Page:The Harveian oration 1905.djvu/44

 14. Weber-Parkes Prize and Medals.—We rejoice to have still amongst us the distinguished, kind-hearted, and always genial Fellow of this College, to whom we are indebted for the most munificent endowment now to be referred to. Sir Hermann Weber, although a well-advanced octogenarian, seems to be possessed of the secret of perpetual youth, and is as active and energetic as ever, even going so far, I believe, as still to climb Alpine mountains and traverse formidable glaciers! He has been doing his best, moreover, to instruct us by precept and example as to the measures which we should adopt in order to attain old age in as good a condition as himself. In 1895 this generous benefactor presented to the College the sum of £3,000 sterling in trust to found a prize to be called the "Weber-Parkes Prize," in memory of the late Dr. Edmund A. Parkes, who died in 1876, during the year in which he should have delivered the Harveian Oration, but left it in an unfinished state. This incomplete Oration was read by Sir William Jenner, who happened to be President at the time, and who spoke on the occasion with touching eloquence of the life, character, work, and personal influence of his former colleague and beloved friend. May I be permitted, as one of Dr. Parkes's former pupils at University Hospital, to add my humble tribute of respectful appreciation to the memory of this noble physician, for whom, in common with all his students, I had the greatest