We meet to-day to dignify with appropriate ceremonies an event of the first importance in the history of this school—an event long hoped for, long despaired of, but which has finally come to pass. The dream of a multitude of yesterdays is realized to-day, and this splendid new hospital is a monument, not to public vanity, not private gain, but to unselfish effort for humanity and science. Those who tracked the toilsome pathway, those who bore the heavy burden, may well be pardoned a feeling of exultation and a sense of triumph.
My first and most agreeable duty is to turn to the Hon. William Potter and his associates of the board of trustees, and, in the name of the great alumni of this school and of my colleagues of the faculty, tender our heartfelt and most grateful thanks.
This event is of the first importance to the Jefferson Medical