Kuschenberger.] lUU [April 1, 



been defined as ' an infinite capacity for taking pains ; ' and if in sliowing 

 this I have stirred in you a secret resolution to raalve j^our lives bear some 

 resemblance to his clean and fruitful life, raj^ aim has been reached." 



The tribute delivered at the opening session of flie Congress of Ameri- 

 can Physicians, assembled at Washington, D. C, September 21, 1891, is 

 the last. Dr. Pepper, the distinguished Provost of the University of 

 Pennsylvania, said: "In the death of Joseph Leidy, whicli occurred 

 April 30, 1891, at the age of sixty-eight years, the medical profession 

 in America lost its most loved and honored member, and American 

 science its most illustrious representative.* It makes a difference to tlie 

 world when such a man passes away. At his birth Nature gave him her 

 accolade, and all his life long he was loyal to the holy quest of truth, 

 which is the vow imposed on those whom she invests as her chosen 

 knights. Who can say how much of the marvelous and inexhaustible 

 knowledge of nature this great man possessed came from the singleness 

 of his life and the purity of his heart," etc., etc. 



Leidy's life sustains rather Arthur Schopenhaur's opinion, that 

 "thinkers and men of genius are those who have gone straight to the 

 book of Nature ; it is they who have enlightened the world and carried 

 humanity further on its way."t 



Postscript. — In the preparation of the preceding sketch, the writer has 

 earnestly endeavored to avoid errors and hopes that he may have fairly 

 succeeded. Incidents connected with the career of Dr. Leidy, though 

 some of them may be unimportant or even trivial, have been narrated 

 under an impression that they may assist in conveying a true representa- 

 tion of him. 



The degree of usefulness to the world of his life-long work, according 

 to the opinion that may be formed of it in the future, will be the criterion 

 •of its worth as well as the measure of the duration of his reputation. 



* Knowing that Dr. Leidy liad entirelj' ceased to practise medicine more tlian forty 

 years before, a witty friend of the Provost, after reading liis graceful eulogy, remarked in 

 ■substance that it was like telling an assembly, representative of all the tanners of the 

 United States that, in the death of General Grant, they had lost the most beloved mem- 

 iber of the trade. 



t November 17, 1891, Dr. William Hunt delivered an address on his University career 

 before the alumni and students of the Medical Department of the University of Penn- 

 sylvania. 



