MEDICINE IN AMERICA 413 



courses of study and anticipated that development of special 

 instruction to which we are now turning. He recognized 

 the usefulness and importance of didactic lectures; but orig- 

 inal research on the part of students and personal investi- 

 gation in laboratories, in small groups, under the personal di- 

 rection of competent teachers, he regarded as most important 

 of all. This is now the view of our leading scientists, and it is 

 of interest to recall that Huxley, forty j^ears ago, insisted on the 

 personal, rather than second hand methods of study. Bigelow 

 went on to define the exact and the speculative sciences; pre- 

 eminent among the latter, he placed practical medicine, a 

 science older than civilization, cultivated and honored in all 

 ages, powerful for good or for evil, progressive in its character, 

 but still unsettled in its principles, remunerative in fame and 

 fortune to its successful cultivators, and rich in the fruits of a 

 good conscience to its honest votaries. Encumbered as it is 

 with difficulty, fallacy and doubt, medicine yet constitutes one 

 of the learned professions. It is largely represented in every 

 city, village and hamlet. Its imperfections are lost sight of in 

 the overwhelming importance of its objects. The living look 

 to it for succor; the dying call on it for rescue. He then pro- 

 ceeded to explain the difficulties of therapeutics, and finally 

 came to the inevitable conclusion that ''he is the great physician 

 who above other men understands diagnosis." His last great 

 work was for educational reform, and the Massachusetts In- 

 stitute of Technology stands to-day a monument to the ener- 

 gies of this distinguished man. 



Nathaniel Chapman, of Virginia and Philadelphia, became 

 a figure of national prominence because of his conception of 

 medical journalism and the impulse he gave it through many 

 years of hard work. In 1820 he became the editor of the 

 Philadelphia Journal of the Medical and Physical Sciences. 

 In 1827 the name was changed to that by which we now know 

 it. The American Journal of the Medical Sciences. In 1817 

 Chapman founded the Medical Institute of Philadelphia, 

 known also as the summer school. It was intended only for 

 undergraduate students, but was of value also as a training 

 school for teachers, and was our first post graduate school. 

 Among the men who made it famous were W. P. Horner, W. P. 



