EDMUND RANDOLPH PEASLEE A MEMORIAL DISCOURSE DELIVERED BEFORE THE FACULTY AND STUDENTS OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER i, 1878, BY SAMUEL C. BARTLETT, D. D., LL. D., PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE. NEWYORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 549 & 55i BROADWAY. EDMUND RANDOLPH PEASLEE. There are lives, eminent and excellent, of which the chief excellence has not met the public eye. And when much has been well said concerning them, some- thing still remains unsaid. Edmund Randolph Peaslee passed away from the midst of a long career of beneficent activity and merited distinction. Seven hundred physicians are said to have assembled at one memorial meeting to do him honor. The daily press of the country chronicled the loss of one of the great physicians of the time. The learned journals more elaborately recorded his distinguished services to the profession. Scientific associations em- balmed his memory in heart-felt eulogiums, and emi- nent professional associates paid him their tributes, honorable alike to him and to themselves. To one who reads these varied and apparently exhaustive esti- mates of his life and achievements, there would seem at first to be little left to utter, whether of narrative, of characterization, or of praise. And, were there no department of his history besides that which fell under the cognizance of these discerning witnesses, 4 MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. it would be superfluous to add another to their testi- monies. They saw and described him chiefly in the fullness of his success. It was my privilege to know him in his early preparation and promise. In the sure pass- ing of the promise into the performance lie, in my judgment, the vital element and interest of his career It is the story, old yet ever new, so dimly apprehended as we look forward into life, so clearly seen and known as we look back upon it, the story of principle, dili- gence, fidelity, and cheerful perseverance, making their way to success, honor, and blessing ; all the more in- structive because it illustrates the common lot—the lot of the vast majority of Dartmouth graduates for more than a century, in being a struggle with limited means and many difficulties and discouragements. It was a sad and bitter thing for the boy of seven years, the eldest of four children, to be left without a father. But the dying father had already discerned in the son a fondness for books, and he requested the mother to secure him an education. The lad never was robust. He went from the farm to the fitting school, and on the farm it was but light work he had been able to perform. His preparatory studies were divided be- tween two schools, at Atkinson and at New Hampton; and his course before and after admission to college was interrupted by the necessity of teaching, it was only MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 5 by the mother’s careful management of his slender pat- rimony, supplemented by his own earnings and by rigid economy, that he was enabled to proceed. At the age of eighteen, although, by his own statement, not well fitted, he entered this college. And now what would he do here—this fatherless youth, of slender constitution and delicate health, of straitened means and imperfect preparation—what was the career before him ? I seem to see him to-day once more as he rises in the class to recite those earliest les- sons, slender in figure, precise yet unassuming in man- ner, with his fair hair, his clear pale cheek just tinged with the faintest glow, his thin face, and his slight tenor voice. There is no dash nor display, no seeming bril- liancy. A flickering smile sometimes, but seldom, plays over his grave face, always intent on the book or the diagram or the teacher; and if in some moment of special interest you caught his blue-gray eye, it had a sparkle you would not forget. But there were other men in the class and in the college whose style and pre- tensions gave to the superficial eye much greater prom- ise of distinction. What was there in this lad in which the thoughtful observer might read the presage of his subsequent success? His mother shall tell us the se- cret. “He was always”—always—“a thoughtful, stu- dious child, obedient, truthful, and manly, open-hearted, frank, and conscientious.” These are her words. And 6 MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. this was the spirit in which he entered and pursued his college course and his whole course in life. This was the child that was father of that man. So was the fatherless son fast anchored in the haven of virtue at college; so was the ill-fitted Freshman guaranteed to rise into the front rank of his class; and so was the young farmer boy started toward the head of the medi- cal profession in America. We did not think of him at first or afterward as a brilliant scholar. In the early stages of college life he was hardly a marked man. He never seemed to us to have that commanding genius—if such a thing there be—which is said to appropriate knowledge almost without labor, or that inspiration which is supposed to originate thought without reflection. Doubtless the simplicity of his character and the balance of his powers led us rather to undervalue than overestimate his native strength. And perhaps it was so throughout his life. He made no show. His mental mechanism moved with so little friction and percussion, with so much of the precision and quietness of unwasted energy, that men saw rather what he had done than how or what he was doing. Yet his mental powers, if not extraordi- nary, were high. A precise, retentive memory, a quick perception, a clear discernment of analogies and distinc- tions, ranging from the subtle and playful humor up to the strong grasp of principles and the power of broad MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 7 generalization and sound deduction, are the grand sta- ple of equipment for high professional life. All this he had, and, as one has well said, “he always seemed to have a reserved power equal to emergency.” And all this was crowned, unified, and utilized by a tireless diligence which, from the beginning of his college course to the end of his professional life, never faltered. He was by no means an extemporaneous man, but relied evermore on his preparation. His seeming readiness in later life came from the fullness of a mind that through life had been steadily drinking at the fountains of knowledge. In college it was said of him that he had classmates of moderate rank who “ would beat him, if without prepa- ration.” But the case never occurred. Peaslee was never “ unprepared.” When the mathematical lesson once contained a large number of difficult examples, which not more than three members of the class had solved, Peaslee was one of the three. When there were diverse methods of solution, he was intent to find the simplest and best. The records of the class are imper- fect, but, so far as they are accessible, they show that he had not an absence unexcused. Youthful geniuses might smile at such punctiliousness, but as years roll on the smile fades away. Young Peaslee’s imperfect preparation necessitated hard study, especially in his first year. But he was equal to the emergency. While others better fitted lost 8 MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. ground, he steadily gained, and lost nothing. He was never caught at unawares. He entered on that system- atic method which ever after followed him and largely achieved his success. He was faulty perhaps in this, that he participated too little, indeed scarcely at all, in the athletic sports of fellow-students. Ido not remem- ber to have seen him during the four years upon the foot-ball ground or engaged in a game of ball. It was probably the shrinking of a delicate constitution rather than deliberate intention. Occasional long walks with his classmates were his main exercise and his chief though not exclusive social recreation. At that time, as all through his later life, he depended much on “ tired nature’s sweet restorer, balmy sleep.” It was his habit to retire at nine o’clock and sleep till the morning prayers, much earlier then than now. So he husbanded his strength, and saved it for use. The regular hours of study found him regularly at work. He would some- times pause and rest himself with a tune on his violin, which he played with skill and taste. And, though a sweet and practised singer, and during his senior year the leader of the college choir and once of a public con- cert, he did the thing not always done—he did not suf- fer his musical ability to interfere with his student’s work. You will anticipate me when I say that as a mem- ber of college he was thoroughly upright, manly, and MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 9 orderly. I am confident that in no instance did he come into unpleasant relations to the Faculty or to any member of it. In a long series of petty annoyances that harassed an admirable but unpopularly faithful tutor, he bore no part. It is a clean record. Equally manly, to the best of my knowledge, were his relations to his fellow-students. If he was ever accused or sus- pected of a dishonorable act, I have not heard of it. He would stand zealously, it may be jealously, for his rights, but he would not encroach on others’. He was keenly sensitive, and perhaps easily annoyed, but not contentious. Fie was firm, and he was conciliatory. He was humorous and always loved his joke, but never that rather hideous thing called a “practical joke,” and I am sure that he never bore a part in that low-lived compound of brutality and buffoonery named “ hazing.” Undoubtedly as a scholar he was ambitious, but it was an ambition without enmities. His rivals were his fast friends. And when President Lord, with his subtile eloquence, persuaded the great body of students to peti- tion for the abolition of college honors, he signed the petition, though sure to have had one of the two high- est appointments in his class. I have described as fairly and as accurately as 1 am able the method of his college life. His virtues I knew, his faults I conjecture. He completed his course not only with signal scholarship, but with the thorough con- MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. fidence of the Faculty and the respect and friendship of his class. We did not know it then, but we know it now, that in that college course lay the germ of his whole career. Nor did he know it then. It is not true of him that “While yet a child, and long before his time, He had perceived the presence and the power Of greatness ; and deep feelings had impressed Great objects on his mind with portraiture And color so distinct, that on his mind They lay like substances, and almost seemed To haunt the bodily sense.” Far better that he had probably no ambitious dreams of future greatness, but gave himself only to present duties. Those far-off ambitions might have changed the character of the work and the man. They might have frustrated the end; and the end itself is false. Success is not renown. A good name is higher than fame. And the love and honor of some village neighborhood may be a far more precious thing than a national reputation. Fie had both. Distinction like his follows, and is not followed. Such a young man, however, should he live, must somewhere make his mark, whether in the wider or the narrower sphere. He chose the medical profession, but was constrained first to pause and teach. His health also was so much MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. impaired as to require the utmost watchfulness. By his fidelity he built up in Lebanon a flourishing school. It was inevitable that his Alma Mater should require his services as tutor, and in one year she called him back. Here again I can bear personal testimony to the dignity and discretion of his deportment, to the studi- ous fidelity of his preparations, and the clearness and vivacity of his instruction. It was then that he took a step to which all his previous course had pointed and prepared the way. I remember well the conversation in which he said that he had determined openly to declare himself a disciple of Jesus Christ. There was no religious revival around, no special interest, perhaps no other individual in the community just then moved in the same direction. There had been an awakening in our class during the closing half of our senior year, the sweet influences of which followed more than one of them far away to their professional studies and drew them at length to the Kingdom of Heaven. I doubt not those “ holy and blessed cords ” had been drawn insensibly around his heart and held him in their gentle folds. But his final step was the fruit of his quiet thinking, and of no outward pressure or event. And he followed his own light where it led him alone. For he said that he had on the whole, not a stringent principle, but a decided preference, to be baptized by immersion. Accordingly 12 MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. he was so baptized in Lebanon, and joined the Congre- gational Church of Dartmouth College. Here besran the open, avowed life of duty, that “ duty ” which was one of the latest utterances of his professional life. And from that time forth I know not that any tongue ever questioned the sincerity of his Christian faith or the uprightness of his Christian example. Pursuing his medical studies during his two years of tutorship and one year subsequent, he took his de- gree, spent a few profitable months with Dr. Dixi Crosby, and sailed for Paris to complete his professional training. It is an instructive fact that even his dili- gence did not escape unfavorable judgment. While he was laboriously preparing himself for eminence, I re- member well the disparaging remark of an associate in Paris, that his course was superficial. But no miscon- struction could change the facts or hinder his success. As the college tutorship was the first obvious fruit of his studious fidelity, so a medical professorship was the next. It was the simple result of the law of cause and effect, of demand and supply. A vacancy occurred in the chair of anatomy and physiology in the Dart- mouth Medical School; and, when a right man was wanted, Dr. Peaslee was the right man. All reasons were for him, and none against him. He received the appointment. It shortened his intended stay abroad, but he accepted the place. In the summer of 1841, MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 13 when he was twenty-seven years of age, he entered on the duties of the chair. The strain was severe. Much of the time, as he told me then, he was obliged each day to prepare the daily lecture. But again he proved equal to the emergency. His patient previous studies and careful mental habits carried him through, and his success was assured. He did his best. But he did bet- ter next year and the next. For it was characteristic of him that he never became stereotyped. He steadily advanced from this starting-point, or rather expanded from this centre. He had found his permanent sphere, and his later achievements, which have been so amply set forth by his associates, were but the sequel. Why should I here recount again the history ? Thirty-six years a teacher in this institution, the home of his earliest and latest professional love, seventeen years professor in the Maine Medical School, professor in two great medical institutions in New York, lecturer in the Albany Med- ical College, his services as teacher and practitioner were sought beyond all possibility of acceptance, while the honorary posts to which he was elected may be counted by the score. For nearly eight years, till the day of his death, he was an honored and valued trustee of Dartmouth College. Through all these years of activity and honor he was indefatigably broadening and deepening his studies, and rounding up his attainments. His course must 14 MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. assuredly be pronounced a remarkable combination of wide research, incessant practice, and fresh but cautious experiment, under the restrictions of a frail constitution. At thirty years of age he expressed to his wife the opinion that he should not live till fifty. But he out- lasted that period by fourteen years, and the last five were his best working years. He indeed made, as he said, a “ very narrow escape ” at forty-four, and at fifty-eight. And it is not a little sad to read in the let- ter that contains this statement the luminous advice which he gave to his junior colleague, the brilliant Crosby, whereby, if more rigidly followed, the one might perhaps have added ten and the other thirty good years to their beneficent services for the race. For it had been by incessant vigilance he preserved his working force. He took his brief daily nap. When he made a distant professional trip, he frequently took the same brief rest before he saw his patient. Pity that for once he relaxed his vigilance. Two successive all-night journeys, with a laborious professional day interjected, and followed by an uninterrupted strain, snapped the frail thread of his life, but five months after the long round of mental excitement had as suddenly extin- guished the noonday light of his robust colleague, at the very period of warning, the fatal “ forty-five.” The progressive character of Dr. Peaslee’s mind is seen in the fact that his Histology was the first system- MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 15 atic work on the subject in the English language, and his Ovariotomy was at the time “the only complete monograph on those subjects which had been pub- lished in any language,” while some of his surgical oper- ations were the first of their precise kind in New England. He was among the very earliest medical microscopists in the country. “He welcomed all im- provements,” says Dr. Thomas, “ and encouraged younger men.” His treatise on Ovariotomy has been pronounced by high authority “ an imperishable monu- ment to his fame.” It was equally a monument of his tireless industry and system. For, like his work on Histology, it was written largely in fragments, on scraps of paper, as he was riding in his carriage or the cars, yet not published till after severe and thorough revision. A singular breadth marked his mental and profes- sional culture. In the seventy courses of lectures which he delivered, he had gone over the whole circle of med- ical science. He had lectured on anatomy, physiology, pathology, surgery, obstetrics, gynaecology, and materia medica. With one exception, pronounced to be seem- ing rather than real, “ we have not another instance,” says Dr. Emmet, “ where the lecturer was equally pro- ficient in the practice. Dr. Peaslee,” he adds, “will stand alone” in this respect. Years ago Dr. Barker formed of him the deliberate opinion, which time never MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. changed: “ I regarded him as one of the best-educated men, in all branches of the profession, that I had ever met, whether in this country or in Europe.” And Dr. Flint adds his testimony : “ That he stood abreast with those who form the foremost rank in the onward march of medical science was evident to all.” Dr. Thomas speaks of his “judicial mind, his well-poised and thoroughly cultivated intellect.” Indeed, in the circuit of his later labors it was not commonly knowm how eminent had been his success as a general surgeon in Northern and Eastern New England. It was this breadth of base and scope which saved him from medi- cal hobbies and crotchets, and made him, by the tes- timony of his peers, one ©f the most valuable consult- ing physicians in the country. It was this breadth of intellectual culture that gave weight to his opinions and preeminent merit to his writings. “After he had time and opportunity to form his opinion,” says Dr. Emmet, “ I could place more reliance on his judgment than on any other member of the profession within the scope of my acquaintance;” and he adds; “We are all fa- miliar with the fact that, after he had spoken in his terse and logical manner, there remained but little to be said.” What higher intellectual praise could be given to a scientific work than Dr. Fordyce Barker’s charac- terization of his chief medical work, on Ovariotomy ? “ I may give utterance to the universal judgment of MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 17 those competent to express an opinion, that no work has ever been published in this country, on any special subject of medical science, of higher merit as regards its plan of arrangement, its artistic excellence of execution, its lit- erary finish, its learned, impartial, historical research, its soundness in pathology, its keen analytic teaching of diagnosis, its wise, prudent, practical, and thorough di- rections as regards treatment both in the medical and surgical aspects of the subject, and its thoroughly con- scientious and just appreciation of the labors of all others in the field.” What higher scientific eulogium ? What nobler style of intellect ? The catholic character of his mind showed itself in his extra-professional reading and studies. He had his Spanish and German books about him. A year before his death he was newly interested in mineralogy, with a box of specimens in his library. At the time of his death he left fresh notes in two books on architec- ture, one in English and the other in French. He was well read in the literature of our own language. Dur- ing the last year of his life he informed me that he had been recently making very thorough inquiry into the theory of evolution. Eager to know the judgment of so careful, progressive, broad, and wise a scientific man, I asked him what was his conclusion. His reply was that he repudiated it as a baseless hypothesis—the same reply in substance which was given me five months MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. later by his brilliant associate, Dr. Alpheus Benning Crosby. I should fail fitly to portray his character did I not speak of the genial manhood that mingled with his high professional career. He was magnanimous. He was sympathetic. He was true. Men loved him. Women trusted him. The sick believed in him. His bright, kindly way in the sick-room was better, if possi- ble, than his medicine and his skill. How many a patient began to take courage and to mend when they heard his cheerful and truthful assurances! What numbers of families and individuals mourned his death as a personal bereavement! On the day of his funeral a crowd of medical associates and personal friends filled the church; and, while eminent physicians were ready to say that the death of no man in the land could make a greater breach in the ranks of the profession, the tears and sobs of a great congregation paid a still nobler tribute to the worth of Edmund Randolph Peaslee. For he had died as he lived, faithful unto death. His strength had been overstrained by the distant jour- ney and the exhausting work which he had deemed it his duty to undertake. Even then, had the last day of professional work been made a day of rest, perchance there might have been many years more of invaluable life. But he went to his patient in NewT Jersey, saying, MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. “It is my duty.” And after his dinner once more he went forth, replying to the remonstrances of his anxious wife, “ The cases are both critical, and it is my duty to go,” but promising then to retire to his rest. He re- turned so spent that he needed help to reach the bed from which he never rose. It seemed at first not dis- ease, but pure exhaustion of the vital powers. The first symptoms of the disease when they appeared were not severe, nor indeed were they so till the very morn- ing of his death. He knew that his condition was crit- ical, but thought if he could pass a definite day he might go through. His wife was ever at hand to take note of the suggestions which he made with difficulty And as he had repeatedly informed her in previous days that, though he could not say he did not fear to die, yet he could say he was not afraid to be dead, so now he affirmed that he trusted in God for the for- giveness of his sins, and felt willing to go or to stay. The severity of his pain was out of all proportion to the mildness of his symptoms till the last twelve hours, when the rising disease steadily gained on the enfeebled system, and the powers of life faded out with hardly a flicker. It has been sadly written from the standpoint of a desolate love, 20 MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. “ The night has a thousand eyes, The day has but one; Yet the light of a bright world dies With the setting sun. “ The mind has a thousand eyes, And the heart but one; Yet the light of a whole life dies When the day is done.” But not so here, for him or for us. His day is done, his sun is set. But from the scene of its setting there streams up a trailing brightness, as of some perpetual zodiacal light—the shining example of one who, while profound in science, wise in counsel, and excellent in skill, was also sincere in piety, blameless in manhood, true in friendship, genial in intercourse, and whose presence entered the sick-chamber like a sunbeam from heaven streaming into a darkened room. Its mild radiance lingers in hundreds of homes and thou- sands of hearts. It is a light profitable for young men to contemplate. No life has fallen under my personal knowledge more deeply fraught with lessons for the student in college or early professional study. See, then, how the intellectual and professional strength of Dr. Peaslee came from the thoroughness and fullness of his training. He was in the true sense a liberally-educated man. He had made thorough MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 21 work of a classical education. His professional emi- nence was built up on the basis of a previous college course, profoundly mastered. This sent him forth a rounded thinker, or, as Dr. O’Sullivan said of him, with a “ brain admirably balanced.” It saved him from va- garies and held him to truth. It trained him to dis- cern the things that differ. It taught him to seize the real clue in the mazes of circumstance. It enabled him steadily to discriminate between a brain-spun hypothe- sis and an induction from proved facts. It formed him not only successfully to acquire, but skillfully to impart. When men disparage that liberal culture which has commanded and still commands the suffrage of the finest minds and characters in the civilized world, when they undervalue the severe study of the mathematics and the so-called “ dead languages ” with their associated themes, insisting chiefly and antagonistically on mod- ern tongues and scientific facts, it may be often difficult to set forth tangibly to their apprehension all the potent and subtile molding influences of a classical education. But there is one aspect of the case that is obvious to the dullest apprehension. It is the appeal to facts and results. When we look over the long roll of men grandly, broadly strong in all the spheres of human thought and wisdom—the great judges who have most honored the bench, the great lawyers who have ad- vanced the cause of jurisprudence, the great physi- 22 MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. cians who have expanded the science of medicine, the great preachers and theologians who have made their permanent mark on the religious belief of man, the great statesmen of Europe and America, the great meta- physicians who have best explored the laws of being, I might even add the great scientists who have most skillfully presented and defended their views and theo- ries—we shall find them, with few notable exceptions, to have been men of classical education. We shall also find that, in general, those who disparage it are not those who have enjoyed it or thoroughly proved it. And many a man who has struggled his way up to eminence by the strength of his native powers has la- mented the lack of opportunities which would have carried him still higher. And it is here specially worthy of note that in the very height of this discus- sion, within these ten years past, four of our eminent graduates, who have also been among the great men of the nation, Chief Justice Chase, Judge Joel Parkert Judge Richard Fletcher, and Dr. Peaslee, all men of judicial minds, have in their last wills affectionately and generously remembered their Alma Mater. It was their grateful and graceful but deliberate recogni- tion of the influences which helped to make them the men that they were. And it is not to be forgotten that the eminence of Dr. Peaslee was the outgrowth of faithful habits from MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 23 his early student life. He acted on the settled con- viction that there was no period of his college course to squander in idleness, and at each period no better thing to do than that for which the best provision was then made. The early habits, as usual, determined the man and followed him to the end. It is a touching incident that he, whose college record shows no absence unexcused, should have said in his quiet way to Dr. Flint, two days before his death, “ I was obliged to miss my lecture yesterday; this has not happened to me before now.” Successful manhood seldom comes except from diligent youth. “If spring show no blos- soms, autumn will show no fruit.” It was Goethe’s motto, “ What a man chooses in his youth, that will he have in his age.” No doubt the race of idlers will perpetually transmit their tradition that college stand- ing determines nothing of success in life; and, as here- tofore, they will live to see it as absurd in theory as false in fact. They will doubtless hand down to the end of time the venerable fiction that Daniel Webster was an idler in this college and held a low rank in his class. The annals of Dartmouth College show on almost every page, and with few exceptions, that the men who have made their mark for intellectual power have been diligent book-students here. The law of “ tendency ” and of the “ survival of the fittest ” here at least reigns supreme, modified, of course, by associated 24 MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. qualities and by the openings of Providence. And an illustrious example of that reigning law is the one we contemplate here to-day. Indeed, I should sadly fail to set forth the grand lesson of Peaslee’s life did I not hold him up as a signal instance of one who used his powers and econ- omized his opportunities to the very utmost, and who reaped as he sowed. I have no doubt that he would have blamed himself for many and great intellectual shortcomings. But to me he has seemed one who did intellectually very nearly all he could with his talents, strength, and opportunities. I doubt whether he could have done much more except by prolonging his life by a more rigid restraint upon himself in those last fewT days of over-exertion. The same view was entertained by others. Our eminent classmate, Judge T. P. Red- field, quotes to me approvingly the remark of another acute legal gentleman, that “ Dr. Peaslee and Rufus Choate were the only men he knew ”—and he knew them both well—“ who lost no time and utilized their resources to the utmost.” Do you say this is faint praise and a disparaging limitation ? Consider, then, that the one was in his day the most brilliant lawyer of New England, and the other in his day, perhaps, second to no medical man in the country. Dr. Peaslee wonder- fully husbanded his moderate strength, watched over his precarious health, and by strong social self-denials MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 25 saved and used his invaluable time. And so he out- lived vast multitudes of the robust and the strong ; so he toiled with the most toilsome of a laborious profes- sion ; and so in all his toils he wrote better than the men of leisure. It was a well-filled, well-rounded life, grandly achieving its own success and richly earning its own rewards. He passed away in the fullness of his powers, the ripeness of his character, the height of his skill, and the glow of his fame, leaving no regrets but the sorrowings of love. And, if his dying father did not and could not discern in those traits and tendencies of the child the sure omens of his future eminence, yet the maternal description of his youthful years might well serve for the closing eulogy of his well-spent life. For how fittingly did the blossom and the ripe fruit grow from that bud of promise; how naturally did the clear, broad stream flow forth from such a youthful fountain. “ Go up and watch the new-born rill Just trickling from its mossy bed, Streaking the heath-clad hill With a bright emerald thread. “ Canst thou her bold career foretell, What rocks she shall o’erleap or rend, How far in ocean’s swell Her freshening billows send ? ” APPENDIX EDMUND RANDOLPH PEASLEE. 1836. Graduated at Dartmouth College. 1837-1839. Tutor at Dartmouth College. 1840. Graduated at Yale Medical School. 1841-1870. Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, Dartmouth Med- ical School. 1843-1859. Professor of Anatomy and Surgery, Maine Medical School. 1851-1853. Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, New York Med- ical College. 1853-1859. Professor of Physiology and General Pathology, New York Medical College. 1857. Corresponding Fellow New York Academy of Medicine. 1858. President New Hampshire State Medical Society. 1858-1865. Physician to Demilt Dispensary. 1858. President New York Pathological Society. 1859. Received degree of LL. D. from Dartmouth College. 1859-1860. Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women, New York Medical College. 1867. President New York County Medical Society. 1868. Honorary Member Yonkers Medical Association. 1869. Corresponding Fellow Obstetrical Society, Berlin. 1869. Honorary Member Gynaecological Society, Boston. 1870. Trustee of Dartmouth College. 1870. Honorary Member Obstetrical Society, Louisville. 1870-1872. Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women, Dart- mouth Medical College. 30 APPENDIX. 1871. President New York Academy of Medicine. 1871. Honorary Member Hudson County Pathological Society. 1872. Surgeon to Woman’s Hospital. 1872-1874. Lecturer on Diseases of Women, Albany Medical Col- 1872. Professor of Gynaecology, Dartmouth Medical College. 1873. Trustee New York Academy of Medicine. lege. 1874. Corresponding Member Obstetrical Society, Philadelphia. 1874. Professor of Gynaecology, Bellevue Hospital Medical College. 1875. President New York Medical Journal Association. 1875. President New York Obstetrical Society. 1877. Honorary Fellow London Obstetrical Society. 1877. President American Gynaecological Society. Member also of the Medical and Surgical Society, New York Physicians’ Mutual Aid Society, Society for the Relief of Widows and Orphans of Medical Men, New York State Medical Society, Therapeutical Society. American Geographical Society, New York Academy of Science, New York Historical Society, American Social Science Association, New England Society, Union League and Century Clubs, and other associations. DR. PEASLEE’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO MEDICAL LITERATURE. Human Histology, 616 pages, 1858. Ovarian Tumors and Ovariotomy, 551 pages, 1872 Necroscopic Tables for Post-Mortem Examinations, 1851. Amputation at the Shoulder-Joint—New York Medical Journal, 1853- A Monograph on the Foetal Circulation—American Medical Monthly, May, 1854. The Pathology and Rational Treatment of Laryngo-Trachitis or Croup—American Medical Monthly, August and September, 1854. The Progress and the Spirit of Medical Science—Anniversary Dis- course delivered before the New York Academy of Medicine, November, 1858. Uterine Displacements—Eight Lectures, Ai?ierican Medical Monthly., April to November, iB6O. Ovarian Tumors and their Treatment except by Ovariotomy—read before the New York Academy of Medicine, March, 1864. Ovariotomy—read before the New York Academy of Medicine, June, 1864. Statistics of One Hundred and Fifty (Collected) Cases of Ovarioto- my—American Journal oj Medical Sciences, January, 1865. Retroflexion of the Unimpregnated Uterus—Transactions of New York State Medical Society, 1865. Ovariotomy, When and How to Perform it, and its After-Treat- ment—New York Medical Gazette, May, 1867. History of Ovariotomy, and the Life and Labors of Dr. Ephraim McDowell—read before the New York Medical Journal Asso- ciation, June, 1870. 32 APPENDIX. Intra-Uterine Medication—New York Medical Journal, July, 1870. Intra-Peritoneal Injections—American Journal oj Obstetrics, Au- gust, 1870. The Inflammations and the Congestions of the Non-Gravid Uterus —Preliminary Lectures, Medical Record, January, 1876. Incision and Discision of the Cervix Uteri—American Journal oj Obstetrics, August, 1876. Numerous Introductory Addresses, Reports of Cases, and Essays in various Medical Journals. RESOLUTIONS. TRUSTEES OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. At a meeting of the Board of Trustees of Dartmouth Col- lege, held at Concord, N. H., February 19, 1878, the following resolution was unanimously adopted : Resolved, That as a Board of Trustees we place upon record our sense of the exceeding loss which this college has sustained in the death of Dr. Peaslee, a most successful professor in the Medical Department of the institution, and a trustee upon whose wisdom and devoted interest in the college we have greatly depended. J. G. Davis, Secretary of the Board. FACULTY OF BELLEVUE HOSPITAL MEDICAL COLLEGE. The following resolutions were adopted at a meeting of the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, January 23, 1878: Whereas, In the wisdom of the merciful Father of all, it has seemed good to suddenly take from our midst our honored associ- ate and co-worker, Prof. Edmund Randolph Peaslee; and Whereas, We, the Faculty of the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, desire to express our respect, esteem, and affection for his memory; therefore, Resolved, That we have received the intelligence of his death with heartfelt sorrow and a deep sense of the greatness of our loss. Resolved, That in future it will be our delight to recall the sin- gular purity of a life in the presence of which the voice of envy was silent—a life nobly spent, unstained by meanness and falsehood, RESOLUTIONS. but beautiful in its private worth and in its devotion to the highest aims of the profession in which he stood preeminent. Resolved, That in his lifetime the widespread confidence he en- joyed and the many honors conferred upon him were only the just rewards of his high attainments as a scholar and his many and im- portant contributions to science. His crowning work upon ovarian tumors stands almost without a rival in medical literature, in the high attributes of taste, judgment, and independent thought; and it behooves us, now that his record is finished, to proclaim, what he, with the modesty of greatness, left unspoken, his own distin- guished part in placing upon a firm foundation the operation for the removal of ovarian growths, which is justly regarded as the foremost achievement of modern surgery. Resolved, That, in warm sympathy with his family, we direct that these resolutions be forwarded to them as a slight though in- adequate expression of our regard for our deceased comrade. (Signed) Fordyce Barker, M.’D., Isaac E. Taylor, M. D., William T. Lusk, M. D., Committee. STUDENTS OF BELLEVUE HOSPITAL MEDICAL COLLEGE. The following resolutions were adopted by the students of Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York, January 26, 1878: Whereas, We, the students of Bellevue Hospital Medical Col- lege, have learned with feelings of the most profound sorrow and regret of the death of Prof. Edmund R. Peaslee, whom we all so greatly admired for his superior qualities as a teacher, his virtues as a man, and his constant devotion to the interests of science and our profession ; therefore, be it Resolved, That in his death our school has lost an earnest and RESOLUTIONS. 37 justly noted teacher; our chosen profession a faithful and untiring worker for its honor and advancement, and society at large an honorable and useful citizen. That, while we deeply deplore our loss, yet we meekly bow in submission to the inscrutable will of a wise Providence who doeth all things well; and shall ever commend to others, and strive to imitate in our own lives, those estimable traits of character which rendered him so eminent and worthy of our emulation. That we extend to the family of our lamented friend and teacher our heartfelt sympathy in this their sad bereavement. Be it further resolved., That a copy of these resolutions be given to the family of the deceased, to the secretary of our Faculty, and to the medical journals, for publication. Charles H. Eames, D. Scofield, Oscar A. King, R. G. Ebert, Frederick Herbert Lay, Committee. ATTENDING SURGEONS OF THE WOMAN’S HOSPITAL. The following resolutions were adopted by the staff of the Woman’s Hospital: Whereas, It has pleased the Almighty in His infinite wisdom to remove from our midst our esteemed associate and fellow-laborer, Dr. Edmund R. Peaslee; therefore, be it Resolved, That by his loss the medical profession of this city has been deprived of one of its ablest and wisest members, one who during his whole career has discharged all his functions with an unflinching devotion to duty, and won the respect and esteem of all who knew him. Resolved, That in the death of Dr, Peaslee the Woman’s Hospi- tal in the State of New York has lost one who, by his devotion to 38 RESOLUTIONS. its interests and untiring exercise of skill in its service, has contrib- uted greatly to its efficiency and usefulness; and that its Medical Board has been deprived of a member whose judicious counsels, honesty of purpose, and amiability of disposition had peculiarly endeared him to his associates. Resolved, That we tender our deepest sympathy to the bereaved family in their affliction; that these resolutions be published in the medical journals of this city, and that a copy of the same be sent to the family. T. Gaillard Thomas, T. A. Emmet, Committee. BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE WOMAN’S HOSPITAL. The Board of Governors of the Woman’s Hospital in the State of New York, at their meeting held March 12, unani- mously adopted the following minute for record and trans- mission to the family of Dr. Peaslee: Edmund Randolph Peaslee was a man of rare acquirements, of untiring industry, of great clearness of perception, and of singular purity of life. As a medical writer and practitioner none stood higher, and few were his equal in the various departments of med- icine and surgery which bound him to the Woman’s Hospital. In the midst of his busy professional life, Dr. Peaslee found time to interest himself in literature, the advance of science, and the moral and religious efforts of the age. A character thus broad- ened and filled out made its possessor a leader among his profes- sional associates and a wise and valued citizen. This institution has lost in his death an eminent and conscien- tious officer, a kind friend and adviser. William W. Hoppin, Secretary. RESOLUTIONS. 39 THE LADY SUPERVISORS OF THE WOMAN’S HOSPITAL. New York State Woman’s Llospital, February 2, 1878. The Lady Supervisors of the Woman’s Hospital beg leave to express to the family of Dr. E. R. Peaslee their heartfelt sympa- thy in their present trial, and the great respect and affection they have for him who has been so long associated with them. In Dr. Peaslee the hospital has not only lost a skillful and accomplished surgeon, but a true friend and Christian gentleman, whose presence at the bedside of the afflicted has often been spoken of as a bless- ing. His benign countenance and genial manner have done much to soothe many troubled spirits, who have come to us burdened with anxieties and griefs, which have been relieved by his kindly sympathy, not unfrequently accompanied by more substantial aid. The present bereavement is felt to be not only a public loss, but a personal grief to those with whom he was so connected ; and, while they bow with submission to the will of the Heavenly Father who has taken him from the scene of his earthly labors, they pray that His blessing may rest on the family of Dr. Peaslee and on the institution with which he has been so long connected. By order of the Board : Sarah Lloyd Coit, Secretary. NEW YORK ACADEMY OF MEDICINE. At a stated meeting of the New York Academy of Medi- cine, held February 7, 1878, the following resolutions were adopted : Resolved, That by the death of our late Fellow and ex-President the Academy of Medicine has lost one of its most distinguished and useful members, who was ever zealous for its interest, usefulness, and reputation ; who, by his great success as a teacher of various 40 RESOLUTIONS. departments in several medical colleges, has done much for the education of a large class of medical practitioners, in all parts of the country, now working in the interests of humanity; who, by his important papers, either read before the Academy or published in different medical journals, and by his learned and able works, has added much to the science of medicine, and greatly improved its practice in many important departments, and has left an imperisha- ble name, greatly to the honor and reputation of this academy and of the profession of this city and of this country; and who, by his personal character, won our warm esteem and high respect. Resolved., That these resolutions be entered on the minutes of the Academy, and be sent to the medical journals of this city for publi- cation ; and that an engrossed copy be sent to his bereaved family. Fordyce Barker, James L. Banks, Austin Flint, Committee. THE NEW YORK PATHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. At a meeting of the New York Pathological Society the following preamble and resolutions were adopted: Whereas, It has pleased our Heavenly Father to remove from us by death our distinguished associate, Edmund R. Peaslee, M. D., LL. D., we would hereby express our sincere grief for the loss which we have been called upon to bear, and also record our pro- found esteem and admiration for his noble deeds and Christian character; and we hereby Resolve, That in the life, labors, and character of Dr. Peaslee we have a commendable example of industry, usefulness, and Christian manliness, seldom combined in a single life. Resolved, In the death of Dr. Peaslee the medical profession and society in general have sustained an unusual loss. Resolved, That we tender to the family of Dr. Peaslee our sin- cere sympathy in their irreparable loss. 41 RESOLUTIONS. Resolved, That the above be published in the medical journals of this city, and also that a copy be sent to the family of the de- ceased. John H. Hinton, James L. Banks, Chas. K. Briddon, Committee. THE NEW YORK OBSTETRICAL SOCIETY. The following was communicated by the New York Ob- stetrical Society: The New York Obstetrical Society desires to give expression to the incomparable loss which it has suffered in the death of Dr. E. R. Peaslee, one of its founders and most distinguished members. We feel that he has, perhaps more than any one of its fellows, contributed to the elevated standard which the Society has acquired among its sister associations. The roll-call of the meetings will prove his most constant and continuous attendance, its record that he has brought to its consid- eration rich funds of material from the fields of his wide and care- fully-studied experience. To the value of its discussions he has contributed eminently by his always luminous and logical statements, while his just and amiable temper promoted the harmony of its deliberations. The social element of the Society has been equally expanded by his store of wit and humor. E. Noeggerath, M. D., John Byrne, M. D., W. M. Chamberlain, M. D., A. J. C. Skene, M. D., Cotnmittee. MEMORIAL ADDRESSES. Before the Medical Society of the County of New York, January 28, 1878, by Thomas Addis Emmet, M. D. Before the New York Academy of Medicine, February 7, 1878, by Fordyce Barker, M. D., and by T. Gaillard Thomas, M. D. Before the Dartmouth Alumni Association of New York City, Feb- ruary 13, 1878, by Mr. Everett P. Wheeler. Before the Faculty of Dartmouth Medical College, February 22, 1878, by Henry M. Field, M. D. Before the Boston Gynaecological Society, March 7, 1878, by Henry M. Field, M. D. Before the New Hampshire State Medical Society, June 19, 1878, by Horace T. Hanks M. D. Before the American Gynaecological Society, third annual meeting, Philadelphia, September 27, 1878, by Fordyce Barker, M. D., LL. D.