HENRY PICKERING BOWDITCH. 743 



which be regarded it. His first larger allegiance was to the Harvard Med- 

 ical School. He was prominent in the movement during the late 70's to 

 secure a new home for the School, and helped to obtain the necessary 

 funds for the building occupied from 1882 to 1906, at the corner of 

 Bo)dston and Exeter Streets. In 1883 he was persuaded that as De£tn 

 he would have opportunities of increased usefulness to medicine. Dur- 

 ing the next ten years while he held the deanship, important changes 

 were brought to pass in medical education. Bacteriology was introduced 

 as a regular study, a pioneer venture under his leadership. The four 

 years' required course was adopted, another forward step which the 

 Harvard Medical School was among the first to take. A further impor- 

 tant innovation was the»calling of men from other universities to assume 

 positions in the School, — Dr. W. H. Howell came from Michigan to be 

 Associate Professor of Physiology, and Dr. "W. T. Councilman came from 

 Johns Hopkins to be Professor of Pathology. Although Dr. Bowditch 

 resigned from the deanship in 1893, he never ceased to be interested in 

 the larger problems of medical instruction. During his later years he 

 became a strong advocate of greater freedom of election in medical study. 

 Two of his addresses, " Reform in Medical Education " and " The Med- 

 ical School of the Future," are admirable statements of the principles 

 of sound teaching. 



He was one of the first to foresee the necessity of enlarging the Har- 

 vard Medical School and bringing it into closer relations to hospitals. 

 He became an enthusiastic promotor of the plan to make an important 

 medical center of the Longwood Group of medical institutions, and with 

 Dr. John Collins Warren, was astonishingly successful in securing funds 

 for the realization of that great vision. 



Among the most valuable of the larger services to medicine which 

 Dr. Bowditch performed was his defense of animal experimentation 

 against repeated attempts to pass unreasonable legislative restrictions. 

 The success of the medical profession in Massachusetts in overcoming 

 the misguided zeal of ignorant agitators has given heart to the profes- 

 sion elsewhere. The methods which were here used in meeting the peti- 

 tioners for hostile legislation are now being employed in other states. 

 In an address on " The Advancement of Medicine by Research " Dr. 

 Bowditch clearly exposed the methods of the antivivisectionists, and 

 presented an illuminating statement of the great benefits which had 

 been secured for mankind by animal experimentation. 



In spite of his large interest in medical research and education, he 

 maintained useful relations with public affairs n on -professional in char- 

 acter. From 1877 to 1881 he was a member of the Boston School Com- 

 mittee. He was President of the Boston Children's Aid Society and 



