November 29, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



833 



College before the foundation of the med- 

 ical department in 1810 had received a 

 medical degree in course, although a much 

 larger number had spent a year in study at 

 a medical school. 



A part of the plan proposed in 1777 by a 

 committee of the General Assembly to en- 

 large Yale College, provided a board of 

 civilians was added to the corporation, in- 

 cluded the establishment of professorships 

 of medicine and of law. In the same year 

 Dr. Stiles, before his entrance upon the du- 

 * ties of the presidency to which he had been 

 elected, ' drafted a plan of an university, 

 particularly describing the law and medical 

 lectures,' to be laid before the committee of 

 the General Assembly. These negotiations 

 were at the time unsuccessful, and when at 

 last in 1792 the closer union between the 

 State and College was effected, these early 

 proposals had dropped out of sight. 



In two respects the circumstances at- 

 tending the establishment of the Yale med- 

 ical department are of peculiar interest. 

 The initiative came from within the College 

 and not from without, and the form of 

 union between the College and the Connec- 

 ticut Medical Society is something unique 

 in the history of medical schools. 



The idea of founding a medical depart- 

 ment connected with the College unques- 

 tionably originated with President Dwight 

 and was a part of his plan for extending 

 the scope and usefulness of the institution. 

 This broad-minded man was, as is well 

 known, much interested in natural science, 

 and he considered in his writings several 

 matters of medical interest. One of the 

 letters in his ' Travels in New England 

 and New York ' contains an argument, 

 really remarkable in the light of our pres- 

 ent knowledge, in support of his conclusion 

 that malaria is caused by minute living 

 organisms. 



It is clear from several passages in the 

 autobiographical reminiscences published 



in Professor Fisher's ' Life of Benjamin 

 Silliman ' that at the time of Professor 

 Silliman's appointment to the chair of 

 chemistry and natural history in 1802 a 

 medical department was definitely con- 

 templated, and that his appointment was 

 regarded as an important step toward that 

 end. The plan had from this time the 

 hearty sympathy and active support of Pro- 

 fessor Silliman. ' Expecting,' as he says, 

 ' from the first to be ultimately connected 

 with a medical school in Yale College,' he 

 attended both in Philadelphia and in Edin- 

 burgh, where he had gone mainly for 

 chemical study, courses of lectures upon 

 anatomy, materia medica, botany and 

 theory and practice of medicine, coming 

 under the influence of such famous medical 

 teachers as Wistar and Barton in the former 

 city, and James Gregory and John Barclay 

 in the latter. 



For centuries the medical departments of 

 universities were the home of all that there 

 was of chemistry and of other branches of 

 natural and physical science, and it is sig- 

 nificant that the medical department of this 

 University came into being at the time 

 when Benjamin Silliman had made New 

 Haven the most important center for sci- 

 entific work and influence in this country. 

 It can hardly be an accidental coincidence 

 that among the graduates of Yale College 

 in the early years of Professor Silliman's 

 teaching are found the names of such men 

 as William Tully, Alexander H. Stevens, 

 who represented medicine at the one hun- 

 dred and fiftieth anniversary of this Uni- 

 versity ; Jonathan Knight, Edward Dela- 

 field, John Wagner, Samuel H. Dickson and 

 George McClellan, who became physicians 

 and surgeons of national and international 

 fame. 



In 1806 the corporation of the College 

 passed a resolution for establishing a med- 

 ical professorship, and the Rev. Dr. Nathan 

 Strong, of Hartford, who introduced the 



