NEW YORK ACADEMY OF MEDICINE. 
No. 12 West Thirty-First Street. 
1877. 
The New York Academy of Medicine was organized in the 
city of New York, on the 6th day of January, 1847, and by a 
special act of the Legislature of the State was incorporated on 
the 23d day of June, 1851. This act was amended on the 4th 
day of June, 1853, empowering the corporators to appoint five 
delegates to represent them in the State Medical Society, with 
all the powers and privileges possessed by delegates from the 
respective Medical Colleges of the State. 
This Corporation is composed of Resident, non-Resident, 
Corresponding, and Honorary Fellows. The Constitution de- 
clares its objects to be : 
First. The cultivation of the Science of Medicine. 
Second. The advancement of the character and honor of the 
Profession. 
Third. The elevation of the standard of Medical Education. 
Fourth. The promotion of the Public Health. 
From its inception, one of its chief purposes has been the 
procurement of a building or hall, where its meetings might be 
held, where a library could be garnered, and where the pro- 
fession could meet on common ground. The efforts put forth 
in this direction culminated in 1875, in the purchase by the 
Academy of the commodious building, centrally located on 
West Thirty-first Street, between Broadway and Fifth Avenue, 
which it now occupies, and which will,-for some time to come 
answer all its wants and those of the profession. The regular 
meetings are held here on the First and Third Thursday even- 
ings in the month (except July and August), at eight o’clock. 
The Publications comprise five volumes of u Transactions,” 
four volumes of the “ Bulletin,” and some forty miscellaneous 
“ Addresses,” “ Memoirs,” “ Reports,” etc. All of these Pub- 
lications are for sale at the Library, or will be exchanged for 
works not already in the Library. 2 
By virtue of its Charter the following named Funds have 
been created. These are designed to meet certain specific 
wants of the institution, and their importance will not fail to 
command the attention, and it is hoped, the aid of the Fellows 
and friends of the Academy by donations or bequests. It 
should be remembered that the interest only, arising from 
careful investments of these funds, can be used for the pur- 
poses for which each is individually created. 
This fund, to which additions are being made from time to 
time, will enable the Academy to anticipate the necessities for 
enlarged and better accommodations, which in a few years 
must be demanded of it, and the profession in this great 
metropolis. 
Permanent Fund. 
The progress made during the past two years, through dona- 
tions and bequests, in establishing a reference library adequate 
to the wants of the professional public, have been productive 
of the most satisfactory results. The creation of a Library 
Fund, the interest of which can only be used in the purchase 
of such books as are needed, and which are not likely to come 
into the Library by gift, enables the Committee on Library to 
remedy such defects as may appear, from time to time, in any 
of the departments of Medicine and the Collateral Sciences. 
Library Fund. 
May it not reasonably be expected that the Fellows and 
friends of the institution will exert themselves to increase the 
Funds above enumerated ? 
By a very liberal act of the Legislature of 1877, which is 
hereto annexed, powers and privileges are granted to the 
Academy such as never before were possessed by any Medical 
Society in the State of Hew York. The trust powers of this 
institution are now ample, and are fully protected by legal 
enactment; and if these privileges are duly appreciated and 
improved by the Fellows of the Academy, this body cannot 
fail to occupy a position and permanency which will be commen- 
surate with the needs of the profession. 3 
Chap. 375 
AN ACT TO CONFER CERTAIN POWERS AND PRIVILEGES UPON 
the New York Academy of Medicine. 
Passed June 2, 1877, three-fifths being present. 
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate 
and Assembly, do enact as follows: 
Section 1. The present Board of Trustees of the New York 
Academy of Medicine as now organized, consisting of five mem- 
bers, shall be continued, and on the expiration of the term of 
any of the said trustees, a successor shall be elected who shall 
hold his office for five years, and until his successor shall be 
elected. 
Sec. 2. In case of the death or resignation of any trustee 
during his term, his successor shall be elected for the residue of 
his term thus unexpired. 
Sec, 3. On the expiration of the term of any of the said 
trustees, a successor shall be elected who shall hold his office 
for five years, and until his successor shall be elected. 
Sec, 4. The said Corporation may take and hold in trust any 
personal or real estate either by purchase, gift, bequest, or de- 
vise, the annual income of which shall not exceed ten thousand 
dollars. 
Sec. 5. Any property so purchased, given, bequeathed or 
devised to the said Corporation, unless the use is otherwise 
specifically designated by the donor, shall be added to and form 
a part of the general permanent fund held in trust by said Cor- 
poration, the interest or income of which shall only be used by 
the said Corporation for the purpose of advancing Medical 4 
Science under their direction, and any court of record may re- 
strain any expenditure, or misappropriation of such property or 
any part thereof, on complaint of any three of the Fellows of 
the said “ New York Academy of Medicine ” qualified to vote 
at the annual election for trustees. 
Sec. 6. This act shall take effect immediately. 
State of New York, ) 
Office of the Secretary of State, ss" 
I have compared the preceding with the original law on file 
in this office, and do hereby certify that the same is a correct 
transcript therefrom, and of the whole of said original law. 
Given under my hand and the seal of office of 
; L. S.the Secretary of State at the city of Albany, this 
fourth day of June, in the year one thousand eight 
hundred and seventy-seven. 
John Bigelow, Secretary of State. 
FORM OF BEQUEST. 
I give and bequeath to the New York Academy of Medicine, in the City 
of New York, incorporated by the Legislature of the State of New York in 
the year 1851, the sum of Dollars, to be applied to the use [describe 
the fund], under the direction of the Trustees thereof. 
I give and devise to the New York Academy op Medicine, in the City 
of New York, incorporated by the Legislature of the State of New York in 
the year 1851, all that, &c. [describe the property], to be had and holden to 
the said New York Academy op Medicine in the City of New York, and 
their successors and assigns, for the use and benefit of the said Academy of 
Medicine. 
FORM OF DEVISE. NEWYORK ACADEMY OF MEDICINE. 
1877. 
AN ADDRESS 
ON THE 
Medical Libraries oe Ism Yore. EW yORK ACADEMY OF JA EDICINE, 
12 West Thirty.first Street. 
Regular Meetings, First and Third Thursday Evenings in the Month. 
OFFICERS FOR 18 77. 
President. 
Samuel S. Purple, M.D. 
Vice-Presidents. 
Gouverneur M. Smith, M.D., 
Fordyce Barker, M.D., 
William T. White, M.D. 
Recording Secretary. 
Corresponding Secretary. 
John G. Adams, M.D. 
Horace T. Hanks, M.D. 
Treasurer. 
Horace P. Farnham, M.D. 
Trustees. 
Edmund R. Peasler, M.D., 
Austin Flint, M.D., 
James L. Banks, M.D., 
Samuel T. Hubbard, M.D., 
Isaac B. Taylor, M.D. 
Librarian. 
Laurence Johnson, M.D. 
Edwin R. Purple, Assistant. 
Assistant Secretary. 
Statistical Secretary. 
Edwin F. Ward, M.D. 
Allan McL. Hamilton, M.D. COMMITTEES FOR 18 77. 
Committee on Admissions. 
Ellsworth Eliot, M.D., Chairman, Edward H. Janes, M.D., 
Mark Blumenthal, M.D., T. Matlack Cheesman, M.D. 
Joseph E. Janvrin, M.D. 
Committee on Medical Ethics. 
Oliver White, M.D., Chairman, Thomas C. Finnell, M.D. 
T. Matlack Cheesman, M.D., Moreau Morris, M.D., 
John C. Peters, M.D. 
Alfred C. Post, M.D., Chairman, 
Edmund R. Peaslee, M.D., 
Committee on Medical Education. 
James R. Beaming, M.D. 
Charles C. Lee, M.D., 
Frederick A. Burrall, M.D. 
Committee on Library. 
James R. Beaming, M.D., Chairman, John H. Hinton, M.D., 
E. Darwin Hudson, Jr., M.D., George Bayles, M.D., Secretary. 
Laurence Johnson, M.D. 
Committee on Ways and Means. 
James Anderson, M.D., Chairman, Willard Parker, M.D. 
Samuel T. Hubbard, M.D., 
John G. Adams, M.D., 
Samuel S. Purple, M.D., 
Jared Binsly, M.D., 
Stephen Smith, M.D., 
Gouyerneur M. Smith, M.D., Sec'y. 
Committee on Building. 
Samuel T. Hubbard, M.D., 
James B. Banks, M.D. 
SECTIONS. 
Section on Surgery. 
Regular Meeting, Second Tuesday Evening in the Month. 
Stephen Smith, M.D., Chairman, A. B. Judson, M.D., Secretary. 
Regular Meeting, Third Tuesday Evening in the Month. 
Section on Theory and Practice of Medicine. 
Gouyerneur M. Smith, M.D., Chairman, A. A. Smith, M.D., Secretary. 
Section on Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children. 
Regular Meeting, Third Monday Evening in the Month. 
Isaac E. Taylor, M.D., Chairman, Salvatore Caro, M.D., Secretary. LIST OF PUBLICATIONS 
OF THE 
I'JeW y ORK yCADEMY OF 
The following Publications of the Academy can be obtained at the Library, 12 
West 31.sA Street, on application to the Librarian *at the prices affixed; or the 
same may be had in exchange for medical works, etc., not already in the Library. 
First Series. Vols. 1, pages 461 ;2, pages 454, and 3, pages 476 ; each, $2 50 
Second Series. Vols. 1, pages 429, and 2, pages 502; each 4 00 
TRANSACTIONS. 
BULLETIN. 
Yols. 1, pages 588 ;2, pages 562 ; 3, pages 470, and 4, pages 264; each, 2 00 
jy Single Parts of the Transactions and Bulletin will be sold separately 
(when complete sets are not broken by so doing) at the rate of TEN cents for 
every sixteen pages. 
Copies of the Transactions, Vols. 1 and 2, Second Series, in cloth, will be 
exchanged, with Fellows of the Academy, for copies in paper, by the pay- 
ment of fifty cents each volume. 
Dr John W. Francis’ Anniversary Discourse 1847. $0 25 
Dr. John W. Francis’ Inaugural Address 1848. 10 
Dr. James R. Manley’s Anniversary Discourse 1848. 25 
Dr. Valentine Mott’s Inaugural Address 1849. 10 
Dr. Alfred 0. Post’s Anniversary Oration 1849. 25 
Dr. Isaac Wood’s Inaugural Address ' 1850. 10 
Dr. Joseph M. Smith’s Anniversary Discourse 1850. 25 
Dr. Thomas Cock’s Inaugural Address 1852. 10 
Dr. F. Campbell Stewart’s Anniversary Discourse 1852. 25 
Dr. E. Delafield’s Biographical Sketch of J. Kearny Rodgers, M.D. 1852. 25 
Dr. John H. Griscom’s Anniversary Discourse 1854. 25 
Dr. John Watson’s Anniversary Discourse, “The Medical Profes- 
sion in Ancient Times ”, 1855. 1 00 
Dr. J. M. Sims’ Anniversary Discourse, “Silver Sutures in Surgery”. 1857. 50 
Dr. J. P. Batchelder’s Inaugural Address. 1858. 10 
Dr. E. R. Peaslee’s Anniversary Discourse, “ The Progress and 
the Spirit of Medical Science” 1858. 50 
Dr. Wm. 0. Roberts’Anniversary Discourse 1859. 25 
Dr. John Watson’s Anniversary Discourse, “ The True Physician’’.lB6o. 25 
Dr. James Anderson’s Inaugural Address 1801. 10 
Dr. Mott’s Eulogy on Dr. J. W. Francis 1861. 25 
Dr. S. Conant Foster’s Anniversary Address 1862. 25 
Dr. John W. Draper’s Anniversary Discourse 1868. 25 
Dr. A. C. Post’s Eulogy on Dr. Valentine Mott. Steel Portrait. .1865. 50 
Portrait of Dr. V. Mott on India Paper. Small 4to, 50c.; large 4to. 1 00 
Dr. James Anderson’s Valedictory Address 1867. 20 
Dr. Gouverneur M. Smith’s Anniversary Discourse 1869. 25 
Dr. John C. Dalton’s Anniversary Discourse 1878. 25 
Dr. D. B. St. John Roosa’s Anniversary Discourse 1874. 15 
Dr. Austin Flint’s Valedictory and Dr. Purple’s Inaugural 1875. 15 
Dr. E. Darwin Hudson, Jr.’s, Anniversary Discourse 1875. 15 
Dr. Wm. T. White’s Anniversary Discourse 1876. 20 
ADDRESSES AND MEMOIRS. 
The Library is open daily from 2 to 5 o’clock p.m., Sundays and Holidays excepted. MEDICAL LIBEAEIES 
AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE NEW YORK 
ACADEMY OF MEDICINE, JANUARY 18, 1877, ON 
TAKING THE CHAIR AS PRESIDENT A 
SECOND TERM. 
BY 
SAMUEL S. PURPLE, M.D., 
PRESIDENT. 
NEW YORE; 
PRINTED FOR THE ACADEMY, 
12 West Thirty-first Street. 
1877. ADDRESS. 
FELLOWS OF THE NEWYORK ACADEMY OF MEDICINE: 
lx yielding to the requirements of an established custom, the 
obligations of which devolve upon me by reason of your 
choice a second time, to occupy the honorable position and 
discharge the duties of your presiding officer, I have been led 
to believe that on this occasion the interests of this Institution 
can be promoted, possibly, in no better way than by a brief 
survey of the progress that this Academy has made during the 
past two years—the means which have been adopted and are 
still required to extend its beneficial influence. 
To speak of causes which retard the scientific growth of 
medical associations, and of professional harmony, which causes 
necessarily exist in all commercial cities, is no purpose of mine. 
These will, as social intercourse, literary culture, and the love 
of science become more deeply implanted in the hearts, and 
age matures the judgment of medical men, take to themselves 
wings and fly away. They will hide themselves in narrow 
and sordid minds, who soon pass from the active stage of 
medical life, and, like falling stars, leave no track behind 
them. 
First, then, of the material progress of this Academy : Two 
years ago this month, your Committee on Ways and Means, 
after several years of earnest effort to acquire the requisite 
funds, had just engaged to purchase this comfortable and com- 
modious building for the use of the Academy and of the pro- 
fession. That Committee, acting upon instructions, as soon as 
possession of the property could be obtained, prepared it for 
use, and on the 20th of May, 1875, this Academy, for the first 8 
DE. PUEPLe’s ADDEEBS 
time, held a meeting in its own home. The limits of the 
present time will not permit me to detail the interesting exer- 
cises of that occasion. Justice to the memory of departed 
founders of this Institution, however, demands that I should 
state that portraits in oil of Drs. John Stearns, Joseph M. 
Smith, Galen Carter, and Gilbert Smith, all founders of this 
Academy, all exemplary, honorable, most worthy, and active 
members of the medical profession in this city, were on that 
evening donated by venerating friends, and placed upon our 
walls; and those of Drs. Isaac Wood, John Watson, James 
Anderson, and Alfred Underhill, also original members, were 
soon after added to our gallery, where, by striking resemblance 
to the distinguished originals, and constant presence, they will 
act as prompters of professional zeal and social harmony. I 
see here to-night only a few of their contemporaries. Many of 
the original members have passed away to that bourne from 
which no traveller returns. May we not hope that ere long 
likenesses of these, our honored dead, ma}*- also be placed upon 
our walls, by loving wives, affectionate children, or kind 
friends, to which we may direct the attention of the rising 
members of our profession, and to whom we may say : “ These 
are our jewels ? ” 
Viewed from a scientific standpoint, the proceedings of the 
stated meetings and the papers read before the Academy 
during the period now under review, have been equal to, if not 
in advance of, previous years. Many of the papers read here 
have been published at once in the leading medical journals of 
this country ; while others of unusual merit in the different 
divisions of medicine, have, under instructions emanating from 
the Council, been by the Committee on Publication carried 
through the press and published by D. Appleton & Co. in a 
comely volume of over five hundred octavo pages, which will, 
for scientific merit, beauty of typography, and commendable 
appearance, compare favorably with the publications of sister 
institutions either in this country or Europe. 
A revised edition of the Constitution and By-Laws, which ON MEDICAL LIBRARIES. 
9 
included a list of Fellows and contributors to tlie Building 
Fund, was published in August last, which represents more 
perfectly the condition of the Fellowship of the Academy 
than any previous publication; and, finally, the instructive and 
interesting Anniversary-Discourses of Drs. Hudson and Win. 
T. White have been placed in the hands of the members in a 
printed form. The aggregate cost of all these publications 
represents about thirty per cent, of the annual dues paid by 
the members, which, being gratuitously distributed among 
them, may be regarded in the nature of a dividend to those 
who have paid the “ annual tax.” 
Thus, it will be seen that this Institution, unlike some others, 
recognizes the moneys paid into the treasury as in the nature 
of trust funds, which should only be used for the comfort, 
edification, and improvement of its Fellowship, and the pro- 
fession. 
And this brings me to a subject which has claims upon the 
attention of the Fellows of no ordinary importance. It will be 
remembered by those who have carefully studied our constitu- 
tion and laws, that our very worthy and honorable Board of 
Trustees are invested with the charge of the “ Building Fund 
and its accumulations by interest, donation, or bequest, and of 
all other invested funds of the Academy;” and it is made their 
duty “ safely to invest, to collect the interest on, and hold the 
securities for any moneys of the Academy intrusted to their 
care ; to report the modes of investment and the condition of 
the funds or property to the council, when required, and annu- 
ally to the Academy.” Already donations to the first-named 
fund have been made, and the earnest and prompt attention 
and aid of the Fellows is called to its immediate increase. 
May we rot expect that additional zeal will be incited in the 
membership of this Academy by the attainment of an object 
which, we have reason to believe, will be reached at no distant 
day, through the honorable the Legislature of this State?—the 
realization of which will again markedly demonstrate the wise 
and comprehensive foresight of those who have been trusted,. 10 
BE, purple’s ADBEESS 
and have not been found wanting in their devotion to the best 
interests of this Institution. 
If we recall the results attained during the past year, both in 
the number and value of books received into our library, there 
probably will not be a Fellow of this Academy but will 
be surprised and possibly stimulated to extend a helping hand 
to push forward a work which has much to commend itself to 
all. From the first annual report of your Library Committee, 
we gather these facts : There were received into the Library, by 
donation and bequest, during the year 1876, one thousand and 
seventy-six bound volumes, one thousand nine hundred and 
forty-five medical pamphlets and miscellaneous medical jour- 
nals, twenty anatomical and pathological plates, ten lithographic 
portraits of distinguished medical men, and three plaster busts. 
All from sixty-three donors. Of this number three hundred and 
eighty-four volumes were received by legacy from our ever to 
be remembered friend and distinguished associate Fellow, the 
late Dr. John Osgood Stone, whose sudden, but not to him un- 
expected death, on the 7th of June last, cast a gloom over a 
wide circle of friends, and also of the whole community. 
His interest in the Academy had been previously manifested 
by valuable gifts to our Library, and to the Building Fund. 
May we not hope that this last evidence of his good will, as well 
as that so kindly shown us by his bereaved widow, will prove 
suggestive to many others of our number? 
As these results have been reached through voluntary dona- 
tions and bequests, with scarcely any pecuniary outlay from 
the treasury of the Academy, may we not expect that a mod- 
erate amount of pecuniary aid, combined with like efforts, and 
the institution of a Library Fund during the present year, will 
place the library of this Academy upon a sure basis, and soon 
cause it to rank among the first in this country ? Then and 
not till then, will it fully meet the required wants of the Fel- 
lows and those of the profession. 
But here, at this stage of my desultory remarks, I am re- 
minded that there are some who doubt the feasibility, and also ON MEDICAL LIBRARIES. 
11 
the permanency of any success in this direction. But let me ask, 
do not historic records prove that in no period of the history of 
the art or science of medicine has any great improvement been 
made through the labors of the many ? Nearly all has been 
accomplished through the zeal and effort of a few individuals. 
Witness the advance made in anatomy and physiology by the 
world-renowned Harvey; the advance in practical medicine by 
Britain’s distinguished physician, Bright; Ireland’s careful and 
intelligent clinical observer, Stokes ; or—turning our attention 
to our own country—the advance in gynaecology, by a Kentucky 
backwoodsman, the cautious yet bold McDowell, the father of 
ovariotomy; or—coming still nearer home—the*advance in con- 
servative and operative surgery by a former President of this 
Academy. 
And now, gentlemen, permit me to direct your attention to 
the history of the efforts that have been made by the profession 
in this city to establish a library, to meet the wants of medical 
men. The first notice we have of the existence of a medical 
library here, connected with a medical organization, goes no 
further back than the year 1787, and is that belonging to the 
“Medical Society” as it was then called. This Society was in- 
stituted previous to the war of the American Revolution, and 
is alluded to in a discourse by Dr. Peter Middleton, published 
in 1769.* Upon the capture of this city by the British forces 
under Howe and Sir Henry Clinton, in September, 1776, it sus- 
pended operations, and was not resuscitated until the fall of 
1781. I have as yet failed to find any mention of a Library in 
connection with this Society before 1787. 
On the 4th of November, 1794, the Medical Society of the 
State of New York was organized,f and Dr. John Charlton 
* A Medical Discourse, or an Historical Inquiry into the Ancient History and 
Present State of Medicine ; The Substance of which was Delivered at Open- 
ing the Medical School in the City of New York. By Peter Middleton, M.D., 
And Professor of the Theory and Practice of Physic in King’s College. 
Printed by Desire. New York : Printed by Hugh Caine, in Hanover Square, 
M.DCCLXIX. 
A copy of this work is in the Library of this Academy. 
f MS. Minutes of the Medical Society of the State of New York from 1794 12 
DR. PURPLe’s ADDRESS 
elected President, and Dr. John R. B. Rodgers, Secretary. 
Negotiations were immediately entered into to purchase the 
library of the “ Medical Society,” and in December of the 
same year the Librarian, Dr. William Pitt Smith, was ordered 
to transfer the same by sale to the newly organized Society. 
On the 13th of January, 1795, Dr. David Ilosack was appointed 
Librarian, and the books were placed under his care, subject to 
the rules of the City Library, then located in the City Hall, and 
to which in the following summer this Library was removed. 
On the 11th of April, 1797, a Committee, consisting of Drs. 
John R. B. Rodgers, James Tillery, and William Hamersley, 
was appointed tb confer with the Governors of the New York 
Hospital on the subject of uniting this Library with the one 
which they had instituted in July, 1796, in connection with 
the Hospital, on the recommendation of the Medical Faculty 
of Columbia College, and to which they had appropriated the 
sum of five hundred dollars for the purchase of medical books. 
On the 10th of October following, the Committee reported that 
they had failed to accomplish the object contemplated, and 
were discharged. In July, 1800, the censors of the Medical 
Society of the State of New York authorized Dr. Nicholas 
Romayne, then in London, to purchase books to the amount of 
fifty dollars ; these books came into their possession in October 
of that year. On the I.lth of January, 1803, the Society re- 
ceived a donation of several volumes from Dr. John Coakley 
Lettsom, of London. In the spring of 1805 negotiations be- 
tween the Society and the Governors of the New York Hospital 
were renewed, and on the 9th of April of that year the Society 
passed the following resolution : 
“ Resolved, That a committee of three members be appointed 
to confer with the Governors of the New York Hospital on the 
subject of assigning the Library of this Society to the said Gov- 
ernors, for the purpose of increasing the Library of the Hospital, 
and that they propose as a condition that present members of 
to 1806, recently donated to the Library of this Academy by Dr. S. W. Francis, 
of Newport, Rhode Island. ON MEDICAL LIBRARIES. 
13 
this Society shall become entitled to a share in said Library, 
which share shall descend to a son, provided he shall become a 
regular bred physician and a resident practitioner in this city. 
“Resolved, That Drs. Tillery, Stringham, and Ilamersley be 
that committee.” 
The result of these negotiations was the transfer of the Li- 
brary of the Medical Society of the State of New York, in the 
summer of 1805, to the Governors of the New York Hospital, 
substantially upon the terms of the resolution just recited. 
The following year, 1806, the Society was merged into the 
Medical Society of the County of New York. 
Proposals to establish a Library under the auspices of the Medi- 
cal Society of the County of New York were advocated by 
the late Dr. David llosack, in his inaugural address, as Presi- 
dent of that Society, in 182 L These proposals were again 
urged by the late Dr. Peixotto, in an address, on a similar 
occasion, in 1831. The latter gentleman supplemented the 
scheme by advocating the establishment of a “ Library Fund,” 
the more effectually to accomplish the object. I am not 
aware that this latter suggestion was ever carried into 
effect. The records of the Society show that the formation of 
a Library was begun in 1825, and that a degree of success 
attended the effort. In July, 1831, the following statement 
was made by Dr. Peixotto, in his inaugural address on assum- 
ing the Presidency of the Society ; “ Little success has as yet 
attended the attempt to form a Library worthy of the character 
of our city, or adequate to supply the wants of an extended 
medical community. The time has, however, arrived, when 
we may, without exaggerated hopes, set about instituting a New 
York Medical Society Library. The mere number of our 
members is now so great, that a very small contribution from 
each, either in books or money, as an outfit, would form a 
respectacle nucleus, which would not fail to be augmented by 
additional supplies. These would be furnished partly by indi- 
vidual liberality, partly by small annual contributions from 
each member, and, perhaps, we might venture to hope, not 14 
DE. PUEPLE’S ADDRESS 
altogether vainly, by public munificence. The distinguished 
incumbent of this chair (Dr. Hosack), to whom I have already 
had occasion to allude, long since promised to exercise his 
usual liberality in the promotion of this great object; and I 
sincerely believe that he is only prevented from evincing his 
munificence by the indifference of the Society, and by the 
want of suitable accommodations to receive and preserve valu- 
able hooks. Other resources will not he wanting, I know, to 
enrich the collection. I respectfully suggest the adoption of 
immediate measures to enforce the success of so desirable an 
object. To this effect, let a separate fund, to be entitled the 
“ Library Fund,” be forthwith instituted ; and for its accumu- 
lation we may confidently rely on the generous zeal, no less 
than the notorious wants of every member of the profession.” 
From the time of this earnest appeal a moderate degree of 
advance was made, and several hundred volumes were gathered 
together, and, within the recollection of some of those present, 
kept in the house of the Secretary, Dr. Henry S. Downs. 
Subsequently, about 1862, by order of the Censors of the 
Society, the collection was sold, and all further efforts to- 
wards the formation of a Library by this time-honored Society 
ceased. 
The Library of the Hew York Hospital, as we have before 
intimated, had its origin in a recommendation made by the Medi- 
cal Faculty of Columbia College, in June, 1795, to the Govern- 
ors of the Hospital, who, on the 7th of July, 1796, acting upon 
suggestions, appropriated “ the sum of five hundred dollars 
towards the purchase of a Medical Library; to which the 
members of that faculty contributed books from their private 
libraries, and part of their fees of public instruction. An Hos- 
pital Library was thus instituted, which was further augmented 
by the purchase of the medical library of the late Dr. Rornayne, 
in 1800, and by the accession, in 1805, of the library of a pri- 
vate association of physicians, then called “ The Medical So- 
ciety of the State of Hew York,” before referred to, who gave 
their books, on condition that they and such of their sons as ON MEDICAL LIBRARIES. 
15 
should become practitioners of medicine in the city of New 
York should have free use of the Hospital Library, 
In 1805 the Governors appropriated the annual sum of 
two hundred and fifty dollars for the purchase of books ; and 
other large additions were afterwards made to it by special 
purchases from time to time, among which was the valuable 
botanical library of Dr. Hosack, bought by the Hospital. 
This valuable library, which has from its origin possessed a per- 
manent home, is the largest and in some respects the most com- 
plete collection in this city. It numbers near ten thousand 
volumes, and its average yearly increase is about one hundred 
and twenty-five volumes. It is under the guardianship of 
one whom we are pleased to say is an original member of this 
Academy, and who for more than thirty years has labored to 
promote its interests in all legitimate ways. 
The Medical Journal Association of the City of New York 
was organized in the autumn of 1864, and has included among 
its members many of the most prominent men of the profession 
in the city. Its original plan was to establish only a library of 
medical journals and monographs, to the exclusion of ordinary 
medical works. A change was made in this plan, followed by 
the purchase of the libraries of the late Drs. Batchelder, Elliot, 
and Foster, at a cost of nearly four thousand dollars, an inno- 
vation which created some division of sentiment, and finally 
led to the dispersion of the collection of medical books, which 
formed the greater part of this library, and a restoration of the 
primary objects for which the Association was organized. 
The late Dr. Yalentine Mott, by a provision of his will, di- 
rected that his library and surgical instruments should not be 
sold or divided, but preserved together and placed in a room, 
specially appropriated to that purpose, during the lifetime of 
his wife, who might bequeath them to one or more of his 
grandsons who should bear his name, study medicine, be a 
graduate, and have a respectable, honorable name. This li- 
brary, with that of the late Dr. Isaac Wood, forms that known 
as the Mott Memorial, Medical, and Surgical Library. 16 
DE. PUEPLe’s ADDEESS 
Other libraries, or small collections of medical books, exist in 
connection with medical colleges, hospitals, etc. That of the 
College of Physicians and Surgeons contains about twelve 
hundred volumes. This collection is (when accessible) free to 
the Trustees, Fellows, and matriculated students of the college. 
The library of Bellevue Hospital contains about three hundred 
and fifty volumes. It is intended for the use of the medical 
and surgical staff of the hospital. Its increase during several 
years past has been nominal. 
The Medical Department of the University of the City of 
Hew York, during the past year, has instituted measures for 
the formation of a library, and some advance has been made in 
this direction. It is the design of the Faculty to prosecute the 
work with increasing diligence. 
Several of the public libraries of this city have a department 
of medicine, and the foremost of this class, in point of number 
of volumes, is the Astor Library. This library contains about 
seven thousand five hundred volumes on medicine and the 
collateral sciences; including chemistry, botany, and medical 
periodicals. It is free to all who wish to consult it. The Mer- 
cantile Library contains about one thousand volumes on medi- 
cine and the collateral sciences. The Yew York Society 
Library contains also about one thousand volumes on medicine, 
botany, etc. The two last named require, from such as are not 
members, a subscription fee. 
The library of the College of Pharmacy of the City of Yew 
York contains about one thousand two hundred volumes of 
standard works on all branches of the pharmaceutical pro- 
fession, and includes many recent works, also files of the 
American and Foreign pharmaceutical journals. It is free to 
the members and alumni of the college. 
I appeal to you, gentlemen, to ansvrer, that if the diver- 
sified efforts in past years, by the medical men of Yew York, 
in establishing small and separate libraries, had been concen- 
trated upon one object, that of collecting and preserving a ON MEDICAL LIBRARIES. 
17 
single large reference medical library, the work would have 
been already accomplished ? 
It is deemed unnecessary to apologize for the minutia of 
the details which we have given of the efforts of the medical 
profession in this city to secure for itself a medical library, for 
in these details are disclosed the history, and method, by which 
the profession lost its vantage ground in a movement which, in 
more than one sense of the word, is an element of professional 
growth, improvement, and renown. We gather from these 
details the fact that the lack of success of nearly every attempt 
lay in the want of persistent effort, and the absence of a per- 
manent home in which the organization could collect, preserve, 
and keep intact—free from the possibility of dispersion the 
small accessions that were made from time to time to their 
collections. Accumulation is almost as much the result of 
preservation as of addition; and, to preserve any collection of 
books, a place of permanent deposit is a certain prerequisite to 
ultimate success. And now that we have such a place, permit 
me to present for your consideration some remarks on the ways 
and means by which this Academy may build up such a library. 
A well-founded medical library in this city, and under the 
auspices of this Academy, can be accomplished now that we 
possess a permanent Home, as follows: 
Ist. The institution of a Library Fund, which should be prop- 
erly invested in such securities as will be safe and yet yield a 
fair interest—this interest only to be used for the purchase of 
such books as are needed, and which are not likely to come into 
the library by gift. In this connection let me say that the Bar 
Association of this city laid the foundation of its Library Fund 
in 1870, by one hundred members subscribing $lOO each in 
cash. This fund, I learn, affords ample means for all necessary 
yearly additions to the library of that institution, which now, at 
the end of six years, contains ten thousand volumes. 
It is now believed by many that the institution of such a 
fund by members of this Academy can be effectually accom- 
plished. The necessity is urgent! Have we not reason to 18 
DR. PURPLE’-S ADDRESS 
believe that in all divisions of knowledge the discovery of the 
causes of lack of success in a meritorious enterprise will lead 
the wise and good to develop positive means for remedying the 
defect ? 
2d. By voluntary donations' of medical books, pamphlets, 
journals, portraits, engravings, busts, manuscripts, etc., etc., 
which may have become to their possessors useless or burden- 
some. And in this connection I would respectfully suggest that 
for the better encouragement of said donations, this Academy 
direct that its Library shall be open to the use of all regular 
members of the profession. 
A popular error exists in the profession, and it has done much 
to retard the establishment of a good reference medical library 
in this city. There are not a few who believe that only the best- 
books and latest editions are worth preserving. This idea has 
tended greatly to retard the growth of our own Library during 
even the past two years. No book or pamphlet is worthless; 
every waif from the mental laboratory of the practical physi- 
cian contains a fact, or, it may be a statement of facts, which, 
however darkly concealed or obscured by peculiarities of lan- 
guage or description, will ultimately be unearthed, and serve 
the genius of practical medicine or medical history. In illus- 
tration of the truth of this statement, witness the recent dis- 
closure which your speaker made first in the Section on Ob- 
stetrics and the Diseases of Women and Children, and after- 
ward in this Academy, that more than a century since Drs. 
Golden and Bard described here epidemics of diphtheria—the 
scourge of our city in these days. 
The description of this disease by Dr. Golden, in 1753, lies 
concealed in a somewhat scarce and neglected publication of 
a long since extinct medical society of London;* whilst the 
description of the epidemic of this disease in this city, in 1770, 
by Dr. Samuel Bard, is contained in this little brochure f which 
* Medical Observations and Inquiries by a Society of Physicians of London. 
Vol. I. London, 1757. 
fAn Enquiry into the Nature and cure of the Angina Suffocativa, or Sore ON MEDICAL LEBKAEIES. 
19 
your speaker rescued from the press-box of a second-hand 
paper-dealer in this city in transitu to the maw of a paper- 
mill. Its former owner had sold it for the eighth part of a 
cent, or at the rate of two cents per pound. 
With your permission, I will read extracts from its precious 
pages. In speaking of the epidemic he says; 
“ In general, this disease was confined to children under ten 
years old, though some few grown persons, particularly women 
(while it prevailed), had symptoms in some respects resembling 
it. Most of those who had it were observed to droop for 
several days before they were confined. And the first symp- 
toms, in most instances, were a slightly inflamed and watery 
eye, a bloated and livid countenance, with a few red eruptions 
here and there upon the face, and in one case a small ulcer in 
the nose, whence oozed an ichor so sharp as to inflame and 
erode the upper lip. At the same time, or very soon after, 
such as could speak complained of an uneasy sensation in the 
throat, but without any great soreness or pain. Upon examin- 
ing it the tonsils, or almonds, appeared swelled and slightly 
inflamed with a few white specks upon them, which in some 
increased so as to cover them all over with one general slough, 
and in a few the swelling was so great as almost to close up the 
passage of the throat; but this, although a frequent symptom, 
did not invariably attend the disease; and some had all the 
other symptoms without it. The breath was either no ways 
offensive, or had only that kind of smell which is occasioned by 
worms; and the swallowing was very little, if at all, impeded. 
“ These symptoms, with a slight fever at night, continued in 
some for five or six days without alarming their friends ; in 
others a difficulty of breathing came on within twenty-four 
hours, especially in the time of sleep, and was often suddenly 
increased to so great a degree as to threaten immediate suffoca- 
tion. In general, however, it came on later, increased more 
Throat Distemper, as it is commonly called by the Inhabitants of this City and 
Colony. By Samuel Bard, M.D., and Professor of Medicine in King’s College, 
New York. New York : MDCCLXXI. 20 
DE. BUBBLE’S ADDBESS 
gradually, and was not constant; but the patient would now 
and then enjoy an interval of an hour or two in which he 
breathed with ease, and then again a laborious breathing would 
ensue, during which he seemed incapable of filling his lungs, 
as if the air was drawn through a too narrow passage. 
“ This stage of the disease was attended with a very great 
and sudden prostration of strength; a very remarkable hollow, 
dry cough, and a peculiar change in the tone of the voice, not 
easily described, but so singular that a person who had once 
heard it could almost certainly know the disease again by hear- 
ing the patient cough or speak. In some the voice was almost 
entirely lost, and would continue very weak and low for several 
weeks after recovery, A constant fever attended this disease, 
but it was much more remarkable in the night than in the 
day time ; and in some there was a remarkable remission to- 
wards morning. The pulse at the wrist was in general quick, 
soft, and fluttering, though not very low, and it was remarkable 
that at the same time the pulsations of the heart were rather 
strong and smart than feeble. The heat was not very great, 
and the skin was commonly moist. 
“ These symptoms continued for one, two, or three days. By 
that time it was usual for them to be greatly increased in such as 
died ; and the patients, though commonly somewhat cornatous 
from the beginning, now became much more so ; yet even when 
the disorder was at the worst, they retained their senses, and 
would give distinct answers when spoken to ; although, on being 
left to themselves, they lay for the most part in a lethargic situa- 
tion, only raising up now and then to receive their drink. 
Great restlessness and jactation came on towards the end of 
the disease, the sick perpetually tossing from one side of the 
bed to the other, but they were still so far'cornatous as to appear 
to be asleep, immediately upon changing their situation or 
posture. An universal languor and dejection were observed 
in their countenances; the swelling of the face subsided; a 
profuse sweat broke out about the head, neck, and breast, par- 
ticularly when asleep; a purging in several came on ; the ON MEDICAL LIBRARIES. 
21 
difficulty of breathing increased, so as to be frequently almost 
entirely obstructed, and the patient died apparently from 
suffocation. This commonly happened about the end of the 
fourth or fifth day; in several within thirty-six hours from 
the time the difficulty of breathing first came on. 
“ One child, however, lived, under these circumstances, to 
the eighth day; and the day before he died, his breath and 
what he coughed up was somewhat offensive; but this was 
the only instance in which I could discover anything like a 
disagreeable smell, either from the breath or expectoration. 
“ Out of sixteen cases attended with this remarkable suffoca- 
tion in breathing, seven died ; five of them before the fifth day, 
the other two about the eighth. Of those who recovered, the 
disease was carried off in one, by a plentiful salivation, which 
began on the sixth day; in most of the others, by an expecto- 
ration of a viscid mucus.” .... 
“ One of the first families in which this disease appeared was 
that of Mr. W. W., of this place. He had seven children in 
his family, all of whom were taken ill, one after another. The 
four first had the disease as I have just now described, and 
three of these died ; the one who recovered was the instance I 
mentioned, in which the disease was carried off by a salivation. 
The other three were the youngest. They had not the diffi- 
culty of breathing, but, in its stead, very troublesome ulcers 
behind their ears. These began with a few red pimples, which 
soon run together, itched violently, and discharged a greal deal 
of a very sharp ichor, so as to erode the neighboring parts, and 
in a few days spread all over the back part of the ear, and 
down upon the neck. They all had a fever, particularly at 
night, and one of them had a perpetual tenesmus {or urging 
to go to stool). This symptom appeared in some who had the 
difficulty of breathing, but in none to so remarkable a degree 
as in this child. 
“ After this many other children had similar ulcers behind 
their ears, and some of them seemed slightly affected with the 
difficulty of breathing ; but it never became alarming while this 22 
DE. PUEPLE’s ADDEESS 
discharge continued. These ulcers would continue for several 
weeks, appeared covered in some places with sloughs, resem- 
bling those on the tonsils, and at last grew very painful and 
uneasy. 
“In some cases they were attended with swellings of the 
glands under the tongue and behind the ears, which subsided 
on the eruption appearing and discharging freely, and again 
swelled upon the discharge being checked.” .... 
“I have had an apportunity of examining the nature and 
seat of this disease, from dissection, in three instances. One 
was a child of three years old. Her first complaint was an 
uneasiness in her throat. Upon examining it, the tonsils 
appeared swelled and inflamed, with largo white sloughs upon 
them, the edges of which were remarkably more red than the 
other parts of the throat. She had no great soreness in her 
throat, and could swallow with little or no difficulty. She 
complained of a pain under her left breast; her pulse was 
quick, soft, and fluttering. The heat of her body was not very 
great, and her skin was moist; her face was swelled ; she had a 
considerable prostration of strength, with a very great difficulty 
of breathing, a very remarkable hollow cough, and a peculiar 
change in the tone of her voice. The next day her difficulty 
of breathing was increased, and she drew her breath in the 
manner before described, as if the air was forced through too 
narrow a passage, so that she seemed incapable of filling her 
lungs. She was exceedingly restless, tossing perpetually from 
side to side, was sensible, and, wThen asked a question, would 
give a pertinent answer, but otherways she appeared dull and 
cornatous. All these symptoms continued, or rather increased, 
until the third night, on which she had five or six loose stools, 
and died early in the morning. 
u Upon examining the body, which was done on the after- 
noon of the day she died, all the back parts of the throat, and 
the root of the tongue, were found interspersed with sloughs, 
which still retained their whitish color. Upon removing them, 
the parts underneath appeared rather pale than inflamed. No ON MEDICAL LIBRARIES. 
23 
putrid smell could be perceived from them, nor was the corpse 
in the least offensive. The oesophagus, or gullet, appeared as 
in a sound state. The epiglottis, which covers the wind-pipe, 
was a little inflamed, on its external surface, and on the inner 
side, together with the whole larynx, was covered with the 
same tough white sloughs as the glands of the throat. The 
whole trachea, quite down to its division in the lungs, was 
lined with an inspissated mucus, in form of a membrane, re- 
markably tough and firm, which, when it came into the lungs, 
seemed to grow thin and disappear. It was so tough as to 
require no inconsiderable force to tear it, and came out whole 
from the trachea, which it left with much ease, and resembled 
more than anything, both in thickness and appearance, a sheath 
of thin shammoy leather. The inner membrane of the trachea 
was slightly inflamed ; the lungs too appeared inflamed, as in 
peripneumonic cases ; particularly the right lobe, on which there 
were many large livid spots, though neither rotten nor offen- 
sive; and the left lobe had small black spots on it, resembling 
those marks left under the skin by gunpowder. Upon cutting 
into any of the larger spots, which appeared on the right lobe, 
a bloody sanies issued from them without frothing, whereas, 
upon cutting those parts which appeared sound, a whitish 
froth, but slightly tinged with blood, followed the knife.”. . . 
“ This is a faithful history of this complaint, as it appeared 
in most of the cases I have met with, and in which I have been 
careful to enumerate such symptoms only as I myself have 
seen.” • • * * 
“Upon the whole, therefore, I am led to conclude that the 
disease called by the Italians morbus strangulatorius, the croup 
of Dr. Home, the sore throat of Huxham and Fothergill, this 
disease, and that described by Doctor Douglass of Boston, how- 
ever the}7 may differ in the symptoms of putrescency and malig- 
nancy, do all bear an essential affinity and relation to each other, 
are apt to run into one another, and, in fact, arise from the same 
Leven, which, as Doctor Fothergill stiles it, is a stimulus of 
a peculiar nature, which more or less, according to particular DK. PUIiPLE’s ADDRESS 
circumstances, generates an acrimony in the humours, and dis- 
poses them to putrifaction, and which has a singular tendency 
to attack the throat and trachea, affecting the mucous glands 
of these parts in such a way as to occasion them to secrete their 
natural mucus in greater cpiantities than is sufficient for the 
purposes of nature ; and which, in this particular species, when 
secreted, is either really of a tougher, or more viscid consistence 
than natural, or is disposed to become so from rest and 
stagnation.” 
“ The disease I have described appeared evidently to be of 
an infections nature : all infection must be owing to something 
received into the body; this, therefore, whatever it is, being- 
drawn in by the breath of a healthy child, irritates the glands 
of the fauces and trachea as it passes by them, and brings about 
a change in their secretions. The infection, however, did not 
seem in the present case to depend so much on any prevailing 
disposition of the air, as upon affluvia received from the breath 
of infected persons. This will account why the disorder 
should go through a whole family, and not affect the next-door 
neighbor; and hence we learn a very useful lesson, namely, to 
remove all the young children in a family as soon as any one 
is taken with the disease; by which caution, lam convinced, 
many lives have been, and may again be preserved. 
“ Such are the sentiments which, from an attentive observa- 
tion of the symptoms and progress of this disease, 1 have en- 
tertained of its nature” . . . . “It has gone too much under 
the appellation of a sore-throat, and has by many been con- 
founded with the common diseases of that kind, so that parents 
have often been greatly alarmed where there was no cause of 
fear, and much terrified where there was no symptom of dan- 
ger. In truth, the throat, altlio’ frequently affected, is not the 
seat of the disease, and many have died where that has been 
entirely free from complaint; nor are swelled tonsils, an in- 
flammation in the throat, even where it should happen to be 
specked, or a palate hanging to one side, any more the marks 
of this distemper than a very laborious breathing, a hoarse OX MEDICAL LIBRARIES. 
25 
twllow cough, and a peculiar change in the tone of the voice, 
unattended with inflammation, are the signs of a common 
quinsey.” 
The disease which Dr. Bard thus described, writes the learned 
Dr. Mitchill, * more than fifty years since, “ has puzzled the 
physicians who have read his publication. For Cullen, the 
acute nosologist, places it in the list of work on the cynanche 
maligna ; while Albers, the successful competitor for the Bona- 
partean medal, quotes it as a treatise on cynanche trachealis. 
The former classes it with writings on the malignant or ulcer- 
ous sore-throat, while the latter ranks it with the publications 
on croup or tracheitis infantum. It is remarkable (continues 
the learned Doctor) that Cullen should have mistaken the mal- 
ady for cynanche maligna, since the three dissections of chil- 
dren, who died of it, all proved the existence of a tough lining 
of inspissated mucus or lymph in the trachea. That great man 
was probably misled by the name of sore-throat distemper, by 
the symptom of troublesome ulcers behind the ears, and by 
the opinion of the author that it was of an infectious nature.” 
How strange and yet interesting these declarations of the 
learned men of one hundred, or even fifty years since, appear 
in the light of the modern doctrines of semeiology and pathol- 
ogy ! And with how much greater respect do we regard the 
clinical acumen of the distinguished Dr. Bard, whom we are 
proud to recognize as the author of the first American treatise 
on the Art and Science of Midwifery ! 
This small tract was translated into the French language by 
M. Ruett, and published in Paris in 1810, more than ten years 
before M. B retonneau’s first paper appeared. 
Will any Fellow of this Academy, from this time forward, 
despise the day of small things, or consign to collectors of 
mgs or paper stock the pamphlets, or old editions of medical 
* A Discourse on the Life and Character of Samuel Bard, M.D., LL.D. 
By Samuel L. Mitchill, M.D., LL.D. New York ; 1831. DR. PURPLE’S ADDRESS. 
works, which he may weed from his library or garret ? Will 
not all bear in constant remembrance that here, in this our 
own Medical Home, will be gratefully received and carefully 
treasured every tract, pamphlet, book, manuscript, engraving, 
portrait, small or great, which may be donated ? 
And, finally, Fellows of the Academy, this Institution can 
only advance in the estimation of the profession by the most 
persevering labor of each one of us. The science of medicine 
claims from its votaries the most persistent devotion ; and any 
contribution made here to that science, or to any of its depart- 
ments, by the younger members of this Academy, will secure 
for them respect as profound as that given to the eldest Fel- 
lows among us. And here, before entering fully upon a new 
term of service, let me ask every one of you: Does the medical 
world belong only to the generation which inhabits it ? Is it 
not rather an entailed estate, the income of which the present 
possessors have the right to enjoy, but not the right to squander 
or scatter ? Are they not in honor bound to preserve the estate 
intact, institute and develop such permanent improvements as 
will tend to meet the wants of the generations which will 
follow? Such are the dictates of a generous philanthropy, 
which emanate from a proper love of mankind, and have the 
approval of that sound judgment which is strengthened by ob- 
servation and matured by age. Let not, then, those who have 
labored for years past to build up here an institution that shall 
advance the best interests of medicine, and at the same time be 
as free as possible from the foibles of the profession, become 
weary in heart; the design is being steadily carried into 
effect; the end can be surely reached—the object will, by per- 
severing effort, be accomplished. 
Again, fellow associates, let me ask your indulgence while I 
attempt to discharge impartially the duties which your favor 
a second time has devolved upon me.