deprecating licentiousness, such patriarchs of the American Philosophical Society as Franklin and Jefferson were not more sincerely attached to liberty, equality, rational progress, and predominant peace. Of this, the first and last volumes of King Joseph's Memoirs, in particular, are delightful and indubitable testimonials, as might be shown by large extracts, if the President of this Society had not admonished me that brevity is indispensable to its obituaries.

Stated Meeting, January 19.

Present, fourteen members.

Dr. DUNGLISON, Vice-President, in the Chair.

A letter was read from the Royal Saxon Society of Sciences, dated Leipsic, Oct. 30, 1854, returning thanks for Vol. X. of the Transactions of this Society.

The following donations were announced:

FOR THE LIBRARY.

Flora Batava, of Afbeelding en Beschrijving van Nederlandsche Gewassen Aflevering 176. Amsterdam. 4to.-From the Government of Holland.

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Vol. XV. No. 1. London. 8vo.-From the Society.

Reports and Charts of the Cruise of the U. S. Brig Dolphin, made under the direction of the Navy Department, by Lieut. S. P. Lee, U. S. N. 2 Vols. Washington. 8vo.-From the National Observatory, Washington.

Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, in Worcester, Oct. 23, 1854. Boston. 8vo.-From the Society.

Journal of the Franklin Institute. 3d Series. Vol. XXIX. No. 1. Jan. 1855. Philadelphia. 8vo.-From the Institute.

African Repository. Vol. XXXI. No. 1. Jan. 1855. Washington. 8vo.-From the Am. Colonization Society.

American Journal of the Medical Sciences. New Series. No. LVII. Jan. 1855. Philadelphia. 8vo.-From Dr. Isaac Hays, Edi

tor.

The Medical News and Library. Vol. XIII. No. 145. Jan. 1855. Philadelphia. 8vo.-From Blanchard & Lea.

The Astronomical Journal. Vol. IV. No. 7. Cambridge, Jan. 5, 1855. 4to.-From Dr. B. A. Gould, jr., Editor.

The Princelye Pleasures at the Courte at Kenelworth, in the yeare 1575. London, 1576. Reprinted, 1821. 8vo.-From Prof. J. F. Frazer.

The Plough, the Loon and the Anvil. Vol. VII. No. 7. Jan. 1855. New York. 8vo.-From the Editor

Dr. B. H. Coates, pursuant to appointment at a former meeting, read an obituary notice of Dr. Charles Caldwell, a deceased member of the Society, of which the following is an abstract.

Charles Caldwell was born about 1772, in Caswell, then a part of Orange county, North Carolina.

There exists abundant and uncontradicted evidence that he very soon gave proof of a superior understanding. He studied perseveringly, both at school and at home; and made very rapid progress. From eleven to fourteen he studied Latin and some Greek; retaining the high estimation which had been conceded to him by his fellow scholars. At fourteen, he states, that he was thought not likely to improve further by a continuance at any school then extant in North Carolina; and, before the end of his fifteenth year, he was called upon to discharge the office of conducting academies for the instruction of others. In this there exists copious evidence that he met with brilliant success. In the meanwhile he made use of the assistance of a neighbouring clergyman, to prosecute a short mathematical and physical

course.

His preference, in the choice of a permanent profession, was for law or for the army; and a commission was offered him. His father was now deceased; but had always entertained a strong dislike to his son's adoption of either of these two modes of life; and Mr. Caldwell, in consequence of this, determined to apply himself to medicine. In the spring of 1791, he entered the office of Dr. Harris, of Salisbury, North Carolina; and, in the autumn of 1792, repaired to Philadelphia.

Here he devoted himself, with great industry, to study, and to attendance on lectures, and on the Pennsylvania Hospital. During the great epidemic of yellow fever, in 1793, he had and used great opportunities for observation in that terrible disease; and formed or founded some of the convictions for which he became afterwards conspicuous.

VOL. VI.-M

He passed examinations in medicine in 1794, his name is inserted in the list of graduates in 1795, but did not take out his diploma till 1796; a delay which arose from pecuniary losses. His thesis is theoretical; and developes some of the opinions of Dr. Rush.

His career, as an author, opened with his translation of Blumenbach's Physiology, in 1794; and continued for sixty years!

In the autumn of 1794, finding his health materially injured by his application, Dr. Caldwell became a surgeon in the army raised to suppress the Whiskey Insurrection. This, as is well known, was happily, and in consonance with the anxious wishes of President Washington, terminated without bloodshed. The march through the forest completely restored our young fellow member to his health; and, in 1796, he commenced practice in Philadelphia.

In 1797, the yellow fever of that year first broke out in the vicinity of Dr. Caldwell's residence. Many physicians, it is notorious, fled from their posts before the formidable pestilence; but Dr. Caldwell remained, and was soon deeply immersed in business.

A vehement controversy arose on the questions whether the disease were contagious, and whether it were of foreign or domestic origin. The effects of these two controversies, after a lapse of near sixty years, have by no means ceased to be felt among our citizens. Numerous pens were occupied with assaults, often violent, upon that eminent teacher, Dr. Rush; and these were by no means restrained from his practice as a therapeutist. Dr. Caldwell, early in 1797, adopted and earnestly defended a belief in the domestic origin of the fever; and much of his very animated discussions is to be found in the newspapers. The therapeutics of Dr. Rush met with his warm and earnest support; as he alleges that he found them the most successful in practice. It is well known that Dr. Rush, though an early believer in the domestic origin of the disease, was at first persuaded that it was contagious. In this he was opposed by Dr. Physick; who, however, took part in no public controversies, but confined the expression of his opinions to friends and intimates, and sometimes replied to inquirers in monosyllables, attending closely, at the same time, to his labours as a practitioner. Dr. Rush, as is familiar to tradition and to reading, subsequently changed his mind in relation to the existence of such a contagion; but Dr. Caldwell preceded him by a considerable interval; and, at one time, the last named physician was singly associated, among all his intimates, with Dr. Physick.

At length, Dr. Caldwell was himself stricken down with the pestilence; and was recovered, after an illness of three weeks, by the skill

and care of Drs. Physick and Rush, and by the indefatigable attentions of his friend and fellow student, Dr. Samuel Cooper, of Delaware. In the course of the two subsequent epidemics, of 1801 and 1803, he describes himself as having been, what has been so often denied to exist, an example of repeated attacks in the same individual. Throngh the fatal and terrific visitation of 1798, and through those of 1799 and 1805, he passed uninjured.

In 1798, was founded the first Academy of Medicine. The long and ardent discussions in which the members of this body engaged, are well recollected by readers and survivors. The Academy, though short-lived, endured sufficiently long to publish a large amount of matter against the contagious character of yellow fever.

Between 1805 and 1807, Dr. Caldwell delivered the first course of clinical lectures in the medical department of the Philadelphia Almshouse, now the Blockley Hospital. Besides large contributions to the medical journals, he was the author of various eulogiums and other addresses. In the winter of 1810-11, he prepared and read a series of lectures on Medical Jurisprudence, simultaneously with that by Dr. Stringham, in New York; these forming the two first courses ever delivered in this country. Dr. Caldwell's course was several times repeated.

Between 1800 and 1811 he prepared a very large amount of manuscript, chiefly lectures and controversial matter; the total amount of writing which he has left behind him being estimated by a female connection at thirty thousand pages. During this period, too, his literary correspondence became large.

In 1815, the Physical Faculty of the University of Pennsylvania was created; and Dr. Caldwell was made Professor of Geology and the Philosophy of Natural History. He delivered three courses.

Soon after this period, Dr. Caldwell was invited to take part in the establishment of three new medical schools, in New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. These he declined; but, in 1819, accepted an invitation to unite in the formation of Transylvania University, at Lexington, Kentucky; and to occupy the professorship of the Institutes of Medicine. To these tasks he devoted himself with all ardour; and to the extent of making much personal sacrifice. "It is not too much to affirm," says Dr. L. P. Yandell, "that he was the father of the Western School of Medicine." Dr. Caldwell's exertions mainly contributed to obtain, from the Legislature of Kentucky, the requisite funds to procure a library and apparatus; and he himself visited Eu

rope to watch the proper expenditure. The character of the institution became high, the connection influential, and the class large.

During the creation of a new school, at Louisville, in the same State, and the transfer of legislative patronage to it, Dr. Caldwell relates, in his MS., that he resisted the change till he became convinced that it was inevitable, and then added his activity to the new institution. This was from love of science and mankind, and from the duty of patriotism, as a good citizen submits to an already accomplished revolution. Even here, too, he is pronounced by competent authority, to have become entitled, by effective labour and personal influence, to be considered also a founder. His services were eminently great and active during the first few years; and he was far from intermitting his literary toils. He continued to support those heavy burdens till 1849; when, at 77 years of age, he resigned his professorship. During this period, the influence of the new school slowly and steadily increased; and the numbers of the class reached four hundred.

During the last years of his life, our fellow-member continued in the enjoyment of uninterrupted health, an erect attitude, and the perfect use of his faculties. The termination of his earthly existence occurred, in an almost entire freedom from suffering and disease, on the 9th of July, 1853.

Dr. Caldwell was twice married. In 1799, he was united to Eliza, daughter of Thomas Leaming, Esq., of Philadelphia. By this lady, he has left one son, Dr. Thomas Leaming Caldwell, of Louisville, Kentucky. His second matrimonial connection was with Mrs. Barton, the youngest daughter of the late honourable William Warner, of the State of Delaware, and related to several eminent citizens of that commonwealth. This union was without offspring.

He received several compliments from the European learned, but was careless of his diplomas; and a list cannot be made out. His election to the American Philosophical Society took place October 21, 1796.

Dr. C. M. Wetherill presented, for publication in the Transactions, a paper "On Adipocire," which was referred to a Committee consisting of Dr. F. Bache, Prof. Frazer, and Dr. Bridges.

Mr. Trego was re-elected Librarian of the Society.