University of Maryland School of Medicine - Terrae Mariae Medicus (Baltimore, MD)

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THE CLINIC TWENTY-FIVE well. l-le was the true type of a Southern gentleman, courtly and perfect in bearing, with an attractive person- ality which drew all unconsciously to love and respect him. The variety and character of the positions which he held ably testify to the commanding influence he exerted in his community. On the day of his burial the great concourse of people, numbering among them hundreds of students whom he had so diligently and faithfully labored to instruct in the fundamentals of surgery, and others-promi- nent men in every walk of life-who had gathered to pay this their last tribute of respect, bore full testimony of the high place he occupied in the hearts of those who knew him. The Legislature of the Commonwealth of Maryland, in session, adjourned after news of his death reached that body. All college exercises were suspended until after his burial, and everywhere little groups of students and Doctors were collected, grief-stricken beyond measure of belief. A cloud of gloom, dark and impenetrable, had settled over every one, which time alone, or perhaps the knowledge that our friend had gone to a home of rest, of immortality, could serve to dispel. Before his death the college bulletin boards were eagerly scanned by all connected with the college, hoping for the best, but hope was doomed to dismay, for, though all possible that is known to the science of medicine was done for him, he passed to the great and mysterious beyond on the morning of the twenty-fourth of February, nineteen hundred eight. Appropriate resolutions were framed by the students en masse, and action was taken looking to the pur- chase of a Horal tribute, and it was finally decided to place an oil painting of Dr. Trimble in the college library. Today an almost perfect likeness hangs on the college walls, the gift of the students to the college. The sudden manner in which Dr. Trimble died, and the circumstances which attended his death, not only aroused the sympathy and regret of those who knew him, but of all who learned the sad facts of the case. He died a martyr to his profession, death coming as the result of his devotion to duty and his disregard for personal safetyg but to one who was prepared as Dr. Trimble was, we cannot but feel with Ruskin that death is really a comforter and friend, bringing in his right hand rest and in his left hope.

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TWENTY-Form THE, CLINIC Elin Memurtnm T has seemed to those of us who have been placed in charge of this book, representing as it does the qv uuul U U wx Bly student body, that it would be altogether fitting to add a few words, inadequate as they are in giving X I expression to our real feelings, to the many beautiful and deserving tributes that have been paid to the memory of Dr. Trimble, whose portrait appears on the opening page, and to whom we have the honor to dedicate this book. Death is a common thing in the providential order of things, as common and equally as familiar as birthg yet, death, beyond any other event, produces the most profound impression upon the mind. This is true when it knocks at the door of the humblestg much more so when it overtakes those prominent in life, those who have achieved honor and success in one or along several lines. The sudden death of Dr. Trimble, in the prime of life, recalls to our memory the beautiful manner in which the gifted Dr. Holmes spoke of death in early life, comparing life to a clock which had been wound by the angel of life to run for three score years and ten, but which through some accident has run down before the lapse of the allotted time. While Dr. Trimble's stay among us was short, in that brief time we were able to learn of his true manhood, his kindly and sympathetic nature, the graces of his mind and heart, combining in one perfect union arniability, sweetness of disposition, gentleness of manner and fine courtesy to all of high or low station in life who were thrown in contact with him. H Dr. Trimble was a leading man in the City of Baltimore, not solely in a professional way, but in social as

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TWEXIY-six THE. CLINIC No matter how much we philosophize, and no matter how much comfort we iind in the belief of immor- tality, we nevertheless are appalled at the change from life to death. Time, Godis healing gift, eventually helps us over the great gulf of sorrow. Wlule Dr. Trimble has departed from us in body, yet he still is with us, and shall ever remain in the influences for good that he has left us. Life on earth is the seed time, and this time of his existence was fully occupied in sowing seeds represented in good deeds, such as consideration for those about him, and in the consummation of all those things which are represented in Shakespeare's idea of a man. l-lis life was much the same as the ever-widening, never-ending circles which an object cast into a body of still water will produce, for as it is impossible to estimate the extent of these circles, so it is beyond our power of imagination to say to what far-distant age or in what land or country the never ceasing or ending, kindly and benefiting influence of our departed friend may extend. We who knew him, miss him, and will miss his ever-pleasant smiley but the memory of his services to us, the generous manner in which he contributed his time and talents for our benefit, and to other good and deserving causes, will always linger fondly in our recollections, and his example of right living shall be to us in our every-day battles what the lighthouse is to the mariner in the storms at sea. l-le has left to those who were nearer and dearer to him than we, as a heritage, the priceless legacy of an untarnished name and an example for good. In closing this feeble tribute we feel inclined to add the words pronounced in eulogy, by a friend, on the death of Marriott Brosius, a distinguished Pennsylvanian, as they express beautifully our own thought: That, while green grass will cover his grave, blue skies bend over it, sweet birds sing near it, and the place will be hallowed ground, yet greener than the grass, fairer than the skies, sweeter than the birds, more hallowed than the grave itself, will be his fragrant memory enshrined with supreme sacredness in the hearts of those who knew and loved him. LONGSDORF, 'l0.