The Albany Institute. 



From my ninth year I was an Albanian until I had somewhat over- 

 passed my majority ; in this academy I received the sound beginnings 

 of a solid education. Of the Institute I became a member in 1826. 

 After an absence of about half a century I returned lust year full in- 

 deed of affection for Buffalo and for its people and for the institutions 

 there which I had taken some little part in founding or sustaining, 

 but with all my old and unabated love of our grand city, our venerable 

 academy, and of our Institute. I have resumed my citizenship of 

 Albany, and I have again taken an humble place in our society. 

 O'Shaughnessy, and Dr. Shaw and Theodorick Komeyji Beck have 

 ceased to serve science and gone to their reward ; but I am happy in 

 the knowledge that the academy has maintained its old reputation lot- 

 thoroughness and enjoys increased favor of the public. To Dr. Beck 

 I am indebted for the beginning of an un perfected medical education. 

 He was, in my time, the chief prop and ornament of the Institute. 

 His intellect was acute and strong, his pen facile, clear and vigorous, 

 his heart tender and true, and yet therewithal he had a reverence for 

 order and discipline, which led him, as I once thought in anguish, to 

 forget mercy in vindicating them, and become a mere avenger. Ho 

 was a sav age flogger — this room was a laboratory. Here have I 

 watched Lewis C. Beck and Joseph Henry at their work. In the large 

 room on the next floor- the room where the first University Convo- 

 cation was had — I have seen these men play battledore and shuttlecock 

 like true philosophers. The memories of these three men are very 

 dear to me and it gladdens me to know that they were all my friends 

 so long as they lived. 



In our Manual of 1878 I am recorded as a resident member in 1826. 

 In the list of 1878, of those who became members in and prior to that 

 year, I find only six names free of the fatal asterisk. Glad indeed am 

 I that my old friend, our honored president, is one of the six. Long 

 may he survive to preside over the councils of the Institute, to animate 

 and sustain it in its labors, and to add to your enjoyment. Of the 

 five other names I find only that of Dr. Phillip Ten Fyck in the list 

 of " acting resident members." In this populous city, of the hundreds 

 and hundreds whom I knew and loved and looked up to with rever- 

 ence, there are very few survivors, male or female. I cannot exhaust 

 my fingers in counting them. The city itself has experienced many 

 changes, and has had what, in slow-going Europe, would be pro- 

 nounced a marvellous growth. The impetus which it received from 

 the completion of our canals has been augmented by the railroads — 

 the offspring rather than the creators of the prosperity of our happy 

 country. As to the changes which time has wrought in the city there 



