The Poetical Writings of Fitz-Greene Halleck/To the Surgeon-General of the State of New York

by Fitz-Greene Halleck and Joseph Rodman Drake

TO THE SURGEON-GENERAL³⁰ OF THE
STATE OF NEW YORK.

“Why, Tom! he knows all things. An it be not the devil himself, we may thank God.”Village Wizard.

h! Mitchill, lord of granite flints,
Doctus in law—and wholesome dishes;
Protector of the patent splints,
The foe of whales—the friend of fishes,
“Tom Codus,”—“Septon” “Phlogobombas!”
What title shall we find to fit you?
Inquisitor of sprats and compost,
Or Surgeon-General of militia!

We hail thee—mammoth of the State!
Steam frigate on the waves of physic!
Equal in practice or debate,
To cure the nation or the phthisic;
The amateur of Tartar dogs,
Wheat-flies, and maggots that create ’em!
Of mummies, and of mummy chogs!
Of brickbats, lotteries, and pomatum!

It matters not how low or high it is,
Thou knowest each hill and vale of knowledge;
Fellow of forty-nine societies,
And lecturer in Hosack’s College.
And when thou diest, for life is brief,
Thy name, in all its gathered glory,
Shall shine, immortal, as the leaf
Of Delaplaine’s Repository!³¹

D.