INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 75 



several medical courses, but the time to be spared from the 

 resjuhir curriculum is so limited that the student must usually 

 be content with what can be imparted to him in the class- 

 room, and knows the bacteria of even the commoner dis- 

 eases only from wall-chart figures and the lecturer's 

 description. While the busy practitioner cannot always 

 find leisure for the use of his microscope, the career of men 

 like Engelmann shows that where there is a will there is a 

 "way to do this, as other scientific work, at odd hours, and 

 there are times when knowledge and training such as I speak 

 of may be of value in the treatment of diseases which come 

 under the hands of every physician. 



Since this training cannot be given in the medical course, 

 and the young graduate feels the impulse to begin the strug- 

 gle for a lucrative and useful practice immediately on leav- 

 ing his alma mater y it is clear that it should be provided for 

 in preparatory courses. I do not believe I am promising 

 too much, when I say that an indication that they will be 

 utilized will call forth facilities in the School of Botany for 

 the best work that a class of medical preparatory students 

 are capable of, in the direct examination and cultivation of 

 these microscopic beings which do so much good and work 

 so much ill. 



At the close of the war. Congress, realizing the great im- 

 portance to the country of its agricultural interests, appro- 

 priated to the several States large grants of public lands, to 

 endow colleges in which instruction in agriculture and the 

 mechanic arts should be made a leading feature. The 

 general feeling of the public appears to be that little has 

 resulted from these grants, so far as agriculture is con- 

 cerned. Whether this is true, we need not stop to inquire. 

 Tlie fact that the farmers of the country are discussing the 

 management of the so-called agricultural colleges, that their 

 representatives in the legislative bodies of a considerable 

 number of States have established agricultural experiment 

 stations, and that a movement is on foot to secure from the 



