November 29, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



831 



exception." In all probability the unusual 

 success achieved by Benjamin Gale and 

 certain othei* Connecticut physicians in the 

 inoculation and treatment of smallpox is 

 to be attributed to the mild, cooling and 

 open treatment which they adopted, rather 

 than to the preliminary mercurial treat- 

 ment to which they ascribed it. These 

 tendencies, for they were only such, did 

 not find, however, their full expression un- 

 til the appearance of Nathan Smith's work 

 on ' Typhous [typhoid] Fever ' in the next 

 century. 



Connecticut physicians were pioneers in 

 the work of organization of the medical 

 profession, and in this work graduates of 

 Yale were prominent. The oldest existing 

 medical society in this country is the still 

 active and flourishing Litchfield County 

 Medical Society founded in 1765 and pre- 

 ceded only by two short-lived voluntary 

 organizations, one in Boston and the other 

 in New York. 



The first organized effort on the part of 

 the profession to secure effective legal regu- 

 lation of medical practice in the colonies 

 was in 1763 when physicians of Norwich, 

 Conn., petitioned the General Court for an 

 act of incorporation, which was, however, 

 not granted. The name of Elisha Tracy 

 of the class of 1738 appears among the 

 signers of this interesting memorial. This 

 first unsuccessful attempt was the begin- 

 ning of a series of efforts which, largely 

 through the initiative of the Medical So- 

 ciety of New Haven County, organized in 

 1784, resulted in the incorporation of the 

 Connecticut Medical Society in 1792. In 

 the meantime State medical societies had 

 been formed in New Jersey (organized in 

 1766, incorporated in 1790), Massachusetts 

 (1781), Delaware (1789) and New Hamp- 

 shire (1791). 



The charter of the Connecticut Medical 

 Society is, in most respects, an admirable 

 instrument, and, as regards the organiza- 



tion of State medical societies, historically 

 almost as interesting as the famous Con- 

 necticut constitution of 1639. It embodies 

 in a simple and practical fashion democratic 

 and federative principles of organization 

 and government resembling those adopted 

 by the Commonwealth, and remains to this 

 day a model for similar societies in other 

 States. Of those concerned in the estab- 

 lishment of this Society graduates of Yale 

 were the most active and influential, and 

 they compose over one-third of the charter 

 members. The first president was Dr. Lev- 

 erett Hubbard (Y., 1744), and upon his 

 death Dr. Eneas Munson (Y., 1753), was 

 chosen his successor and held the office for 

 seven years. 



The most noteworthy contribution to 

 medical literature before the Revolution 

 by a graduate of Yale was Benjamin Gale's 

 (Y., 1733) ' Historical memoirs relating to 

 the practice of inoculation for the small- 

 pox, in the British-American provinces, 

 particularly in New England,' published in 

 1765 in the Philosophical Transactions of 

 London. This creditable and historically 

 interesting paper attracted attention both 

 here and abroad, chiefly on account of its 

 advocacy of the mercurial treatment before 

 inoculation. It may here be mentioned 

 that one of the most valuable of the Yale 

 bicentennial publications, the ' Literary 

 Diary ' of President Ezra Stiles, edited by 

 Professor Dexter, contains some interesting 

 historical matter upon this subject of mer- 

 curial inoculation, as indeed it does relat- 

 ing to a number of other subjects of medical 

 interest. 



After the war of independence we find in 

 Amei'ican medical writings greater produc- 

 tiveness and originality than before, at- 

 tributable largely to the increased medical 

 and surgical experience gained during the 

 war, and to the higher degree of self-reli- 

 ance, engendered by the political condi- 

 tions. 



