University of Cincinnati College of Medicine - Annual Yearbook (Cincinnati, OH)

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material for his now forgotten work. Holmes traveled thirty thousand miles to get blue-prints of all the great hospitals of the world. Four times he went before the people at the polls and four times they voted their trust in him and his colleagues. With a few of them he interested the wealthy. They became mindful of the adjuration of Lake, the physician, who said, for unto whom- soever much is given; of him shall be much required. There was directed a great current of generosity towards this school. May it soon grow to pmu portions short of swamping, so that the names of some now gone. who have helped much to give it national standing may not altogether perish. Bricks and mortar alone do not make a university. Dr. Comegys. Presidents Ayres and Dabney, among others, had the visinn of a great school before Holmes. but it was through his foreefulness. that as through a lens they read their own thoughts slowly. Says Emerson, I count him a great man who inhabits a higher sphere of thought, and to which other men rise with labor and ditiiculty. He has but to open his eyes to see things in large relations. From the very beginning of his conception, hospital, college and university were the three in one to him. The Final achievement was the work of his hand and brain. With tireless energy and singleuess of purpose, applied during fifteen years. Dr. Holmes was the central driving force that built a medical unit which is today unsurpassed by any, and equaled by few. The homage paid his memory a few months ago knew no distinction of class. Cities are made famous not by the number housed within them. but by the ideals for which they stand. 011 this basis. the art school, the symphony orchestra, the co-operative educational plan. the municipal university and the unification of medical interests in one great unit as a part of the University, have added more to the repute of our city than anything else. The Medical Department is a success in proportions beyond even the Vision of its second father. Drakels faculty had four professors, with twenLy-four students. The lecture room was the second story of a store. The Legislature awarded Drake ten thousand dollars for the First hospital. of which the College professors were to be the staff. The gift was in depreciated bank-notes. It amounted to lhirty-live hundred dollars. The hospital cost eight thousand dollars. Today the hospital with the annex for tuberculosis has room for one thousand patients. It has its social service, work room for patients, and a school room for crippled and injured children. the average daily attendance of which is lifty-one. There are now sixty professors in the Medical Department, with an attendance of over two hundred and hfty. The college is today far too small to accommodate all the desirable applicants. One hundred and twenty five were turned away this year. Times change, and it is difficult to compare men of different periods. It was said of Drake that he had many irons in many small fires. By com- parison, Holmes forged the erank-shalt of a Mauritania. The name of Holmes. like that of Drake, may in time be forgotten by all save some delver in mustv history; but generations to come will reap from the seed which the one soweii ahd the other lertilized. Who built the pyramids? Who designed St. Peterls? h e5, who detailed the plans of the Panama Canal? Their names are unknown to most. or if known at all will soon be forgotten, but their creations stand. Page Sixteen

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Even to the end one could at times discern in his speech a touch of his Norse extraction. Yet no one doubted that he was 1009b American. At a time when must men seek rest from their lahnrs. he. fur twu years served his country in its time of need. The military hospital in his charge. was the model of its kind. To my mind Dr. Holmes is the best example of what eur much vaunted melting pot can produce, and of whatt use Can he made of the opportunities 50 unstintingly and impartiaily afforded under our free institutione. From the beginning Dr. Holmes, like Drake, was under the spell of the master word, Work. Work with an object clearly in view. work with pre- cision. In the library below there will always be treasured a mechanical drawing made by him in his early twenties. It is of a locomotive drawn to scale: the handiwork of a master draftsman, who throughout life never allowed the hand to lose its cunning. Decades later it became the right hand of the builder. Had Dr. Holmes continued in his hrst choice of a career. his ability to construct and to organize on a large scale might have made of him another James J. Hill at a Herriman. An illness from overwork fortunately fur ail nf us, led him to the study of medicine. There were years of Struggle, not alone for an education, but for actual existence. He taught mechanical drawing and worked for the Assn- eiated Charities. There, he doubtless felt, for the first time, the needs of the poor and of the sick. The altruism that was in him, there found its proper environment, and developed. There, he must have seen the vision that he lived to realize. C. R. Holmes never changed. He simply grew. For the inborn qualities of a man are fixed almost from the beginning, as the warp and woof of a fabric. It is made of cotton, of wool or silk: Of thESE' the last i3 the Finest. The qualities of heart and mind which made Holmes esteemed in the zenith of his career were there from the beginning. The privations and struggles of the earlier years seemed but to strengthen and to develop them, and 50 to stamp, form and feature, that any might exclaim, llBehnltl, here is a man! Through three decades Dr. Holmes followed his special vocation. The thousands for whom he saved sight or hearing Can better testify than I to the gentle touch. the diagnostic acumen and the operative skill which placed him in the forefront of his colleagues. I-Iis contributions to special literature were many and valuable. They secured for him the presidency of many of the special societies to which he belonged. In considering the extent of his achievements, as a specialist, I would lay special stress on one point, for the benefit of the incoming members of our profession. It is that for a number of years Dr. Holmes practiced general medicine. Therefore. through all his later intensive Studies of a narrow Field, he never lost sight of the whole. It saved him from being a mere craftsman. such as are now being developed by the tendency of many recent graduates to enter at once on some narrow and narrow- ing specialty. and it is common knowledge that the smaller the held the greater is the tendency to megaloeephalism. The crowning work of Dr. Holmes is this little city on the hill, where like the acropolis of old, may it long enshrine the divinities that heal the sick. and with wisdom guard the well. Drake traveled thirty thousand miles to gather Page Fifteen

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In the words of Goethe, iiDie That ist Alles; Nichts der Ruhm. ilFame is naughththe deed is all. The Father of Medicine coined the wnrrl 'iPhilanthmpy and in a memurablc sentence coupled it with polytechny. the love. of handicrafi. iOSIerJ The love of humanity and of work. 'lihey encompass justice and truth, hope which is faith. charity and love. Combined in one man they form character of the type exemplified by Christian R. Holmes. From LhaL character something intangible fused with something in ourselves intangible, and made us better. Facing eternity hc indited three letters, t0 the citizens of Cincinnati, the Directors of the University and his colleagues of the Faculty. In them he laid bare the endless love that was in his heart for the triune institution, of which he was the iife. Before these letters I bow in reverence for they are the benediction of a great soul winged for flight. I am inspired with infinite hope and confidence in our Alma Materhhis and mine. I see her way clear and alighL for another hundred years. Page Seventeen