192 HENRY PICKERING BOWDITCH— CANNON. lMEM " m lvoL T xvi^ 



offer advanced instruction in all subjects, and because this will be more than any student can 

 reasonably learn, an elective system will be adopted. This involves, as he had previously 

 shown, drawing a distinction between essential subjects which every student should know, 

 and desirable subjects which certain students should know, i. e., provision for required and for 

 elective studies. Besides this feature of future medical instruction, greater emphasis on prac- 

 tical experience, concentration of attention on one principal subject at a time, with arrange- 

 ments for natural sequence of these subjects, and such examinations as will test the student's 

 permanent acquisition of usable medical knowledge, were emphasized as probable character- 

 istics of the way in which the teaching of medicine will develop. Twenty-one years have passed 

 since this address was given. During that time the pressure on the medical student has 

 increased still further, so that the problem discussed by Dr. Bowditch has become more acute 

 than ever, and medical teachers are laboring to seek the relief which he sought. To what degree 

 his suggestions will prove to be wise is not yet clear. 



SERVICES TO THE COMMUNITY, TO GENERAL SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZATIONS, AND TO THE 



UNIVERSITY. 



In spite of his large interest in medical research and education, Dr. Bowditch maintained 

 throughout his life useful relations with public affairs nonprofessional in character. From 1S77 

 to 1881 he was a member of the Boston school committee. In 188G he was president of the 

 Massachusetts Infant Asylum. He was also president of the Boston Children's Aid Society and 

 helped to broaden its scope and importance. Between 1895 and 1902, as a trustee of the Boston 

 Public Library, he was active in favoring the dissemination of good literature. He served on the 

 joint special committee on education and health of the American Social Science Association, 

 the function of which was to consider public schools in their relation to public health. 



In 1872 he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. During 

 the year 1877 he was its recording secretary, and from 1881 to 1883 a member of its council. 

 For 22 years he served on the library committee. In his address as vice president of section F 

 (biology) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science he summarized the 

 evidence which he and others had obtained regarding the nature of the nerve impulse. To the 

 affairs of the National Academy of Sciences, to which he was elected in 1887, he gave his time 

 generously and helpfully. He was actively interested from the beginning in the promotion 

 of the International Physiological Congresses which brought together every three years physi- 

 ologists from all parts of the world. From its foundation in 1SS6 until 190G he acted as trustee 

 of the Elizabeth Thompson science fund and to him belongs much of the credit for its successful 

 administration. 



It will be recalled that when Bowditch was in Europe in 1S70 President Eliot invited him 

 to return to the University " to take part in the good work of reforming medical education." 

 In the pioneer work of developing a graded course of instruction and in the other reforms which 

 the new president struggled to institute he found Dr. Bowditch a staunch supporter. After 

 the resignation, in 1S83, of Dr. Calvin Ellis, who had been dean of the school during the years 

 of its transformation into a true university department, Dr. Bowditch was appointed dean and 

 served in that capacity for 10 years (until 1893). During that period important changes were 

 introduced in the medical department. Bacteriology was recognized as a regular study, a novel 

 venture under Bowditch's leadership. The four years' required course was adopted, another 

 forward step which the Harvard Medical School was among the first to take. A further signif- 

 icant innovation was the calling of outstanding men from other universities to assume positions 

 in the school — Dr. W. H. Howell came from Michigan to bo associate professor of physiology 

 and Dr. W. T. Councilman came from Johns Hopkins to be professor of pathology. 



As already stated, young Bowditch wrote to his mother from Paris in 1869, when he first 

 had the prospect of a purely scientific career, "I have been building all sorts of medical schools 

 and laboratories in the air." He took a leading part in the planning of the new building started 

 on Boylston Street in 1881, and his deanship coincided with the first 10 years of occupancy of 



