OBITUARY. 1§ 



DEATH OF DR. D. MEREDITH REESE, 



ONE OF THE COMMITTEE ON MANUFACTURES, SCIENCE AND ART. 



At a meeting of the Polytechnic Association of the American 

 Institute, held on May IG, 1861 ; the chairman, Prof. Mason hav- 

 ing; announced the death of Dr. D. }A. Reese. 

 On motion of Mr. Butler, 



Prof. Mason was requested to prepare a paper to be read at 

 the next meeting of the Institute. 



At the meeting of the Institute, held on the 6th day of June, 

 Prof. Mason read the following memoir : 



In the autumn of 1826, the newly organized Medical College, 

 in Duane street, was opening its course of instruction by a week 

 of popular lectures. The friends of the new movement and the 

 admirers of the several professors crowded the lecture room. An 

 evening came, in the course, which, partly by accident, and partly 

 by prearrangement, brought to the desk, a young Doctor from 

 Baltimore, of whose fame, as a public speaker, whispers had 

 reached the faculty; and, who was announced by a cordial notice 

 from Colonel Stone, in the Commercial Advertiser. 



His subject was a general survey of the field of chemical knowl- 

 edge. For a short time he proceeded cautiously over this field, 

 but with the calm self-possession' of a practiced public speaker. 

 Gradually he approached the border of the field, where chemical 

 science touches the verge of the old physiology, and meets the 

 region of spiritualism, filled with the beings of the old witchcraft 

 and the modern clairvoyance. 



A few flashes of his wit into this obscure region lighted up the 

 face of his audience, and expressed the general sympathy which 

 sustains and inspires a true orator. 



Following still his manuscript, with occasional interjections of 

 extemporaneous illustration, he found he had complete mastery 

 of his audience, while he drew out stronger and stronger marks 

 of approbation. 



At length his manuscript disappeared ; and yielding himself up 

 to that inspiration, which consists of the power to conceive in the 

 presence of an audience, the happiest thoughts, more rap- 

 idly than the}'- can be uttered, he poured out a strain of delicate 

 wit and scorching irony on the scientific and medical quackery of 

 the age, which left his audience nothing to desire but that he 

 might continue when his hour was ended. 



