been making an arrangement with M. Denonvilliers, the head interne of Lisfranc, just graduated, for a series of surgical operations. I have my rooms engaged here till the 16th of April, and shall not be able to leave before that time.

I saw Roux this week perform his own operation of staphyloraphy, which he does beautifully. Though I have written you on this subject already once or twice, I commonly find something new each time, which in an affair of such delicacy is always important.

PARIS, March 22, 1835.

We are for the present very quiet here, and nothing is further from the intentions of the French than to precipitate themselves into a war with America. Not only the press but the merchants and manufacturers are entirely opposed to such action, which is clearly manifested by the urgent petitions sent to Paris by the principal manufacturing towns urging the payment of the debt. The bill has been referred to a committee, who are to report on the 25th of this month, and there is every prospect of the claims being paid. lican journals have done all in their power to passage of the bill, more from a desire to attack Louis Philippe than from any regard to the merits of the case. A very absurd idea is prevalent here, or is urged, whether real or affected, that the debt is principally owned by General Jackson and Louis Philippe. Your old friend M. Baffos stated this to me this morning as undoubted, which I told him was ridiculous.

The repubprevent the

While visiting the Hospital of the Enfants Malades this morning I had a long talk with M. Baffos, who inquired particularly after your health and the manner of life you had led the last few years. He is a fine-looking healthy gentleman, stout and red-cheeked, who seems to have spent a happy life. When I spoke of your active career both in and out of the profession, he observed that much to his regret he had not lately done the same, but had fallen into lazy habits. Nevertheless, I am told he keeps a critical eye on everything around him, and as I know by experience is a very early visitor at the hospitals. I asked for your friend M. Héreau. He is not now in Paris, but is a distinguished physician in one of the provincial towns, enjoying the patronage of the archbishop, the judges, and probably the town

crier. He wished to know if you had become very stout, which appears to be the lot of most of the French physicians, especially of those who are not in very active practice. M. Baffos has much vivacity and intelligence, and is full of reminiscences of the eventful period through which he has passed since he last saw you. I promised to call on him before leaving, and he intends writing to you.

Roux, whom I have been attending at La Charité, took his leave of that hospital a few days since, and goes to the Hôtel Dieu to replace Dupuytren. He seemed much affected at leaving the place where he had so long practised and performed so many brilliant operations. He is replaced by Velpeau, who moves quietly on and is probably destined for the top of the ladder.1 His introductory lecture, in which he laid down the principles that would guide him in his new position, was the most replete with the true scientific and professional spirit that I have yet met with abroad in this connection. Therapeutics he thought, as does Louis, also, in need of complete renovation. He dwelt with earnestness on the necessity of studying the anatomical relations of surgical diseases, which have been too much neglected. If he continues as he has begun, Velpeau will undoubtedly be the most useful instructor for students to be found here. I have followed him somewhat in his practice, and he takes every opportunity to point out and discuss the diseases which come under his notice at the bedside and to impress his ideas on his pupils. Some reform is undoubtedly needed in the vague and unsatisfactory way in which the visits of surgeons are ordinarily made. . . .

It gives me great pleasure to hear that you have got so happily through with your lectures. I entertain hopes that you will be induced to follow the example of Dr. Mott and make a tour on this side of the Atlantic, where you will not only enjoy the leisure you have so well earned, but many delightful

1 The sagacity of this remark was justified by the subsequent career of Velpeau, who died only five days before the writer thereof. The lustre of his final triumph left little to be desired. In an obituary notice which appeared shortly after his decease at the age of seventy-two we read: "The name of Velpeau shone forth during the last twenty years with unrivalled splendor, embodying, so to say, the fame and glory of modern French surgery. Since the days of Dupuytren never had the reputation of another French surgeon extended so far and wide, and the name of the illustrious professor of La Charité was known and honored wherever it was heard." - The Lancet, Aug. 31, 1867.

LETTER FROM DR. J. C. WARREN.

209

reminiscences. The undertaking is by no means so difficult as would be imagined, but I will leave this subject till my return.

PARIS, April 5.

I shall sail from Liverpool on the 8th of May, and trust to be in New York by the 1st of June if my fates remain propitious.

Shortly before Dr. Warren left Paris his ever solicitous father wrote him as follows:

My hope is that you will be here by the end of May, or as early in the season as is consistent with the safe passage of the Atlantic and the termination of your studies. It is not necessary for me to remind you that our people love simplicity of manners and dress. The first thing on getting home is to acquire the confidence of the profession by kindness to the younger part and deference to the elder, and to show a disposition to allow your acquirements to be drawn out rather than to display them. Above all, do not neglect a respect for religion and its services.

While on the one hand I would not have you spend any time in London unnecessarily, on the other I wish you would obtain the best conveyance home, and, if possible, in a vessel which does not make you pay for wine whether you have it or not. My earnest wish is that on the passage you will wholly abstain from wine and stimulants, which are particularly pernicious at sea; also that you will take your food regularly, so as to keep yourself in good order. I wish you also to lay out a plan of methodical exercise on board ship, and to pass a certain portion of the day in arranging your notes and reviving your recollections of what you have acquired. It will be a good plan to devote some of your time to the study of the languages and to natural philosophy. You can read the Greek or Latin Testament daily. Weiss advertises a dynometer for lithotrity. Is it worth having? I forgot to say that I put in some little temperance books, the productions of L. M. Sargent. You can give them away in London, or keep them for the ship's crew.

May the Almighty bless and protect you by land and by sea and restore you to us in health, is the prayer of

Your affectionate father,

J. C. WARREN.

Thus fortified, advised, and encouraged, Dr. Warren quitted Paris for London on his way home. As As may well be inferred, his departure was felt to be a subject for the deepest regret by those young members of his own profession with whom he had pursued his studies for so long a period and to whom he had endeared himself by the display of so many of the most attractive qualities. Numerous were the tokens of their regard bestowed upon him, and fervent their expressions of friendship and longing for his future prosperity. On the eve of his departure a few of his intimate associates gave him a dinner at the Trois Frères, and sought to mitigate their sorrow and his own by the choicest treasures of its famous cuisine. In spite of the shadow of coming separation and the sundering of cherished ties, the occasion was marked by much festivity, and the gloom of the future was brightened for the moment by the glamour of auld lang syne, while some were cheered by the hope of an almost certain reunion on the other side of the ocean in their own country.

After a short stay in London that he might take leave of the numerous friends, professional and other, who had shown him such generous hospitality, he went to Liverpool early in May and thence sailed in the packet ship "Britannia" for New York, which he reached on Sunday, the 7th of June, after a passage of twenty-seven days. lost no time in starting for Boston; and never did son or brother receive a more affectionate, a more joyous, or a more richly deserved welcome.1

He

1 On this voyage Dr. Warren was one of sixteen passengers, all English or Scotch but himself. Among them was Richard Cobden, on his way to our country to see if, happily, we might confirm his belief, then just published, that "the government of the United States was at this moment the best in the world," and that its citizens were the best people, individually and nationally.”

AND now began that professional career which for thirty-two years was to absorb the full measure of Dr. Warren's talents and test to the last degree his endurance, both physical and mental. To this main object of his life he was always eminently true, nor did it ever fail to engross the best of his powers, though the strain upon his health was often alarming and greatly exhausted his nervous system. Calmly ignoring every impediment and seeming to gain fresh vigor even from weakness, he pressed on with unfaltering reliance towards that ample achievement which crowned the end of his life, and into which it slowly and surely broadened from the beginning. The position in which he found himself on his return from Europe was peculiar, and wholly different from that of the young practitioners about him. It was regarded by most as an especially enviable one, and there were few that failed to think him far more fortunate than the great majority of his associates. It certainly was favorable in many respects, and well adapted to bring to the surface all his talents and all the manliness of his nature, though sundry drawbacks were not wanting, and his patience and self-control were often sorely tried to an extent that only the more thoughtful could appreciate. Even the reflected light of his father's fame was not entirely propitious, while the prestige of his foreign studies and his social standing