f her century, as she repeated the verse
which, if I had but one to choose, I would select from that string of
pearls, Gray's 'Elegy'!

"'For who to dumb forgetfulness a prey
This pleasing, anxious being e'er resigned,
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,
Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind?'

"Plotinus was ashamed of his body, we are told. Better so, it may be,
than to live solely for it, as so many do. But it may be well doubted if
there is any disciple of Plotinus in this Society. On the contrary,
there are many who think a great deal of their bodies, many who have come
here to regain the health they have lost in the wear and tear of city
life, and very few who have not at some time or other of their lives had
occasion to call in the services of a physician.

"There is, therefore, no impropriety in my offering to the members some
remarks upon the peculiar difficulties which beset the medical
practitioner in the discharge of his laborious and important duties.

"A young friend of mine, who has taken an interest in medical studies,
happened to meet with a very familiar story about one of the greatest and
most celebrated of all English physicians, Thomas Sydenham. The story is
that, when a student asked him what books he should read, the great
doctor told him to read 'Don Quixote.'

"This piece of advice has been used to throw contempt upon the study of
books, and furnishes a convenient shield for ignorant pretenders. But
Sydenham left many writings in which he has recorded his medical
experience, and he surely would not have published them if he had not
thought they would be better reading for the medical student than the
story of Cervantes. His own works are esteemed to this day, and he
certainly could not have supposed that they contained all the wisdom of
all the past. No remedy is good, it was said of old, unless applied at
the right time in the right way. So we may say of all anecdotes, like
this which I have told you about Sydenham and the young man. It is very
likely that he carried him to the bedside of some patients, and talked to
him about the cases he showed him, instead of putting a Latin volume in
his hand. I would as soon begin in that way as any other, with a student
who had already mastered the preliminary branches,--who knew enough about
the structure and functions of the body in health.

"But if you ask me what reading I would commend to the medical student of
a philo