But above all, a good doctor.

I GRl!E1" YOU, Fellows of the American College of SUI'gl:Ons, from what l believe is a unique position for a president of the College. I do not use unique jn me comparative sense in which it is often em',ployed. I mean really one of a kind. So far as I can determine, I am the only surgeon ever chosen for this high office who had retked from pr.tctice. That :should permit me to survey the surgical scene with -:Olympian detachment. I must warn you to the 000~ry. Now that I am. looking in from the outside, I &d myself taking more positive positions-I hope on things that really matter-than I did when I 'was actively practicing. Ifyo1,l have come here, like St. Luke's Athenians, to "hear some new things,» 1 shall disappoint you. .I am rathelold-fashioned, given to plain speaking, ;and I shall exposey01,l to the repetition of a number ·of old-fashioned ideas. Like La&1nec, I do DOt fear to repeat wbathas already been said; 1 share his conviction, which omen have shared. that repetition may quite as well indicate intensity ofbe1ief as paucity of thought. I shall take the liberty, which I hope I shall not ermit to degenerate into liceose, of emulating ' <>mer," atthe time he "smote hill bloomin'lyre."