September 6, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



36^ 



published any researches or did much to 

 advance his science, but he was a man of 

 personal popularity, and it was through his 

 influence that the Erving professorship was 

 founded by Major Erving, who was one of 

 his patients. Dexter served until 1816 and 

 was followed by Dr. John Gorham, a man 

 of marked ability, who published a number 

 of researches showing skill and understand- 

 ing, and who must be given credit for 

 bringing out the first original book on 

 chemistry published in this country. The 

 two large volumes compare very favorably 

 with the work of his European contempo- 

 raries. Gorham, who was recognized as a 

 power in the medical school, now moved to 

 Boston, and his reputation was of the first 

 order among his colleagues. He laid the 

 foundation for the excellence in a depart- 

 ment which has steadily grown in im- 

 portance to the present time. Gorham was 

 followed by Dr. John White Webster in 

 1827, an alumnus of Harvard, and a man 

 of promise who increased the reputation of 

 the university, and especially of the medical 

 school by his original scientific contribu- 

 tions and by editing several well-known 

 foreign works. His text- book on chemistry 

 on the plan of the work of Brand es has con- 

 siderable merit. The fate of Webster in 

 connection with the Webster- Park man 

 tragedy of 1850 is probably known to all 

 here. 



In New York the old King's College had 

 become Columbia College, and in 1792 es- 

 tablished its first professorship of chemis- 

 try. This was in the medical school, and 

 Dr. Samuel Lathan Mitchill was given the 

 chair. It was this man who introduced 

 the Lavoisier nomenclature in the United 

 States, and in consequence was engaged in 

 many controversies with Priestley. In 1798 

 he established the New York Medical Re- 

 pository, and managed it for many years. 

 It was the first medical journal started in 

 this country, and exerted no little influence, 



receiving contributions in general science 

 as well as in medicine. 



In 1807 a charter was granted to the 

 College of Physicians and Surgeons in New 

 York, and in 1811 Dr. William James 

 Macnevin was made professor of chemistry. 

 He was a man of marked ability, having 

 taken the medical degree at the age of 

 twenty in Vienna. Several scientific con- 

 tributions from his pen are found in the 

 journals of the time, and among other 

 things he wrote ' An Exposition of the 

 Atomic Theory,' which attracted much 

 attention. 



It will not be necessary to trace the his- 

 tory of chemical teaching in the other early 

 medical institutions, as practically nothing 

 of consequence is found recorded. The 

 schools referred to were far in advance of 

 those established elsewhere, and have in a 

 large measure maintained their superiority 

 to the present time. 



For many years chemistry was taught to 

 medical students by lectures only, and the 

 introduction of even simple laboratory 

 work is of comparatively recent date. In 

 Harvard Medical School, for example, lab- 

 oratory courses were not given until 1872. 



It would be a discouraging task to try to 

 follow the development of chemical teach- 

 ing in medical colleges down to the present 

 time. Few institutions were blessed with 

 such men as Hare, Silliman or Gorham, who 

 exerted an influence of priceless value on 

 medical men now rapidly passing away. 

 Owing to peculiar causes which I need not 

 try to explain here, medical schools multi- 

 plied very rapidly in the United States, and 

 in most of them the chair of chemistry was 

 considered in the light of a necessary evil. 

 As a matter of form chemistry had to be 

 taught, but how it was taught and how it was 

 followed by the students, were questions of 

 wholly secondary importance. It has long 

 been th e custom in the medical schools of this 

 country to divide the chairs into the theoret- 



