842 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXI. No. 544. 



of this widely scattered and numerous 

 family need be no less loved, no less 

 cherished and no less helpful than under 

 her old name. 



There are some of the arts which are 

 nearer to the welfare of man than others, 

 and the same is true of the sciences. There 

 are two arts, however, M'hich lie very near 

 human welfare and if we were called upon 

 to give up all of the arts but two, I think 

 there would be little difference in choice as 

 to which two should be preserved. The 

 one most important would be the art of 

 agriculture and the next the art of healing. 

 Man first of all must be nourished and next 

 to this, kept in health. 



We might look forward to a time when 

 lawyers would disappear. We might even 

 grow so perfect as to be able to do without 

 ministers of the gospel. Even the his- 

 trionic art might be abandoned, and yet 

 mankind be reasonably happy. But strike 

 down agriculture and you strike a blow 

 which is fatal ; banish the healing art and 

 you leave man to the ravages of disease. 

 It is, therefore, probably not without some 

 fitness that you have asked a 'farmer' to 

 deliver this address-, and it is quite becom- 

 ing that on this occasion Ceres and Hygeia 

 should be seen hand in hand. 



The man who receives his degree believes 

 he knows something and the public sup- 

 poses that his belief is well founded. The 

 amount known, however, or supposed to be 

 known, varies greatly for different degrees. 

 The college graduate, it has been said, 

 doubtless supposes that he knows all things 

 from A to Z, but the faculty and trustees, 

 with a better idea of his accomplishments, 

 give him only the degree A.B. If I re- 

 member aright my Roman numerals an 

 M.D. should know at least 1,500 times more 

 than an A.B. Yet without doubt the de- 

 gree M.D. or D.D.S. should carry a greater 

 ballast of knowledge than the first degrees 



of the academy. We may, with reason, 

 doubt the propriety of conferring the de- 

 gree of 'doctor' even upon those who have 

 accomplished as much as you young men 

 who are now before me. Doctor signifies 

 'knowing,' 'learned.' The physician 

 should not— and perhaps no one should— 

 bear this degree who has not added some- 

 thing to the sum of human knowledge. 

 Some of the most famous surgeons and 

 physicians of England are only plain 

 ' mister ' and I fail to see where there would 

 be any diminution in your skill if the 

 degree which you receive to-night were 

 'bachelor' instead of 'doctor.' I am not 

 quarreling, however, with the usual cus- 

 tom, but mention this matter only to show 

 you that bearing this degree you assume 

 a responsibility of which you must strive 

 to be worthy. The doctor is the teacher,, 

 the learned man, the knovjer as well as the 

 doer. He is the man to whom people must 

 come for knowledge, advice and inspira- 

 tion. He is, moreover, the dux, the 

 imperator in the empire of knowledge. 

 Like the thirsting Omar Khaj'^^am, each 

 one should be able to say, 'Myself when 

 young did eagerly frequent doctor and 

 saint and heard great argument,' but the 

 doctors and saints should be of better 

 quality than in those medieval days, for 

 in the present day we should not be com- 

 pelled to add, 'About it and about but 

 evermore, came out by the same door as in 

 I went.' 



Health comes largely from good food 

 and good hygiene, but one of the neces- 

 sities to health is good mastication. Teeth 

 are useful for other purposes than merely 

 to improve looks, but even if they were 

 only for this purpose they would be worth 

 saving. Many a man has married a 

 beautiful set of teeth and, perhaps, after- 

 wards discovered, to his amazement, that 

 they were the fruit of dental science, but 



