Resolved, That this preamble and resolutions be recorded on the minutes of the Society, and a copy be transmitted to his bereaved family.

(Signed) D. S. LAMB,

JOSEPH TABER JOHNSON,
GEO. M. KOBER,

Committee.

Dr. Lamb said, I have known Dr. Reyburn a longer time possibly than any other member of the Society. I first met him in the spring of 1862, after his appointment to the army and his assignment to the military hospital at Alexandria, Va., in which I was a convalescent. I then lost sight of him until 1865, when. I was appointed to the Army Medical Museum, and did postmortem work at the Freedmen's Hospital, of which he had charge. I was also a student of medicine, and he was a clinical lecturer in connection with Georgetown Medical School. Since 1880 we have been associated at the Howard Medical School. We were also associated as members of the Board of Directors of the Woman's Clinic. In looking back over the many years in which we have worked together, one thought that seems uppermost is that perhaps the most appropriate epitaph for Dr. Reyburn would be the words of Abou Ben Adhem, when in his vision he said to the Recording Angel, "I pray thee, write me as one that loves his fellow men."

Dr. J. Taber Johnson said: Mr. President and Fellow Members: I believe it is a good custom to interrupt for a brief period our usual order of proceedings on the occasion of the death of a fellow member, and to make sympathetic mention of the good points in his life and character.

It is apparent, from the resolutions which have just been offered by the committee and from the biographical sketch of the life of Dr. Reyburn presented by its chairman, that there is much which can and should be said of the good which entered into and proceeded out of his life, and it is principally that phase of his life and character to which my remarks will apply. As I believe, Dr. Reyburn was a good man and that he tried to make good according to his lights. He appears to have been particularly fortunate in his ancestors and in his early instruction and environment, which always count for much in the formation and solid development of character, and especially greater character. Opinions once deliberately formed, though early in life, produce characteristics which dominate in one's subsequent career with great pertinacity.

Probably his early Scotch association and his somewhat later residence among the Quakers in the "City of Brotherly Love" account, in no small degree, for his very decided opinions in

regard to the duties of citizens toward the constitution of civil governments and their protection of civil rights.

It is pleasant to dwell upon that side of his life, however, which illustrated his desire to do good and to make good. Many instances of the former, which occur in the daily work of all medical men, could be enumerated; but I leave that to others, while I will refer especially to those examples of his ambitious desire to make good which have come under my own observation or within my knowledge.

Nearly fifty years ago Dr. Reyburn entered the army as an Acting Assistant Surgeon. At the close of the Civil War he had become a Surgeon of Volunteers and had been brevetted Lieutenant Colonel for meritorious services.

In the days of reconstruction Dr. Reyburn was ordered by the Secretary of War to superintend the closing up of a number of the Freedmen's Hospitals in the States where they existed. They were all finally discontinued or merged into the one in this city, of which, by military order, Dr. Reyburn became Chief Medical Officer, a position in which he made good for some years.

Somewhat in this line of work, later on, the Howard University was established for the higher education of the colored people, by General Howard, who was in those days the Superintendent of the Freedmen's Bureau. This University had a medical department, with its headquarters in the Freedmen's Hospital, and Dr. Reyburn came almost as a natural consequence to be its first Professor of Surgery, and very soon thereafter was elected President of the College, which office, that of Dean, he held many years. These positions he might have fallen heir to in a logical way or by the influence of his superior officer, but he could not have maintained himself in the Hospital for so long and in the College for nearly forty years unless he had made good by qualities which commended themselves to the governing boards of those institutions. In a like manner he remained the Chief Medical Officer of the St. John's Orphanage for twenty-five years or more. He was so much attached to this charity that he left it $1,000 in his will.

During that stage in the history of the government of our city. when we had a Board of Health, Dr. Reyburn was appointed a member of that body, and it was not long before he was elected its President, a position in which he again made good for a year. That he made good as a surgeon is evidenced by his election as Professor of Clinical Surgery in the Georgetown College, and also by his being called as one of the surgeons to attend President Garfield during his fatal illness.

It is a fact worthy of note, also, that the political party for whose interest he worked with his usual vigor and intensity placed so much confidence in his ability and integrity as to send him as the head of their delegation to the great convention in Chicago for the nomination of President.

So also in a number of other societies, civil, military, literary, medical and religious, his force of character, pure private life and other personal qualifications, gained for him a prominence which could not have been otherwise attained or maintained for so many years. Another illustration of his making good exists in his church association, where in time he became a member of the vestry of one of the most prominent and influential churches in the city, and was reelected Superintendent of its Sunday School for twenty-three years. Surely all these evidences in favor of his again and again having made good could not exist if Dr. Reyburn had not actually been a good man.

The presence at his funeral, though announced as strictly private, of generals and judgės, and among them the Honorable Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, of church officers and doctors and citizens, and great banks of floral offerings sent by grateful and sympathizing friends, all attested their belief that a good citizen, a good church officer, a good neighbor, friend, husband, parent, physician, indeed a good man had been taken from us, and their desire to give this expression of their sympathy to his sorrowing family.

Probably few of the members present know very much of Dr. Reyburn's personality, or of his ability as a surgeon, as he had already passed the allotted span of life, and during the last ten years had not been so active professionally as he was a generation ago. The mere fact, however, that he had practiced medicine for a period of fifty-three years, and that our Society recently presented him a set of resolutions congratulating him upon having honorably reached his semi-centennial of professional life, constitutes a notable event in his career, as it would be in the life of any man.

The corresponding secretary has been called upon to transmit similar congratulatory resolutions to less than a dozen of our members who had attained this number of consecutive years of medical practice since the foundation of our Society.

It is an event worthy of note, and congratulation also, that a man who had lived to be nearly seventy-six years of age, and had taken a man's fighting part in the stirring events of his times, who had received and given many hard blows during his vigorous manhood, should at its close entertain so little of bitterness toward anyone. I think if he could have given final expression to his feelings he would have said, that he had ever acted according to the logical dictates of duty as it was given to him to see his duty, and he earnestly hoped that all bitterness toward him would soon cease as the memory of its occasion faded in the dim and quiet distance.

We can all join in the hope that as he has put off his fighting armor, he has wrapped about him a more quiet and peaceful mantle and has laid down to restful and pleasant dreams.

Dr. James D. Morgan said: As a child, even before I thought of studying medicine, I can remember Dr. Robert Reyburn. He was a great friend and admirer of the late Dr. Johnson Eliot, and Eliot and the late James E. Morgan were great friends, and so it happened that Reyburn, Eliot and Morgan were often thrown together. Dr. Reyburn had a gentle, kind and attractive personality and was particularly fond of children. Among the many impressions made on my mind at that time was that Eliot and Morgan did not agree with Reyburn on the negro question. Since I have grown older and have read of the stormy times in the Medical Society and Association in 1870, I can better appreciate why there was one subject nearly always uppermost. In later years I have grown very fond of Dr. Reyburn and admired his genial spirit and many admirable traits.

Dr. Reyburn has taken a prominent part in our city ever since his advent in 1864. His hospital experience during the Civil War, told in his "Reminiscences of Fifty Years," gives a very good idea of the surgery and medicine of those times. He has from the start been a teacher and promoter. As early as 1866 he was connected with the Georgetown Medical School, and later became full professor in the Howard Medical School. The modesty and stability of the man can be told in his own few words when he writes that he had never the advantages of a thorough collegiate training, but had endeavored to make up this deficiency by study at home." Only within the last month he showed his taste for books and research by making application for membership in the Columbia Historical Society. He was always for advancement, and was one of the first to advocate at Howard University "day instruction" and post-graduate courses. He will be missed as an exemplar of a steady, persistent and conscientious worker, and as a charitable and lovable character.

Dr. Kober said: I desire to add my humble tribute to the memory of Dr. Reyburn. He was my preceptor thirty-six years ago, and I found in him a most excellent teacher and friend. It is needless to point out that a man of his brilliant army record, having passed the competitive examination for entrance into the regular Medical Corps, was well informed in all the departments of Medicine and Surgery, and I gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness to his sound teaching and general learning.

Perhaps one of his most striking attributes was his steadfast devotion to the education of the colored race. His position as Chief Medical Officer of the Freedmen's Bureau brought him into close contact with those people, and it is perfectly natural that a man of his sympathetic nature should have taken a deep interest in uplifting influences for the colored race. At all events, I am confident that this spirit animated him and a few others of our older members in devoting their best years to the medical education of the colored race. I know that he gladly

gave up his Georgetown College connections in order to prove useful to his less resourceful brother, and I also know that his associate, Dr. Lamb, could long ago have enjoyed a professorship in his alma mater had he not preferred to follow the path he had chosen. There was a time when the performance of such voluntary duties involved considerable courage and self denial, and perhaps their only reward is the approval of their consciences for "duties well done.'

I feel that Dr. Reyburn's devotion to higher medical education and unselfish motives had more to do with the erection of the new Freedmen's Hospital than any other one factor. One of the most pleasing events of my life was when I could present to the Senate Committee on Appropriations the history of the pioneer work of these educators, what they had accomplished in the past, and what more could be accomplished with a properly equipped University Hospital. Dr. Reyburn has led a most useful life, and it is to be hoped that his beneficent work in the interest of the colored race will bear good and ample fruit.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

Wednesday, February 17, 1909.-The President, Dr. E. A. Balloch, presided; about 80 members present.

The Society ordered that the meeting for March 3d be dispensed with on account of the inauguration festivities.

Dr. Thomas Morgan Rotch, of Boston, addressed the Society upon "The Milk Laboratory in the Problem of Infant Feeding. Illustrated by lantern slides. A rising vote of thanks was given to him.

Wednesday, February 24.-The President, Dr. Balloch, presided; about 70 members present.

A letter was received from the Treasurer of the George Washington University giving assurance of relief from the annoyance arising from the operation of a gas engine in the building.

The Chair announced the death of two members of the Society, Drs. J. Preston Miller and John Bailey Mullins. The following committees were appointed to present suitable resolutions of respect For Dr. Miller, Drs. Stavely, E. W. Watkins and H. T. Harding. For Dr. Mullins, Drs. D. G. Lewis, Luckett and Hurtt.

The Corresponding Secretary presented a letter from Dr. Frank Baker, Secretary of the Washington Academy of Sciences, re