WILLIAM TOWNSEND PORTER 



ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY, HARVARD 

 MEDICAL SCHOOL 



MY first contact with medical education left an enduring 

 mark. The medical students from the St. Louis City 

 Hospital used to pass my home. I can see now the 

 straggling groups of strange young men on their way 

 down the broad, sunny street with the tall houses. We 

 little boys, large-eyed with fear, peeped from a side yard. 

 Nearer and nearer, along the brick pavement under the 

 sycamore trees, came the confused tramp of student feet. 

 Suddenly the air seemed filled with it. Terrified, we fled, 

 our knees trembling beneath us. Safe in the forbidden 

 kitchen, we listened with hearts thankful for our security 

 while Black June declared : " Them stujents would sho'ly 

 cut you up ef they was to ketch you! ' June believed 

 this fully, and her belief was shared by almost all the 

 negroes and many of the poorer whites. As I grew older 

 I heard dark tales of the medical school, how McDowell's 

 College had been threatened by a mob bent on putting a 

 violent end to the practices within, how the young doctors 

 at the City Hospital experimented upon the helpless poor, 

 and many another fable that went from mouth to mouth, 

 attacking the public trust in the men who had the public 

 health in charge. 



This was almost thirty years ago. Public opinion has 

 changed somewhat since then. Cruel diseases have been 

 conquered in this period, and the man in the street has 

 more faith in doctors. Yet the errors of the present day 



