1880.] 



MICROSCOPICAL JOUE^AL. 



27 



after new truths, are of themselves a 

 sign and a promise, that to some 

 patient seeker nature is still waiting 

 to reveal herself. 



"Therefore I congratulate you 

 upon the nature and character of 

 the work you have in hand, upon 

 the sublime patience, courage and 

 glorious achievements of the fathers 

 — upon the character, the zeal, and 

 the inspiration of your co-workers, 

 and upon the organization which 

 gathers all these elements and from 

 them weaves the web of progress. 



" In behalf of your local commit- 

 tee and the different learned and 

 professional societies which that 

 committee represents, it welcomes 

 you to Buffalo. May your meetings 

 and deliberations be as profitable to 

 you as they will be entertaining 

 to us." 



At the conclusion of his address 

 Dr. Hopkins introduced the Hon. 

 Oeo. W. Clinton, of Buffalo, ^.Y., 

 who spoke in behalf of the So- 

 ciety of Natural Sciences of Buf- 

 falo. He was followed by a short 

 but interesting address by Profes- 

 sor Thos. F. Rochester, of the Uni- 

 versity of Buffalo, in behalf of the 

 medical fraternity of the city. A 

 portion of this address we quote as 

 follows : 



" A physician must either be him- 

 self a microscopist or must have al- 

 most daily recourse to one, for the 

 necessary information to practice 

 his profession correctly and con- 

 scientiously, not to say successfully. 

 ]^othing is hazarded in taking for 

 granted that a large proportion of 

 this audience consists of medical 

 men. The microscope, at first a 

 necessity for professional instruction 

 and information, becomes a delight 

 and attraction which captivates its 

 employer and leads him on and on 

 in the boundless fields of science 

 which it unfolds to him and illumi- 

 nates with a beauty of design and 



structure of which no description 

 can give an adequate idea, and of 

 which the most abstruse thought 

 and the most vivid imagination 

 could never have conceived. 



" What the microscope has done 

 and is doing for medicine can only 

 be alluded to. By it alone we ob- 

 serve the minute homogeneous and 

 wonderful processes by which the 

 human body is evolved from a 

 simple cell to the complete structure 

 we call man. By its information we 

 recognize diseases as local and para- 

 sitic which for ages had been con- 

 sidered constitutional. By it the 

 various secretions and excretions of 

 the body are examined, and it alone 

 often determines whether important 

 organs are functionally or struc- 

 turally disordered. In chemistry, by 

 determining form, it often enables 

 the examiner to predict probable 

 properties. These things and many 

 others the microscope has done for 

 medical science. How much more 

 it will do it is difiicult to surmise. 

 Your chief reason for gathering 

 here from all points, many of them 

 far distant, is to extend the know- 

 ledge and to promote the use of 

 microscopy. Such meetings, apart 

 from their delightful social ele- 

 ments, must afford you great plea- 

 sure and information, and by every 

 advance you make is medicine cor- 

 respondingly aided and elevated." 



To these cordial addresses of 

 welcome, the President of the 

 Society responded in the following 

 words. 



" It is no common pleasure to be 

 able to receive and accept the wel- 

 come to this Society extended by you, 

 and through you by the citizens of 

 Buffalo, and to give voice to the 

 reciprocation by our members to 

 your words of courtesy and apprecia- 

 tion. We meet you under peculiarly 

 pleasant circumstances. Those of 

 us who had the pleasure, some years 



