1873.] 1^1 TBell. 



ment at his being obliged to change the theatre of action, even his san- 

 guine nature would hardly prompt him at the moment to indulge in 

 visions of professional fame and honors, which lay before him in a some- 

 what lengthened prospective. He had, like most of those most distin- 

 guished in the annals of medicine, to undergo a period of probation, in 

 which patients were the persons who in smallest number came under his 

 notice. But, whilst waiting for business, he was neither an idle nor a 

 querulous expectant, nor a lounger watching for something to turn up, 

 nor worse still, becoming a devotee of Bacchus and turning his back on 

 the tutelary Apollo. He read and studied, and as a kind of literary ex- 

 ercise he began to compose a work of fiction, but never got further than 

 the opening scenes. He would have preferred engaging in a translation 

 of Haller's Elementa Physiologise, if he could have received encourage- 

 ment from a publisher ; but medical books of home production, either 

 original or translated, were at that time few in number. 



In this early period of his life, Dr. Meigs took an active pai-t in the 

 discussions in the Philadelphia Medical Society, in participation with 

 others of his compeers, who afterwards gained for themselves a name as 

 writers and teachers. 



Among the early printed productions of his was the annual discourse 

 before tbe Society, delivered February 18th, 1829. 



He was one of the first to join in the formation of the Kappa Lambda 

 Society, founded by Dr. Samuel Brown of Kentucky, in one of his 

 annual visits to Philadelphia, the only defect of which was its being for 

 some time a secret one. Its objects were the elevation of the medical 

 profession, increase of its usefulness, and the promotion of harmony and 

 good fellowship amongst its members. With this view it framed a code 

 of ethics and brought out in 1825 a quarterly periodical called the North 

 American Medical and Surgical Journal. It was the good fortune of the 

 present writer as chairman of a committee on the projected Journal to 

 be instrumental in having Dr. Meigs appointed one of its five editors ; 

 his associates in the work were, Drs. Bache, Coates, Hodge, La Roche, 

 to whom were added at a subsequent period, Drs. Wood, Condie, and Bell. 

 To the pages of the North American Medical and Surgical Journal, 

 which soon met with the favor of the profession, both at home and abroad, 

 the subject of our memoir contributed his share in the shape of original 

 articles, reviews and a portion of the Quarterly Summary. His depart- 

 ment in this last was Midwifery, — an attribution which showed a great 

 change in his own views and action respecting this important branch of 

 Medicine. In the first period of his career he carefully kept himself 

 aloof from practising it, with an aversion scai'cely less decided than that 

 expressed by Lord Brougham against law, when it was a question with 

 him whether to take it up as a profession, engage in the exclusive exer- 

 cise or enter into public life. Writing from Edinburgh, Brougham says, 

 that he still continues to detest his cursedest of all cursed professions ; 

 and some years later when in the Middle Temple, he tells Lord Gray, that 

 there are few things so hateful as this profession ; but notwithstanding 



