In this brief period comprised within the life-time of some 

 who now hear mj' voice the most remarkable historical events 

 have occurred, and many surprising scientific discoveries and im- 

 portant industrial applications of them have been made. Indeed, 

 by means of intellectual inquiry and its handmaid, applied science, 

 the social and industrial condition of the world, during this short 

 interval, has been completely revolutionized. 



Look at Philadelphia as it appeared at the commencement of 

 1812, as it has been pictured, in truth, by a medical worth}' of that 

 time. A city whose inhabitants numbered 111,120, or less than 

 one-sixth of its present population, occupying an area not one-half 

 of that over which it now stretches its huge proportions ; a city 

 which contained 25,814 dwelling-houses, 6955 public buildings, 

 stores, manufacturing establishments, etc.; 42 churches, 11 insur- 

 ance offices, 4 banks, 2 hospitals, a university, an Academy of Fine 

 Arts, a museum of natural history, and 2 theatres in which per- 

 formances were occasionally given ; a city in which 51 printing- 

 offices, employing 153 hand-presses, were in operation ; a city 

 boasting of 8 daily, 9 weekly, and several semi-weekly newspapers 

 having a combined circulation of about 61,000 copies per week 

 such, in brief, was the cit} 7 of Penn sixty years ago. 



Neither in this country nor in Great Britain, at that time, had 

 railroads and steamboats been put into operation. Electricity, 

 the modern Puck, had not yet learned the art of " putting a girdle 

 round about the earth in forty minutes." The telegraph had not 

 been invented. Communication between distant points was slow 

 and uncertain. Instead of a few minutes, as is now the case, 

 weeks were required for the transmission of intelligence from 

 Philadelphia to the Gulf of Mexico. Our city was then two 

 months distant by sail from Europe, and six from California, in- 

 stead of being, as at present, within eight or nine days of the 

 former, and but seven days' ride by rail from the latter. The 

 steam-plow, the reaping-machine, and the screw-ship were not in 

 existence. The printing-press and the spinning-jenny were worked 

 by hand instead of by steam. The photographic art was not 

 known. The old-fashioned tinder-box and brimstone-match had 

 not yet been replaced by the lucifer match, and oil, instead of gas, 

 was an universal means of illumination. In short, a thousand 

 mechanical and chemical influences which are incessantly changing 

 the aspect of our present civilization were then utterly unknown. 



