ived at Wesleyan
Academy, Wilbraham, Mass. He began the study of medicine
under the tutorage of Dr. C. C. Cox, at that time dean of
the Board of Health, and one of the foremost men in the
profession of medicine in the District of Columbia.

His professional course was taken at the University of
Michigan, from which he graduated with high honor in the
class of 1878. Settling in the home of his boyhood, where he
was well and favorably known, and where his parents before
him were honored and respected, it is no wonder that he
succeeded and stands as the leading Colored physician of
Washington, D. C.

Dr. Francis was appointed in 1894 by the Secretary of the
Interior to the position of first assistant surgeon of the
Freedman's Hospital, with a salary of $1,800. He instituted
several needed reforms in the treatment of patients. He
installed the present training school for nurses, and,
indeed, was so active in his reformation of affairs in the
institution that those who know the facts admit that Dr.
Francis, more than any other man, is responsible for the
opening of the new era of the Freedman's Hospital, which led
to its present flourishing condition. He is now, and has
been for several years past, the obstetrician to the
hospital.

He is the sole owner and manager of a private sanitarium on
Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D. C. This institution has
proven to be a panacea to the best element of Colored
citizens.

It is a noteworthy fact that Dr. and Mrs. Francis have both
served as members of the Board of Education of the District
of Columbia.

In the study of the causes and remedy for the great mortality among
the colored people of Southern cities I shall not waste time and words
in an attempt to prove, by much statistical evidence, that which is
already too well known to us as an admitted fact, viz.: a mortality of
colored people in cities of the South, very largely in excess of that
of the white people of the same communities.

I am fully justified, in the face of our present enlightenment, in
entering, at once, into the discussion as to its causes.

If it be true that the animal organism is intended by nature to pass
through a cycle, and that natural death is not a disease, but a
completion of the process of life, it follows that the organism, with
exceptions,