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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LII. No. 1349 



tology, and sometimes experimental pathology 

 or bacteriology. Welch's receptive and con- 

 structive mind responded powerfully to the 

 training he received in these several branches 

 of science, so that he became master not of 

 one branch only, but of all. Thus it came 

 a:bout that in setting up the pathological de- 

 partment in Baltimore he inevitably, and 

 doubtless unconsciously, employed all these 

 resources of knowledge and progress, and in 

 so doing inaugurated a new era. Hereafter 

 pathology, at least in the United States, could 

 hope to develop symmetrically, utilizing for 

 its advancement the materials and methods 

 not of one branch of the science merely but 

 of all branches, main and collateral, which 

 being directed toward it might suffice to 

 render a pathological phenomenon more com- 

 prehensible or afford the solution of a problem 

 in medicine otherwise elusive. 



The purpose when Welch was called to 

 Baltimore was to proceed immediately with 

 the selection not only of the staff for the 

 Jolms Hopkins Hospital but of the faculty 

 of the medical school as well. Unforeseen 

 economic conditions postponed the realization 

 of the latter design; but as the hospital's re- 

 sources had not been reduced by the unhappy 

 accident which crippled the finances of the 

 university, a clinical faculty was brought to- 

 gether. Welch's part in the choosing in 1888 

 and 1889 of Drs. Osier, Halsted and Kelly was 

 conspicuous and decisive, just as later with 

 the oi)ening of the medical school in 1893 it 

 was his acquaintance with their work and his 

 unerring judgment of them as men which 

 added to the distinguished trio Drs. Mall, 

 Howell and Abel in the completion of the 

 first major faculty of the Johns Hopkins 

 Medical School. But Welch did not await 

 the opening of the hospital or the consum- 

 mation of the plan for a medical school to 

 start active teaching and to get under way 

 problems of research. Work was begun in 

 an informal manner with medical graduates 

 and advanced students in biology, and the 

 quality of the material and the effects of 

 Welch's influence can be gathered from the 

 list of names of the first group to assemble 



Tonder him. In it were Councilman, Mall, 

 Nuttall, Abbott and Bolton. Before long this 

 informal plan was superseded by systematic 

 courses in pathology, including pathological 

 histology and bacteriology, and imiversity 

 lectures. These were not permitted, however, 

 to degenerate merely into short, superficial 

 series of demonstrations, lectures and exer- 

 cises; but they always carried with them the 

 freshness of the unexpected from the wide 

 variety of activities going on in the labora- 

 tory and also the incentive to individual 

 endeavor when any new point arose exciting 

 to some one's curiosity. 



With the founding of the medical school 

 along the lines now familiar but none the 

 less at that time novel to the point of revolu- 

 tion, the break with the past was complete 

 and the aspiration which for so long kept 

 Welch a student and a teacher was to be 

 realized, and in full measure. Henceforth 

 medical education in the United States was 

 to be on a basis equalling at least the best 

 continental model. The faculty of the med- 

 ical school was to lose its local and provincial 

 character and to be representative of the most 

 potent forces in the country, while the young 

 men and women seeking to enter medicine 

 were to possess a foundation training in phys- 

 ical, chemical and biological science and to 

 be equipped so as to follow in the original 

 tongues the greater scientific medical litera- 

 tures of the French and the Germans. This 

 was revolution indeed; but like all of Welch's 

 reforming acts it was a program of construc- 

 tion not of destruction. Welch's career stands 

 forth supreme as a force for advancement, 

 whether in research, education, hospital or- 

 ganization or public health; but one searches 

 in vain his writings or the records of his pub- 

 lic utterances for evidence of vehemence or 

 denunciation. His was too understanding and 

 sympathetic a spirit to judge men and things 

 harshly for faults and shortcomings, the 

 origins of which were sunk deeply into a past 

 whose circumstances were so unlike those of 

 the present. He made use rather of the 

 gentler art of persuasion by exposition and 

 example, leavening now here and now there. 



