Dr. Porter's Address. 15 



vantage of a more favorable environment. There 

 was nothing to divert him from his chosen path, for, 

 although the degree of M. D. was conferred npon 

 him by the University of Pennsylvania, whose chair 

 of anatomy he filled with snch marked ability and 

 honor, he never became a surgeon or physician in 

 active practice. 



The traits of character here referred to may be thus 

 summed up honesty in the broad and best sense of 

 the word ; the love of knowledge for its own sake and 

 not primarily or solely for its useful applications, or 

 as a means for gaining publicity or acquiring wealth; 

 modesty that shrinks from blowing its own trumpet ; 

 a freedom from jealousy and envy ; a readiness to 

 help others engaged in the same pursuits ; a prefer- 

 ence for the real and substantial over against the 

 theoretical and visionary ; inexhaustible patience and 

 perseverance ; and above all, an intuitive genius for 

 method and order. 



If the9tJ,three of our eastern counties can boast of 

 a group of men like these, who have done so much 

 in but a single department of the modern sciences, it 

 certainly furnishes good ground for laudable race- 

 pride, and ought to put to shame that ignorant and 

 vulgar class of our country men, who are wont to 

 hold German Pennsylvania in much the same regard 

 as Boeotia was held by the ancient Greeks. 



