I do not intend to be egotistical when I say that I have done something in this my native land for gymnastics and physical culture generally. There are in this city and elsewhere gentlemen of distinction, in and out of the learned professions, who can bear witness to what I here state, and who can speak of me from their own personal experience. Nay, more, I think I may venture to say that I have been the means of building up into perfect strength many a weak and shattered constitution on the part of more than one lady and gentleman within the limits of this fair city to-day, not to speak of others that are scattered through the length and breadth of the land. In this direction, as well as in that of physical culture generally, my experience has been very far from limited, and I freely give the world the benefit of it, so far as what I have now said here is of any value. I speak with the heart and the pride of a man who is wedded to his profession, because of the benefits it is so eminently calculated to bestow on every age and condition; because I have known it to alleviate suffering and to eradicate disease, and to develop to the highest state of perfection the human system, and to make it all that the good Father intended it to be. As the case stands at present, men and women are suicides who, by their own neglect, curtail not only their happiness but their existence. If a hundred years is the natural length of the life of man, how comes it that so few attain that age? Monsieur Flourens has only answered the question in part, in so far as I am aware. He only pointed out the case, but did not, I believe, enumerate the remedies applicable to it. It is because that we have become accustomed to this shrivelled span of our life that we do not shrink with horror from its contemplation. But let us, while looking the matter full in the face, examine how far we are ourselves a party to it, and we shall begin to discover that, in our neglect of the means of securing health and strength, and of fortifying ourselves through good habits and judicious physical culture against the inroads of both time and disease, we are surely acting the part of suicides.