of the surgeons of the Pennsylvania hospital, which post he filled for twenty-seven years. In 1848 he was elected clinical professor of surgery of the University of Pennsylvania, resigning in 1857, when he was elected a trustee. He was vice-president of the College of Physicians, and president of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. His papers and contributions to the current medical science of his day were numerous and important.

Edward Miller, C. E., was born in Philadelphia in 1811, and graduated in the College in 1828, at the age of 17. He immediately entered the engineer corps of the Lehigh Canal, was chief engineer of the Pennsylvania Railroad on the retirement of Mr. J. Edgar Thompson, and was active in engineering till his death in 1872.

James Curtis Booth was born in Philadelphia, 1810, and graduated in the College in 1829. In 1832 he studied chemistry in Wöhler's private laboratory in Cassel. He afterward studied under Magnus at Berlin and in Vienna.

In 1836 he established at Philadelphia the first laboratory in the United States for instruction in chemistry. He was in this year appointed professor of applied chemistry in the Franklin Institute. In 1849 he was appointed melter and refiner in the U. S. mint at Philadelphia. His works were the first annual report of the Delaware Geological Survey (1839), Memoirs of the Geological Survey of the State of Delaware, (1841), Encyclopedia of Chemistry, etc. He was president of the American Chemical Society during 1884-'85, and professor of chemistry of the Horticultural Society of Pennsylvania.

John Fries Frazer, LL. D., was born in Philadelphia, 1812; shared the first honor with Rev. James Clark on graduation, in 1830; was assistant to Prof. A. D. Bache and later to Prof. Robt. Hare. He studied law

and medicine. In 1836 he became first assistant geologist to Prof. H. D. Rogers in the geological survey of Pennsylvania. In 1838, he was professor of natural philosophy and chemistry in the Philadelphia high school. In 1844, he took the chair in the University of Pennsylvania, of the same title, vacated by the resignation of Prof. Bache, which he held till his death, in 1872. He was vice-provost from 1855 to 1868; professor of chemistry and editor of Franklin Institute Journal from 1855 to 1866; was vice-president of the American Philosophical Society in 1855 and one of the founders of the National Academy of Science. He received the degree of LL. D. from Harvard in 1857. He wrote many treatises in pamphlet form for the use of the classes, but did not publish in permanent form. As examples may be cited his Mechanics, Heat, Light, The Steam Engine, Sound, etc.

John Neill, M. D., was born in Philadelphia, 1819, and graduated in the College in 1837 and in medicine in 1840. He was appointed demonstrator in anatomy in 1842, and elected to Will's Hospital in 1847, and after filling various important and responsible positions in other places, took charge of and organized the Philadelphia military hospitals 1180-28

in 1861. In 1862 he was appointed surgeon of U. S. Volunteers. In 1863 was medical director of the Pennsylvania troops, and brevetted lieutenant colonel for meritorious services. He wrote Neill on the Veins, and, together with Dr. F. G. Smith, Neill and Smith's Compend of Medicine.

Many of the names which would naturally follow the present list are of distinguished scientific men yet living, whom, for that reason, we omit here. Among those who are deceased should be mentioned Dr. Joseph Beale, Surgeon-General U. S. Navy, Dr. Henry Hollingsworth Smith, Dr. Francis Gurney Smith, Dr. Chas. M. Wetherill, Dr. James Howell Hutchinson, Mr. Henry Carvill Lewis, and Mr. Chas. A. Ashburner, all of whom upheld the character of their University in the the various callings in life which they selected.

Equally valuable to the institution has been the labor of some of her still living and distinguished sons, among whom should be mentioned Dr. Alfred Stillé, Dr. James Reese, Prof. Peter Lesley, Dr. Chas. M. Cresson, Mr. Edward Goodfellow, Dr. Isaac Norris, jr., Mr. Fairman Rogers, Prof. Henry Morton, Dr. William F. Norris, Prof. Benjamin W. Frazier, Dr. Wm. Pepper, Dr. H. C. Chapman, and Mr. Howard Murphy.

For obvious reasons it is not designed here to record these most honorable, but as yet uncompleted records.

In conclusion a few of those must be mentioned who, although not strictly within the meaning of the word alumni, were matriculates who passed several years at the University, and whose careers were influenced by their association with it. Such were Gen. John Clifford Pemberton (matriculated 1830), Dr. Meredith Clymer (1832), Dr. William Holme Van Buren (1834), Gen. George B. McClellan (1840), Gen. Thomas Hewson Neill (1841), Gen. John Grubb Parke (1843), Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell (1844), Mr. Thomas H. Garrett, Dr. Thos. G. Morton, Mr. Chas. M. Bache, Dr. Isaac Newton Himes, Prof. Lewis Muhlenberg Haupt. With such an array of men, some of whom have taken a partial and others a full college course, the University of Pennsylvania can not be charged with failure to contribute her share of the workers and thinkers of the nation.

THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE ALUMNI.'

The alumni of the University of Pennsylvania had for many years been desirous of taking greater interest in the institution of which they were graduates and of obtaining in some way greater recognition by the governing body. In the year 1881 representatives of the three alumni societies of the arts, medicine, and law met at the suggestion of Provost Pepper for the purpose of considering the subject and seeing if it was not possible to have such powers conferred upon the alumni

By J. Sergeant Price, A. M.

as would place them in a position to make their influence felt throughout all the different departments of the University. A special committee of their number was appointed to present the matter to the trustees of the University, and after a number of conferences with them it was decided that the alumni should organize a representative body, to be called the Central Committee of the Alumni of the University of Pennsylvania. This body was granted the privilege of making a limited number of nominations for every third vacancy that should occur in the Board of Trustees, from which the board should make a selection. It was also intrusted with the special duty of attending from time to time upon the various examinations, recitations, and other exercises of the several departments, and of conferring with the members of the different faculties in order to recommend to the trustees such changes and improvements as should be deemed advisable. The following is the plan of organization of the central committee:

(1) The Central Committee of the Alumni of the University of Pennsylvania shall consist of thirty members, six to be elected annually, to serve for a term of five years, by the duly qualified electors voting byballot, in person, on commencement day, in the city of Philadelphia.

(2) Of the six so elected two shall be representatives and graduates of the Collegiate Departments of at least three years' standing, two shall be graduates and representatives of the Medical and Collateral Departments, and two graduates and representatives of the Law De-partment.

(3) Any person who has received a degree, honorary or otherwise, from the University, shall be a duly qualified elector, except those who are members of the Board of Trustees, or other officers of government or instruction in the University, none of whom shall be eligible as members of the central committee or entitled to vote at the election of said members.

(4) The central committee shall annually appoint one principal and two or more assistant inspectors of polls, who shall, on commencement day, from 10 o'clock a. m. until 4 o'clock p. m., at some place in said city of Philadelphia fixed by said committee, receive the votes for members of the committee, and they shall sort and count such votes, and make public declaration thereof after the closing of the polls; and said inspectors shall be provided with a complete list of the persons qualified to vote at such election, and no person shall vote until the inspectors find and check his name upon such list. The names of the persons voted for, the number of votes received for each person, and the va cancy or place in said committee for which he is proposed, shall be entered by said inspectors upon a record kept by them for that purpose, which shall, after such election, be forthwith made up, signed, and delivered by them to the central committee. In case any person not eligible to membership in the committee is voted for, his name shall not be counted in making up the returns. The persons receiving the high

est number of votes for the places or vacancies in each of the three sections of the committee shall, to the number of members to be elected, be deemed and declared by said committee elected members thereof.

(5) The central committee shall give notice of the place of the polls, the hours during which they are open, the number of members to be elected, and the terms for which they are to serve, together with a list of the twelve candidates, four in each section, who received the highest number of votes at the last nomination, by publishing the same, at leasɩ ten days before commencement, in a newspaper or newspapers printed in the city of Philadelphia.

(6) The terms of office of each class of members of the central committee shall extend to the close of commencement day of the year in which such terms severally expire, and the members elected on any commencement day shall supply the places of the class of members that goes out of office at the close of that day, and the vacancies then existing in the committee. Whenever there is a failure on commencement day to supply any places or vacancies in the committee, the same may be filled by vote of the remaining members of the committee.

(7) In order to secure nominations for the ensuing election, the central committee shall annually select eighteen persons (six for each sec tion) eligible to membership in the committee, and shall send on or before April 15 to all the qualified electors that can be reached through the post-office, a printed list of the persons so chosen, together with a list of the vacancies to be filled. Each elector receiving such lists shall nominate candidates to a number not exceeding the number of vacancies to be filled, either by striking out the names of all the other persons on the list, except those he desires to nominate, or by inserting new ones, and shall return such amended list to the central committee before May 15. The persons receiving in this way the highest number of nominations in each section, to the number of twice the number of vacancies to be filled, shall be considered the regular nominees of the alumni, and as such their names shall be published by the committee at the time of announcing the place and time of holding the election, as hereinbefore provided. At the election, however, the electors shall have the privilege of voting either for these or for any other duly qualified persons they may select.

(8) The central committee thus constituted shall have and enjoy the powers and privileges conferred upon it by the Board of Trustees of the University contained in the plan adopted by them December 6, 1881, and such other powers and privileges as may hereafter from time to time be conferred upon it by the board.

(9) The officers of the committee shall be a president, a secretary, and a treasurer, to be elected annually at such time and in such manner as the committee may determine. The committee shall adopt such bylaws, rules and regulations for its own government and the transaction of business as it may deem expedient.

The above plan of organization was duly approved by resolution of the Board of Trustees adopted at a meeting held March 7, 1882, as follows:

Resolved, That the trustees of the University of Pennsylvania do approve of the articles of association of the central committee of the alumni of the University, as submitted to the Board of Trustees this day, and do hereby invest said committee with all the rights, privileges, and functions therein expressed, subject to all the provisions in the charter and statutes of the University now in force, and the statutes of the said trustees which may be hereafter ordained.

The first election of members of the central committee under this plan of organization was held in June, 1882, and since that time the committee has been active in its work and awakened a lively interest among those connected with the institution. Several of the older members of the Board of Trustees have passed away, and the committee has been called upon to nominate four of their successors, so that already the alumni are directly represented by several of the most active members of the board. Many of the recent changes that have taken place in the details of the curriculum and administrative affairs have been promoted by the efforts of the central committee to secure the adoption of the latest improvements in University work, and with the steady growth in interest on the part of the alumni in this method of making themselves felt for the welfare of the University, the usefulness of this representative body will proportionately increase.