Page images
PDF
EPUB

the principles governing the orthography and orthoepy of the word which is the subject of his quest, or to the warning given against danger of error in its spelling or pronunciation. For teaching the true pronunciation, reliance is placed upon these references, and upon a careful division of the word, more than upon a profuse notation of the vowels. Perhaps this has been carried somewhat to excess; since, in a hasty consultation of the volume, one may not have patience to turn back to the paragraphs indicated, at the risk of not finding after all a solution of his particular doubt; but the opposite fault, of cumbering the word with perplexing intimations of an orthoepy obvious or familiar, is even more objectionable. The book is intended, of course, for those to whom the English is their mother tongue, and its general usages already well known. We have long thought, however, that a pronouncing dictionary of another kind, which should respell every word, in complete and systematic phonetic alphabet, framed to represent the slightest shades of utterance which an alphabet is capable of exhibiting, would be a work highly desirable to foreigners, and not without value also as helping to record more exactly the present form and semblance of our slowly changing orthoepy.

[blocks in formation]

ARTICLE IX.-DR. DUTTON'S ADDRESS COMMEMORATIVE OF THE LIFE AND SERVICES OF ELI IVES, M. D.*

WE meet to pay the last tribute to one of reverend age, who has dwelt in our city for more than four-score years, its medical senior or patriarch for more than a quarter of a cen tury, and whose hoary head was a crown of glory found in the way of righteousness; the last tribute to one of eminent services to science, to humanity, and the kingdom of Christ; to one who, in the exercise of his humane profession, had endeared himself to many persons and families, and had merited well the tender title, conferred by the divine word on a member of that profession, the title of "the beloved physician ;" to one who had honorably occupied a place of conspicuous usefulness in the instruction of our renowned University-in its Medical Department, of which he was a chief originator; to one whose long religious experience and wise religious counsels, commended by a pure and bright example, rendered him a pillar, strong and beautiful in the church of Christ.

Our tribute is sad, yet thankful. We are thankful that we do not experience the shock of desolating disappointment and anxiety, which would have been felt if he had been cut down in the midst of his days, when bearing his varied offices of active duty and weighty responsibility; thankful that, under the gentle Providence which has guided his advancing years, his public positions of instruction and service have all been safely and gracefully handed over to the able ministry of other

* DR. ELI IVES, one of the most prominent and honored physicians of New England, and one of the originators of the Medical Department of Yale College, with whose Faculty he was connected as Professor for thirty-nine years, died in New Haven on Tuesday, Oct. 8th, 1861, at the age of eighty-two years. At his funeral, Thursday, Oct. 10th, Rev. Dr. DUTTON, his pastor, delivered in the North Church a Discourse, which, on account of its general and historical interest, we insert in the present number of the NEW ENGLANDER,-[Ed. New ENGLANDER.]

hands; thankful that his sun has not dropped from its zenith, (as sometimes happens in the mystery of Providence), but has traversed the whole arch of the mortal firmament, and had a slow and beautiful decline toward the west, and a serene and glorious setting in the horizon.

Yet though thankful, our tribute is sad. For it is sad to see such useful activity yield to mortal infirmity; to see one of such wide and beneficent labors so enfeebled by weakness, and beset by pain, that it is a relief for us as well as for him when he lays aside the worn out tabernacle of the body, and consigns it to the rest of the grave, and the renovation of the resurrection; it is sad to see an impersonation of so much intellectual worth and moral nobleness and Christian beauty pass away, to be seen by us on earth no more forever.

That we

But such is the divine ordinance. And it has its manifest uses; one of which plainly is that we shall profit by the lessons of the life and character of those whom it removes. may gain that profit, while we indulge our respect and our affection, let us now take a hasty survey of the life and character of our revered and beloved friend.

ELI IVES was born in New Haven, February 7, 1779, the son of Levi Ives and Lydia (Augur) Ives. His father was a physician of eminent worth and large practice in this city. From these parents he doubtless received early Christian training and nurture, as they were decided Christians;-the father a deacon of this church for thirty years, from 1796 to his death in 1826. He entered Yale College in 1795, having acquired his preparation partly by himself, inspired by his fondness for learning and his determination to obtain it, and partly under the tuition of Rev. Ammi Ruhamah Robbins of Norfolk, Ct. He graduated in due course, in 1799, at the age of twenty years, in the same class with the late Prof. James L. Kingsley, of Yale College, and Prof. Moses Stuart, of Andover Theological Seminary. His class numbered at graduation twenty-six; and he survived them all except one, Rev. E. J. Chapman, of Madison Co., N. Y. The two years after his graduation he was Rector of the Hopkins Grammar School in

New Haven, and has been for some time its oldest surviving teacher. What his grade of scholarship was in College, I have been unable exactly to ascertain; but I infer that it was high from the fact that soon after the termination of his services as Rector of the Grammar School the office of tutor in Yale College was offered to him; which he declined, doubtless because he wished to devote his time wholly to preparation for his chosen profession. That preparation he obtained in study partly in his father's office, partly in attendance on the medical lectures of Drs. Rush and Wooster, in Philadelphia, and partly, indeed chiefly, with Dr. Æneas Monson, of this city, who was a very learned man, for that day, especially in botany and chemistry in their relation to materia medica, or the material for medicine. This study of medicine he pursued while he was Rector of the Grammar School, thus performing double service. And he began to practice here in his native city, at the termination of his Rectorship, in 1801, two years after his graduation at College. His attendance upon the lectures in Philadelphia was at a later period.

It was doubtless an advantage to him for obtaining prac tice at the outset that his father was a physician here widely employed, and that he was known as "young Dr. Ives;" which sounds strangely to us, who, the larger part of us, have known him only as "old Dr. Ives," and have known his sons and grandson as physicians in active service. Yet there are some among us who remember him as "the young Dr. Ives." This advantage, however, at the beginning, would have availed but a short time, had he not possessed real merit to sustain and commend him. That merit was such as to gain for him rapidly a very large practice and great success in it, and so to win for him general confidence and a brilliant reputation. Quite early in his medical life, much earlier than is usual even for those of eminent skill, he began to be employed as a consulting physician; and in this capacity he was frequently engaged not only in the city, but far and wide through the State. His practice of this character was unequaled by that of any physician in the State, certainly in this part of it. In this active service, at home and abroad, Dr.

Ives continued for more than forty years, although from the first, even from his College life, he had to struggle with feeble health and frequent bodily infirmity. About twenty years since he resolutely began to withdraw from general practice, and from that time has attended only in a few cases where his counsel was urgently solicited, or when his advice was sought in peculiar instances at his own dwelling, or in families of his old friends who felt as though they could not have any one else.

Having thus spoken of the beginning, success, and extent of Dr. Ives's practice, it may contribute to the simplicity and clearness of this sketch, if, at this point, I speak of his characteristics as a physician.

And here I will state that thinking it presumptuous to attempt to delineate those characteristics unaided, especially as my personal knowledge of Dr. Ives has been chiefly since he withdrew from general practice, I have sought the aid, very willingly given, of the judgment and suggestions of that accomplished and honored physician of our city,* who is nearest to Dr Ives in age, and was for nearly forty years associated with him as Professor in the Medical Department of Yale College. While he is not responsible for the form and manner of this statement, the substance of it is chiefly due to him. It may at least be said to accord with his judgment.

The most prominent and perhaps the most valuable characteristic of Dr. Ives as a physician, was his insight, his perspicacity, his power of readily looking through and through a case, so as to perceive the real nature of the difficulty to be removed, the evil to be remedied. His perceptive powers, in other words, were very remarkable, giving him great ability to observe and note all the facts of disease, and all facts with reference to the process and the means and materials of cure. This evidently is a prime quality in a physician, the most essential medical faculty. The first thing a physician needs to know about a patient is what is the matter with him, what it is that needs to be done to make him a well person, what the

* Dr. Jonathan Knight.

« PreviousContinue »