The  duties  of  that  office  he  discharged  for  six  years.     In  1809,  he
was  made  treasurer,  and  continued  as  such  for  seventeen  years ;  at
the  expiration  of  this  period  in  1826,  he  became  Vice-Preside] it,
and  finally,  in  March,  1835,  he  was  unanimously  elected  President,
as  the  successor  of  Dr.  Parke.    We  all  remember  the  interest  which
he  took  in  the  affairs  of  the  College,  the  pleasure  with  which  ho
attended  its  meetings,  and  the  suavity  and  dignity  with  which  lie
presided  over  its  deliberations.     Great,  however,  as  was  his  confi-
dence in  his  associates,  and  anxious  as  he  was  for  the  improvement
of  medical  science,  he  was  unwilling  to  present  his  sentiments  in
written  communications  to  the  society.     With  perhaps  one  excep-
tion, the  papers  he  read  were  rather  the  history  of  facts  than  the
detail  of  opinions.     On  the  9th  of  April,  1804,  he  presented  the
history  of  a  case  of  hydatids.     On  the  4th  of  September,  1810,  he
gave  the  details  of  a  case  of  premature  labor,  artificially  induced
by  himself,  in  the  case  of  a  contracted  pelvis,  after  the  expiration
of  the  seventh  month,  with  the  gratifying  result  of  safety  to  mother
and  child.     This  is  the  first  record,  we  believe,  in  this  country,  of
the  scientific  performance  of  this  operation,  for  which  much  credit
is  due  to  Dr.  James,  especially  as  in  America  and  Europe  generally,
it  is  still  viewed  with  suspicious  eyes,  although  in  Britain,  it  is
regarded  as  an  established  operation  in  certain  defined  cases.
Connected  with  his  efforts  to  favor  the  beneficial  influence  of  the
College,  and  the  progress  of  medical  science  in  our  country,  was  the
establishment  and  support  of  a  most  valuable  periodical  work,

30


610  EMINENT    PIIILADELPIIIANS.
