With the advent of October, with its cool and bracing days and restful nights, there is regularly a quickening of activities in academic circles. The occupant of a professorial chair, re-invigorated by temporary sojourn in forest or field, at the seaside or in the hills, resumes his teaching with renewed enthusiasm, and engages again in that original investigation which represents the most absorbing interest of his life. The student, too, perhaps as yet less conscious of the actual need of an occasional remission from his labors, has nevertheless had his holiday, and returns to the college of his choice ready for another season of diligent application, and eager to begin once more the arduous tasks which the pursuit of knowledge entails.
It has long been customary in colleges in which medicine is taught, to call a meeting of the faculty and students at the beginning of the autumn session. Such