Gentlemen:—I am deputed by my colleagues to bid you welcome to these halls, and to this oldest medical school of the Northwest.It ushers in its forty-ninth annual course, with every prospect that the new requirements of advanced general scholarship, as preliminary to admission, are being well met, and that a solid advance has been made in the attainments of the medical students of this metropolis.We welcome you, then, as more nearly frater than discipulus, and it will be understood that the educational seed sown hereafter will fall upon soil well prepared, and coming as you do from different environment, and perhaps to a more artificial life, I do not know that I can on this occasion render you a better service than to direct your attention to the necessity of caring for your body not less than for your minds. The mental digestion of a student corresponds very