834 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 361. 



resolution, and Professor Silliman were ap- 

 pointed a committee to examine and report, 

 and to devise means for eflfecting the ob- 

 ject. 



It is to be emphasized that the Medical 

 Department is the direct offspring of Yale 

 College, and was not started, as nearly 

 every other medical school in this country 

 has been, by a group of outside physicians 

 who have subsequently sought connection 

 with a college. Even if there were no other 

 claims, this origin should entitle the Yale 

 Medical School for all time to the fostering 

 care and support of its parent. 



In order to understand the occasion for 

 the negotiations which now ensued between 

 the corporation of the College and the 

 Connecticut Medical Society, it is to be 

 borne in mind that this Society was pos- 

 sessed, through its charter of 1792, of un- 

 usual prerogatives which gave it control of 

 medical education in this State. It was 

 not only an examining and licensing body, 

 which was proper, but also a degree-confer- 

 ring body, which was decidedly improper 

 and a usurpation of a function which should 

 belong only to a college or university. 

 From the beginning the Society had actively 

 exercised all of these functions, and had 

 furthermore made several regulations, 

 which it was empowered to do, regarding 

 medical education. 



It was evidently necessary for the College 

 to come to some sort of understanding with 

 the Medical Society, and to induce it, if pos- 

 sible, to relinquish some of its chartered 

 privileges. 



It is not necessary here to enter into the 

 details of these negotiations between the 

 College corporation and the Medical Society, 

 which extended over three years, especially 

 as these have been fully set forth in a 

 readily accessible paper by Dr. E. K. Hunt, 

 a generous benefactor of theMedical School. 

 SuflBce it to say that concessions were made 

 on both sides, and that, largely through the 



efforts of President Dwight and Professor 

 Silliman, representing the College, and of 

 Dr. Eli Ives, representing the Medical So- 

 ciety, a satisfactory and amicable arrange- 

 ment was reached, apparently without a 

 great deal of friction, and was embodied in 

 ' Articles of Union,' which constitute the 

 act creating ' The Medical Institution of 

 Yale College,' passed by the General As- 

 sembly in 1810 at the October session. 



This act fixed the number of professors 

 at four ('to include a complete circle of^ 

 medical science'), the price of the ticket, 

 and the time of examinations ; provided for 

 the establishment of a botanical garden, 

 and of collections in anatomy and in ma- 

 teria medica ; for a joint committee of an 

 equal number of persons from the Medical 

 Society and the corporation to nominate 

 professors to be chosen by the corporation, 

 and also for a like joint examining board, 

 in which the president of the Society had 

 the casting vote in case of a tie ; repealed 

 the right of the Society to grant honorary 

 degrees in medicine, which could thereafter 

 be conferred by the president of the Col- 

 lege upon recommendation of the Society ; 

 provided that each county cauld send, upon 

 recommendation of the Society, a gratuitous 

 student, and fixed the term of medical study 

 for college graduates at two years, and for 

 others at three years, attendance upon a 

 single course of lectures being requisite for 

 the license, and upon two courses for the 

 doctorate. 



It is evident from this summary that the 

 Connecticut Medical Society shared to a 

 considerable degree with the College the 

 control of the Medical Institution. I do 

 not suppose that the College would have 

 entered into this agreement with the Med- 

 ical Society, had not the circumstances been 

 such as I have mentioned. Nevertheless 

 this union between the College and the 

 State Medical Society had at that time dis- 

 tinct advantages, the most important of 



