growing richer in original observations and
investigations.

To these benefactors who have labored for us in their peaceful vocation,
we must add the noble army of surgeons, who went with the soldiers who
fought the battles of their country, sharing many of their dangers, not
rarely falling victims to fatigue, disease, or the deadly volleys to
which they often exposed themselves in the discharge of their duties.

The pleasant biographies of the venerable Dr. Thacher, and the worthy
and kind-hearted gleaner, Dr. Stephen W. Williams, who came after him,
are filled with the names of men who served their generation well, and
rest from their labors, followed by the blessing of those for whom
they endured the toils and fatigues inseparable from their calling. The
hardworking, intelligent country physician more especially deserves
the gratitude of his own generation, for he rarely leaves any permanent
record in the literature of his profession. Books are hard to obtain;
hospitals, which are always centres of intelligence, are remote;
thoroughly educated and superior men are separated by wide intervals;
and long rides, though favorable to reflection, take up much of the time
which might otherwise be given to the labors of the study. So it is that
men of ability and vast experience, like the late Dr. Twitchell, for
instance, make a great and deserved reputation, become the oracles of
large districts, and yet leave nothing, or next to nothing, by which
their names shall be preserved from blank oblivion.

One or two other facts deserve mention, as showing the readiness of our
medical community to receive and adopt any important idea or discovery.
The new science of Histology, as it is now called, was first brought
fully before the profession of this country by the translation of
Bichat's great work, "Anatomie Generale," by the late Dr. George
Hayward.

The first work printed in this country on Auscultation,--that wonderful
art of discovering disease, which, as it were, puts a window in the
breast, through which the vital organs can be seen, to all intents
and purposes, was the manual published anonymously by "A Member of the
Massachusetts Medical Society."

We are now in some slight measure prepared to weigh the record of the
medical profession in Massachusetts, and pass our judgment upon it. But
in-order to do justice to the first generation of practitioners, we must
compare what we know of their treatment of disease with th