauty, but the touch of the proper hand, to spring once more into the whirling circle of busy Life. That touch came from the hand of two of those wiio had been with it from its birth ; and at the touch, it arose from its slumber, and, like a giant refreshed by sleep, it entered with new vigor upon a course which it promises to hold as long as this city shall exist. How fitting, then, that this College should bear the honored name of COOPER ! It is, in truth, his monument, 30 and a monument he well deserves deserves, not alone for the peculiar reasons already indicated, but deserves, as well, because of his great anatomical and surgical attainments, and because of his unfaltering devotion to the cause of medicine. He was, undoubtedly, an original man ; his nature was essentially creative. He naturally disdained the beaten paths that mediocrity can, with moderate indus- try, tread with ease, and, plunging into the forest, he opened up new paths. It was his to lead, not to follow. Many of his operations were so bold as to startle even those accustomed to audacious surgery ; and yet they were tempered with a prudence, and were carried to such favorable results, as to prove him a master of the first order. His knowledge of coarse anatomy seemed absolutely perfect, and he kept it so as it can only be kept by constant dissection. Nothing was left to chance in an operation. He saw his way clearly from beginning to finish, and never made the slightest incision without knowing what was under the point of his knife. He was never carried away by over-confidence, nor daunted by unforeseen difficulties. To him the human body was an infinitude, which could not be exhausted ; and to the study of it he devoted himself utterly, thoroughly. It was, in sober truth, the altar of his self-immolation ; for his labors were incessant. They felt no pause. He scarcely knew what it was to sleep as the ordinary man sleeps. The fires of his brain were constantly burning. No wonder that an intensity such as this did not last wonder is it that it lasted so long. And so it was, that in the midst of his labors, while yet dreaming of a thousand things that remained 3' to be done, in October, 1862, and in the thirty-ninth year of his ao;e, Death closed the book of his life. o I He fell, as falls the hero, in the front rank, with blade in hand, and battling to the last gasp. And yet, he resigned his life without regret or complaint, speaking to his latest breath of triumphs yet -to come, as glorious visions of the life beyond flitted before his fading sight. Thus died this gifted man, not rich in gold, except in gold of priceless deeds. So also fell, at the early age of thirty-one, and from like causes, the great Bichat the glory, in the last century, of French medicine, and one of the glories of the human race. These intense natures soon burn out, it is true; but what splendor of light they emit while living, and what radiant glories spring above their graves ! Though Cooper lived in California less than eight years, it is doubtful if any man here has influenced the course of medicine to anything like the same extent as he. And in tin's new College, the successor of that which he founded, and which will ever bear his name, the name of Cooper will not only be a potent influence, but a watchword to lead to high endeavor, to quenchless zeal, to tireless labor. Here, the torch that fell from Cooper's lifeless hand, will burn with increased splendor, and cast its illumination far beyond these walls. For it is as certain as anything human can be, that this institution is destined to a great future. If with all its previous clifficuliies, with insufficient accommodations and facilities, this school has grown to its present great de- velopment, what summit of excellence may it not reach, 32 with equipment such as, in a few years, the best Eastern colleges cannot hope to surpass, and with a faculty, such as it is sure to command, able, zealous and harmonious? Medical instruction in San Francisco not only stands upon a firm basis, but it is, and will be, equal to every de- mand made upon it. The college, founded by the gener- osity of the late Dr. Toland, is now affiliated with the State University, and between the faculty of that school and of this, the most cordial relations exist. There is ample room and verge enough for two such institutions in San Francisco, and their only rivalry in the future promises to be as to who shall do the greatest orood in a common O o cause. Looking at this edifice, then, in the light of what has led up to it, how more than grand do its proportions seem ! What a story it tells : A story of pure ambition, of self-sacri- fice, of unfaltering devotion to a single aim ! Looked at with the eye of sympathy, it becomes imbued with sentient being, and its beautiful turrets seem like human arms upraised in thanksgiving. It is not, no, it cannot be, so much stone and mortar cunningly designed and put together by the hand of the architect and builder. Even were it that, and nothing more; even had it been created in the grossest spirit of mercenary gain, still it would greatly please the eye, for it is indeed most excellent work. But it goes beyond the eye; it penetrates to the soul, and de- livers a message there, that awakens the whole being- and attunes it to music. In the presence of such as this, we stand with uncovered head, while Passion's rageful voice is stilled, and Heaven's own peace fills all the air. In such a presence, the selfish, heartless struggle of man with man for worldly precedence ; the accumulation of wealth for the mere sake of accumulation ; the mad ambition for place and power, seem like the bitterest of mockeries, the vainest of de- lusions. In such a presence, what pessimist asks the question: ''Is life worth living?''- what heart so hard as not to be touched until the waters of its better nature crush c> forth? In such a presence, do we not feel that self-abnega- tion the doing for others in preference to the doing for oneself is the one thing on this earth which overtops all other things ? Ah. yes ! it comes to us a^ain and afjain, O ' J O O that it is worth all the rest; yea, a million times all the rest. For is it not the only real thing we possess the one thing which gives the only pure, the only unalloyed satisfaction we can have ? Do not all selfish pleasures cloy ? Is there one in the whole list that does not ? Is there a more un- happy creature on the face of the earth than the aimless dawdler, with wealth enough to satisfy every appetite, and whose sole thought is to meet each whim that in turn arises before him ? Or who more pitiable and to be pitied than the one whose home is his bank vault, whose literature is his ledger, and whose daily circuit is round the rim of a dollar; '' whose heart is dry as summer's dust," and whose unceasing cry is gold! gold! more gold! " I'o the very verfje of the churchynr