ITEMS AND EXTRACTS. A VERY HARD CHEEK.-Dr. E. D. Burr, of Lansing, Mich., has just sent us a circular concerning the "Michigan Homœopathic College," from which we select the following choice paragraph: "Those contemplating attending at the 'Detroit Homœopathic College,' should well consider the action of the American Institute of Homœopathy," (the representative body of the profession in America), at its annual session in June last, at Niagara Falls, when a graduate of the Michigan Homœopathic College was admitted to membership, whilst those from the Detroit School were refused admission; showing the estimation in which the "Michigan Colleges are held by the American Institute of Homœopathy." Dr. Burr is himself the “graduate" referred to in his circular. One of the last acts performed by the Institute at its session at Niagara Falls was the admission of Dr. Burr to membership. The doctor represented himself as a practitioner of Homœopathy of upwards of thirty years' standing, a licentiate of an Allopathic County Medical Society of the State of New York, and a graduate of the Lansing College (of which he was a professor at the time of his graduation). He was admitted upon his standing as a practitioner, on his "merits," as set forth by himself, and nothing could possibly be more plainly or more decidedly expressed than that his admission to membership was not to be in any way construed into an acknowledgment of the Lansing College. And on the other hand the graduate of the "Detroit School" who was refused admission, was refused simply upon the ground that, in the estimation of the Censors, he had been guilty of "unprofessional acts," and not at all on account of the place of his graduation. We have received from a member of the Institute a sheet entitled the Granger Supplement, which purports to contain a report of the proceedings of the late session of the Institute. In this report, in which truths and lies are most ingeniously dovetailed, this same Dr. Burr figures largely. We regret that want of space prevents our giving this report in full, for the benefit of those of our readers who were present during the session. The adventures of Baron Munchausen are paled before the deeds and speeches of this wonderful Michigander, who, with the rest of it moved that the Institute meet next year as an "Industrial Grange," at Lansing, Mich. Dr. Burr was permitted, by the courteous act of the Institute, to present some statements regarding the use of homeopathic medicines in surgical cases, and he was likewise permitted, by another overstretch of courtesy, to make some remarks in his own behalf, at the time the question of his admission was under consideration. Beyond these two occasions he made no public remarks. He was not entitled to speak as a member until after his election, and almost immediately after his election the final adjournment took place. The above statements are made after a very careful examination of the stenographer's report. If the false statements and bogus reports of speeches made and resolutions offered by Dr. Burr have appeared by his act or with his connivance, he is an unworthy member of the Institute. It is high time for this great homoeopathic representative body to set up higher and stronger barriers to membership, and to have a more stringent discipline for those who are already members. From the Hahnemannian Monthly, Dec. 18/4. PERSONAL. LIBBY SMALL. Married, on Dec. 16th, in Scarboro', Me., at the residence of the bride's father, Charles A. Libby, M.D., of Arlington, Mass., to Miss Maria Small, daughter of Capt. James Small. (No cards.) SHERMAN-PACKARD. Married, on Dec. 17th, in Brockton, Mass., J. T. Sherman, M.D., of Pawtucket, R. I., to Miss Alice M. Packard, of Brockton. Dr. SHERMAN has located in Dorchester District, Boston. REMOVALS. Dr. FRANCIS BRICK has removed from Keene, N. H., for a permanent residence in Worcester, Mass., and is associated in practice with W. B. Chamberlain, M.D, at No. 17 Elm St. G. W. FLAGG, M.D., has removed from Clinton, Mass., to Keene, N. H., to take Dr. Brick's practice. SHAW. John T. Shaw, M.D., has removed from East Bridgewater to Plymouth, Mass. NORTON. Claude R. Norton, M.D. (New York Hom. Med. Coll., Class of '72), has located at Madison, Wis. THAYER. Died, in Battle Creek, Mich., Sept. 16, 1874, S. B. Thayer, M.D. PERSONAL information will receive due attention, if forwarded to the Editors. We cannot be blamed for omissions, if we are not promptly informed of changes of residence, etc. OBITUARY. DIED in East Providence, R. I., Jan. 1, 1875, Peleg Clarke, M.D. (father of Dr. Clarke of Fall River and Prof. Clarke of Boston University), in the ninety-first year of his age. Among the older members of the homœopathic branch of the medical profession the name of Dr. Clarke will be recognized as that of one who was among the earliest converts to the homeopathic reform in medicine in this country. Dr. Clarke was born in Richmond, R. I., on the 5th of Aug., 1784. He came of a long-lived ancestry, his father, grandfather, and greatgrandfather having lived respectively to the advanced ages of eightyone, eighty-four, and ninety-seven years. He commenced his medical studies with Dr. Jacob Knight, of South Kingstown, R. I., and completed them in the office of Dr. Caleb Fiske, of Johnston, R. I. (the founder of the Fiske Fund of the R. I. Medical Society), meanwhile attending lectures in the Medical Department of Brown University. He entered upon the practice of his profession in 1808, and continued it for nearly sixty years, his daily circuit embracing the villages clustered upon the north and south branches of the Pawtuxet River in central Rhode Island. He was one of the petitioners for the Charter of the R. I. Medical Society, the first society of the kind organized in his State, and remained a Fellow until his death, being for several years the only survivor of the original members. He was also one of the founders of the first Rhode Island Homoopathic Medical Society, while his membership in the American Institute of Homœopathy dates back to 1846, the second year of its existence. Though Dr. Clarke made but few contributions to the literature of our school and is little known to the profession outside of the circle of his personal acquaintance, yet his accession to the ranks of Homoopathy exerted a powerful influence in its favor throughout his neighborhood, and helped largely to secure that wide-spread popular confidence in this method of practice for which Rhode Island is conspicuous. He was a zealous promoter of the temperance and antislavery reforms from their inception, and gave them his steadfast support during the period of his active life. He was for many years president of the Rhode Island Antislavery Society, and was honorably associated with the leaders in that mighty moral warfare which culminated in the overthrow of American slavery. The funeral services, which were held at the place of his death, on the 6th of January, were attended by a large concourse of relatives and friends. Eloquent and impressive remarks were made by C. C. Burleigh, of Northampton, Mass., and a letter, written by Wm. Lloyd Garrison on the reception of the news of his death, was read by George H. Burleigh, of Little Compton, R. I. The letter of Mr. Garrison, which we append, is a beautiful tribute to his worth and to the high esteem in which his memory is held by his old coadjutors in moral reform. "BOSTON, Jan. 4, 1875. "DEAR DR. CLARKE, - The intelligence of the death of your highly beloved and truly venerable father, in the ninety-first year of his age, has just reached me. Great is my regret that bodily infirmity will prevent my attendance at the funeral, so that I might give some expression to my estimate of his valuable services in the cause of freedom and humanity; and also to those feelings of affection and sympathy which a warmly reciprocal friendship of forty years' duration naturally awakens. "When the antislavery banner was first unfurled to the breeze, he was among the earliest to rally under it; and throughout the long and desperate conflict to secure the liberation of those in bonds, no one exhibited a serener front in the midst of fiery trials, or stood his ground more courageously, or more cheerfully subjected himself to the losses and crosses attached to a profession of radical abolitionism, or at all times more sympathetically remembered those in bonds as bound with them, than himself. Habitually gentle in spirit, the fear of man he knew not. Speaking the truth in love, he spared not the guilty oppressor or his accomplice By temperament and self-control averse to all wrangling, and wishing as far as possible to be at peace with all men, he nevertheless was ready for whatever of discord, alienation, tumult, mobocratic violence, or personal odium might result from a hearty support of the claims of an oppressed and down-trodden race. Kneeling reverently at the shrine of Freedom, his heartfelt language was — "Who calls thy glorious service hard? Who, for its trials, counts it less "It may not be our lot to wield "Yet where our duty's task is wrought "But here the special marvel is that while your father had completed his half a century before the antislavery movement was fairly launched, which he so promptly espoused, and while even the youngest of its adherents might not reasonably hope to live to witness its triumph, his life was prolonged a whole decade after the year of jubilee had been proclaimed. In view of such a wonderful deliverance, the very sentiment of aged Simeon was his, "Lord, lettest thou thy servant depart in peace; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." He was permitted not only to sow the seed, but to use the sickle and to shout Harvest home!' "Ring and swing, Bells of joy! On morning's wing "Among the scoffing charges brought against the antislavery pioneers was this, that they were men of one idea,' i. e. that they made such a hobby of the negro's enslavement as to be blind or indifferent to other questions vital to the interests of all classes. But the reverse of this was the fact; for while it was true that they felt called to make a special consecration of their time, means, and energies to the work of delivering the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, they were among the most decided friends of temperance, peace, moral reform, the abolition of the gallows, equality of rights irrespective of sex, religious liberty of dissent and non-conformity, etc. etc. In all these matters your venerable father stood in the front rank, - a searcher for truth as for hidden gold, rejoicing in every fresh ray of light for better guidance, open to conviction while steadfast to principle, and calmly awaiting 'the safe appeal of truth to time.' "That he merited the appellation of the good physician,' I need not say. Skilful and judicious in his practice, he carried with him into the sick chamber never-failing tenderness, sympathy, and benignity, so that the sufferer felt that a benediction had fallen upon him. "By those who knew him well he was equally revered and beloved; and to them his memory will ever be precious. It is contained "Let me make a brief summary of his life and character. in the Sermon on the Mount: for he hungered and thirsted after righteousness, he was meek and merciful, he was pure in heart, he was a peace-maker, and certainly he was blessed in receiving his portion of the obloquy which was so long and so bitterly poured out upon those who insisted that to turn a human being into a chattel was a sin of the first magnitude. "Finished his work, and kept his faith In Christian firmness unto death; And beautiful as sky and earth, When autumn's sun is downward going, The blessed memory of his worth Around his place of slumber glowing!' “Fraternally yours, 66 WM. LLOYD GARRISON." DR RICHMOND BRADFORD, of Auburn, Me., died at his home, Dec. 21, 1874, of chronic bronchitis. He was born in Turner, Me., in 1801, of Huguenot ancestry, a direct descendant of Gov. William Bradford, one of the original "Mayflower" pioneers. He fitted for college in his native town, relying upon his labors in teaching to defray the expenses of education, which he continued at Bowdoin College, where he entered as sophomore, graduating in the class of 1825. In the same class were the poet Longfellow, the novelist Hawthorne, and the historian J. S. C. Abbott. In 1829 he received the degree of "M. D." from the medical department of the same institution, and began to practise in Turner, residing there six years. He removed to Auburn in 1835, - the only physician in Auburn and the adjoining town, Lewiston, where he has since resided. After twenty years' practice, and dissatisfied with what he characterized "a heroic routine and empirical treatment," he embraced Homœopathy, but not until he had industriously pursued several series of provings to his great satisfaction, and had corresponded with medical authorities whose counsel he valued. After following a course of study at the Homœopathic College in Philadelphia he returned to Auburn and dated a new era in his professional career. At that time the confession of faith in infinitesimal doses," or in any idea that eliminated" calomel and jalap" from the doctor's formula, almost ensured church censure, destruction of one's business, and social ostracism besides. But he fearlessly worked and sacrificed with a sincerity and earnestness that deepened and strengthened the movement. Test after test increased the spirit of inquiry, until his most sanguine expectations were realized. He saw in the cities of Auburn and Lewiston the principles of "Similia similibus curantur" accepted. Physicians recognized its power; the people pronounced it good. Thus he lived to be the oldest physician in the county in which he lived. He was "Fellow and Corresponding Member of the Homoopathic College, Philadelphia," "Member of American Institute of Homœopathy," etc. etc. The "Lewiston Journal," in a sketch of the life and character of Dr. Bradford, says, "He was a man of positive Christian profession and practice, an ardent friend, a valuable and conscientious citizen. For many years he was deacon of the Congregational Church and superintendent of the Sabbath School. He was greatly interested in educational matters; was one of the trustees of Lewiston Falls Academy. He was one of the best linguists in the State, and was so fond of scholarly pursuits that he was accustomed to read Latin and Greek in his leisure hours up to the last year of his life. A hold on life always feeble, he combated disease by self-denial and precision of habit, thus perpetuating himself far beyond the average longevity. He leaves a brother (Calvin Bradford, Esq) and three children,Dr. H. C. Bradford, Lewiston, Me., Dr. T. D. Bradford, New York City, and a daughter whose assiduous care was a blessing to the last years of the father she loved so much. Knowing Dr. Bradford so intimately as we did, we have positive opinions to give respecting him. In his death the city loses a ripe Christian, a cultivated scholar, a sympathetic and skilful physician. |