| 174 which it offers to emigrants, this county (Lee county I. T.) is situated between the rivers, Desmoines (Des Moines) and Mississippi, and opposite Hancock co. Ill. There is a town called Nashville, laid out on the rapids of Mississippi river, 5 miles below Nauvoo, which is in the possession of the Saints; a number of Buildings are already built, and others in progress: It is the only good Steam Boat landing on the Rapids, and during a considerable part of the year the Boats on the upper trade receive their freight and passengers at this place, which is brought from the foot of the Rapids, Lighters.
These Rapids afford facilities for hydraulic purposes to any extent necessary; besides there are numerous creeks in this county on which, Machinery and Manufactories can be supplied with a sufficient quantiiy [quantity] of water at all seasons of the year: and for richness of soil, health of climate, morality, enterprise, and industry of its inhabitants; this county is not surpassed by any in the great valey [valley] of the Mississippi. The prairies here have a deep rich soil, and are bordered with beautiful streams and rivulets, supplied with large quantities of excellent timber. Several hundred of the Saints have settled in this county, and organized themselves into five different branches of the church and all under the superintendance [superintendent] of a President, Bishop and High council. Large tracts of excellent land can be purchased on very liberal terms in almost all parts of the county: but in Nashville and vicinity, the greatest facilities are now offered: Town lots, as well as farming lands adjacent to the town can be purchased on very liberal terms, also a very large stone building designed as a place of public worship; and a Seminary of learning is in contemplation.
There is a Ferry on the Mississppi [Mississippi] at this place and those emigrating to this part of the country, will find it most convenient to cross here: and to this place we invite our brethren and friends, by the unanimous vote of this branch of the church, of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, convened at Nashville this 23d day of August 1840. And that you may be preserved spotless to the coming of the Lord Jesus, is the prayer of your brethren, in the new and everlasting covenants.
JOHN SMITH, Prs't. GEORGE W. GEE, Clerk.
MEDICAL CONVENTION OF ILLINOIS.
To the Medical Profession of Illinois. At a meeting of a number of the Physicians and Surgeons of the State of Illinois, convened in Springfield, on the 9th of June, 1840, for the purpose of making preliminary arrangements for the organization of a State Medical Society, the undersigned were appointed a committee of correspondence, and as such, directed to address you on that subject. It was proposed that the medical men of the State of Illinois, should assemble in Convention, at Springfield, on the first Monday of December next, and then and there proceed to the complete organization of the Illinois State Medical Society-the convention to be composed of one or more delegates from each County in the State. This proposition was unanimously adopted; and we now call upon you to cooperate with us in the consummation of so desirable a result. Hitherto we have been like a vessel cast upon a boisterous ocean, without compass of helm; we have acted solitary and alone, without harmony or concert; but when we see hundreds of our fellow citizens and worthy friends, annually sacrificed by the empirical prescriptions of charletan [charlatan] practitioners, on the altars of ignorance, erected within the very temple of Æsculapius, by rude and unskilful [unskillful] hands, is it not time for us to act?-We think so: not however, by declaring war against mountebanks and uneducated pretenders to the art of healing within our borders; but by digesting a plan that shall be calculated in its legitimate operations to benefit the people, instruct the unlearned, improve ourselves, and elevate the entire profession above all mercenary considerations to a station of superior mental, moral and medical excellence. Already do our forests groan under the axeman's hand, and our prairies swarm with a busy, free and enterprising population; in Agriculture and Commerce, we are rapidly approximating to the level of the oldest States: our citizens are rearing Colleges and Universities
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