Page:Transactions of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia (ser 03 vol 05).djvu/38

xxviii of others speedily formed on the same model; supplied a want that was deeply felt; and many of our best men and ablest practitioners received there the impulse and the education which enabled them to achieve eminence in their respective spheres. Tempora labuntur, tacitisque senescimus annis! Very few members of the earlier classes are now living;— none, it is believed, who are engaged in active business; and of the survivors of the classes immediately following, two or three only—among them Dr. Rodman and the late distinguished Professor of Anatomy in Jefferson College — still continue in a green old age, and with scarcely bated zeal, to give to the public the benefit of their ripe experience; while a host of Benemeriti—Gilman, Norris, Pepper, West, Wistar, Gerhard, Carson, Stewardson, and many others —have, alas, departed to the Spirit Land!

The personnel of the school continued unchanged during several years; but, under the title of The Association for Medical Instruction, it was afterwards enlarged, and strengthened by the accession of several other gentlemen, among whom were Drs. John Rhea Barton, and Samuel George Morton. Not physic alone, but high principles of conduct, and much also that might be comprehended under the head of the minor morals, without which no character is perfect —delicacy, propriety, punctuality, professional etiquette, which is merely the expression of the Golden Rule—all found illustration and enforcement in the lives and precepts of the teachers. The students were enjoined to be sincere