THE RETROSPECT OF THE YEAH. 121 



country. After the lecture President Rantoul related 

 some of his experiences while studying in European 

 libraries. Professor .Morse also made some interesting 

 remarks on his visits to the great libraries of Europe. 

 Both gentlemen agreed that, in the matter of privacy 

 and the sense of seclusion while studying and making 

 notes, the European system was superior to our own. 



Monday Evening, Jan. 10, 1898. — The first lecture 

 in the "free course" was given this evening, in Academy 

 Hall, by Ernest A. Codman, M.D., of Boston. His sub- 

 ject was "the X-ray in Surgery and Medicine," illustrated 

 by lantern views by George Newcomb. The President 

 occupied the chair and said that electricity and lectures 

 upon the subject were by no means new in Salem. As 

 far back as 1771, Capt. David Mason, an ancestor of 

 Alderman David Mason Little, at his home on North 

 street, delivered lectures upon that newly discovered 

 force, and when the Salem Lyceum commenced its course 

 of lectures in 1828-9, Professor Page, a native of Salem, 

 used in his lectures there what was then an elaborate and 

 costly apparatus owned by Col. Francis Peabody. After 

 the President's introductory remarks, he presented Dr. 

 Codman, who spoke for an hour, showing and explaining 

 the X-ray apparatus and the pictures upon the screen. 

 The pictures showed plainly needles and bullets imbedded 

 in the flesh, and fractures of the bones. A horseless car- 

 riage, propelled by an electric motor, brought a party with 

 apparatus from the Thomson-Houston works at Lynn, 

 and returned after the lecture. 



Monday Evening, Jan. 17, 1898. — Regular meeting 

 in the Library room. Capt. John P. Reynolds read a 

 paper on the career of the Frigate Constitution. He said 

 that Salem men had always been identified with the ship 



