258 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1130 



up to the bursting point — in the case of the 

 hospital a dessert of thousand-dollar checks 

 — -never "upsets" but actually "sets up" 

 both its appetite and its digestion. 



The above I give you notice is the most 

 important paragraph in my whole address. 

 For eight years, from 1890 to 1898 I was 

 so fortunate as to be Mitchell's colleague 

 as one of the three orthopaedic surgeons and 

 I can testify, therefore, from my experi- 

 ence, both in the Civil War and in this hos- 

 pital, to the wonderful stimulating influ- 

 ence which Dr. Mitchell exerted. This was 

 manifested not only in the conduct of the 

 hospital, but in his influence on the medical 

 and surgical staff and especially on his own 

 assistants, on the resident physicians, and 

 on the many doctors who flocked to his 

 weekly clinics and bore away with them an 

 inspiration for good work all over the land. 

 These bright men of mature years sat at 

 the feet of the master to be taught much 

 that the best of them did not know, to 

 catch glimpses of the guesses of genius 

 which later grew into the certainties of 

 science, to hear and repeat his many pic- 

 turesque and impressive descriptions or 

 happy or pungent phrases, struck like 

 sparks off the anvil. 



But while visiting strangers were wel- 

 comed and departed with many a sheaf, it 

 was his regular assistants and the residents 

 in the hospital who were indeed twice 

 blessed. To begin with a new patient; to 

 observe Mitchell's careful cross examina- 

 tion as to the earliest symptoms ; his minute 

 following up of even a stray hint which to 

 an ordinary man would have meant little 

 or nothing, but which to Mitchell was a 

 veritable guide post to the right road; to 

 hear him compare or contrast this case with 

 other similar or opposite cases garnered by 

 an accurate memory from the myriad cases 

 seen one year, five years, ten or even 

 twenty years before; to see how he inevi- 

 tably put his finger on the exact central 



fundamental lesion which to others was ob- 

 scured by the many surrounding minor 

 symptoms; a diagnosis made often seem- 

 ingly by intuition; to follow his treatment 

 until betterment or cure or in rare cases 

 death closed the scene; this was a liberal 

 education in itself. 



At my request a list of the men who have 

 been his colleagues or assistants has been 

 furnished to me. I find that they were 

 nearly 160 in number. To call this notable 

 roll in your hearing is of course impossible. 

 But I can not refrain from mentioning a 

 few of the more conspicuous — names known 

 to most of you as leaders not only in this 

 community but throughout this country and 

 not a few of world-wide fame: Wharton 

 Sinkler, Morris J. Lewis, William J. Taylor, 

 J. Madison Taylor, John K. Mitchell, 

 Charles W. Burr, G. G. Davis, F. X. Der- 

 cum, George E. deSchweinitz, Charles K. 

 Mills, Barton C. Hirst, John H. W. Rhein, 

 A. P. C. Ashhurst, D. J. McCarthy, Guy 

 Hinsdale, of Hot Springs, Va., Edward B. 

 Angell, of Rochester, "N. Y. 



I have only named one tenth of this ever- 

 faithful cohort. We, the other 90 per cent., 

 may well rest content, however, in the con- 

 sciousness of daily duty well done. In the 

 forum of one's own mind and conscience 

 the ultimate and most cherished judgment 

 seat is established. 



One noteworthy fact demonstrates how 

 stimulating was his influence. Twenty-five 

 of the men who served this hospital in the 

 eighteen years from 1889 to 1907 contrib- 

 uted 522 papers to medical and surgical 

 literature. Not all, not even a majority of 

 these were papers on neurology or ortho- 

 pedics, but the incentive, the stimulus to 

 writing, was largely the result of Mitchell's 

 precept and example. 



While I was on the active staff the daily 

 out-patient service was constantly growing 

 larger and larger. The noise and confu- 



