840 



SCIENCE. 



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



for the nineteenth century, and that over 

 41 per cent, of these received their medical 

 degree from the Yale Medical School, as 

 against 24 per cent, in general for the period 

 since the opening of the medical depart- 

 ment. Of the graduates of the Scientific 

 School (1852-1897) at least 193 (9.1 per 

 cent.) were later graduated in medicine, 

 22.3 per cent, of these receiving their de- 

 gree from the Yale medical department. 



It is of course out of the question to at- 

 tempt to give here even the most summary 

 account of the more than two thousand 

 Yale phj^sicians of the nineteenth century. 

 Among those no longer living are the names 

 of such famous men as Alexander H. Stev- 

 ens, Samuel H. Dickson, George McClellan, 

 Nathan E. Smith, William Power, Alfred 

 Stille, Samuel St. John, William H. Van 

 Buren, Edmund K. Peaslee, J. Lewis Smith, 

 Daniel G. Brinton, AVilliam T. Lusk and 

 many others deserving of mention did time 

 permit. The graduates of Yale in the med- 

 ical profession have contributed their full 

 share to the making of the medical history 

 of this country. Over one hundred became 

 professors in medical colleges, especially 

 noteworthy being the number and distinc- 

 tion of those who have been and who are 

 connected with the medical schools in 

 New York City. At least thirty have 

 been presidents of their State medical so- 

 cieties. 



In all these two hundred years of her 

 existence men have gone forth from Yale 

 wlio have adorned the profession of medi- 

 cine. Among them have been great teach- 

 ers, leaders who have advanced medical 

 knowledge, improved medical and surgical 

 practice, and raised the standards of pro- 

 fessional life and of medical education, men 

 who have served their country in a profes- 

 sional capacity in peace and in war, and 

 many more who have led the useful lives 

 of general practitioners, honored in their 

 homes and by their colleagues, and con- 



tributing to the welfare of the communities 

 where they have lived. 



In centuries past the greatest renown of 

 many universities lay in their medical fac- 

 ulties. There have been later times when 

 the conditions of medicine and of medical 

 education made it less fit to enter into the 

 life and ideals of a university. It is not so 

 to-day. Medicine has now become one of 

 the great departments of biological science 

 with problems and aims worthy of the high- 

 est endeavor of any university, surelj^ none 

 the less worthy because they are associated 

 with human interests of the highest impor- 

 tance. 



The union of medical school and univer- 

 sity should be of mutual benefit. Medicine 

 needs the influences of a university for its 

 highest development, and the usefulness 

 and fame of a university are greatly in- 

 creased by a strong medical department. 

 There is to-day no direction of scientific re- 

 search more productive in results of benefit 

 to mankind and in the increase of useful 

 knowledge than that upon which medicine 

 in these later years has entered, and there 

 can be no nobler work for a university than 

 the promotion of these studies. 



But medical teaching and research can 

 no longer be successfully carried on with 

 the meager appliances of the past. They 

 require large endowments, many well- 

 equipped and properly-supported labora- 

 tories, and a body of well-paid teachers 

 thoroughly trained in their special depart- 

 ments. With an ampler supply of such op- 

 portunities as these there is every reason to 

 believe that the Yale medical department 

 would take that important position in the 

 great forward movement of modern medi- 

 cine to which its origin, its honorable his- 

 tory and the fame of this ancient Univer- 

 sity entitle it. May the next Jubilee find 

 medicine holding this high position in Yale 

 University ! 



William Henry Welch. 



