athy across the ocean, and while the Homoeopathic works reaching
us from there, and published in a style such as is unknown in Germany,
bear eloquent testimony to the eminent activity of our transatlantic
colleagues, we are overcome by sorrowful regrets at the position
Homoeopathy occupies in Germany. Such a work [as the American one
referred to] with us would be impossible; it would lack the necessary
support."

By all means let our library secure a good representation of the
literature of Homoeopathy before it leaves us its "sorrowful regrets" and
migrates with its sugar of milk pellets, which have taken the place of
the old pilulae micae panis, to Alaska, to "Nova Zembla, or the Lord
knows where."

What shall I say in this presence of the duties of a Librarian? Where
have they ever been better performed than in our own public city library,
where the late Mr. Jewett and the living Mr. Winsor have shown us what a
librarian ought to be,--the organizing head, the vigilant guardian, the
seeker's index, the scholar's counsellor? His work is not merely that of
administration, manifold and laborious as its duties are. He must have a
quick intelligence and a retentive memory. He is a public carrier of
knowledge in its germs. His office is like that which naturalists
attribute to the bumble-bee,--he lays up little honey for himself, but
he conveys the fertilizing pollen from flower to flower.

Our undertaking, just completed,--and just begun--has come at the right
time, not a day too soon. Our practitioners need a library like this,
for with all their skill and devotion there is too little genuine
erudition, such as a liberal profession ought to be able to claim for
many of its members. In reading the recent obituary notices of the late
Dr. Geddings of South Carolina, I recalled what our lamented friend Dr.
Coale used to tell me of his learning and accomplishments, and I could
not help reflecting how few such medical scholars we had to show in
Boston or New England. We must clear up this unilluminated atmosphere,
and here,--here is the true electric light which will irradiate its
darkness.

The public will catch the rays reflected from the same source of light,
and it needs instruction on the great subjects of health and
disease,--needs it sadly. It is preyed upon by every kind of imposition
almost without hindrance. Its ignorance and prejudices react upon the
profession to the great injury of both. The jealous feeling, fo