A lecture, delivered at the opening of the Medical Department of the Columbian College in the District of Columbia : March 30, 1825 / by Thomas Sewall.

  • Sewall, Thomas, 1786 or 1787-1845.
Date:
1826
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A lecture, delivered at the opening of the Medical Department of the Columbian College in the District of Columbia : March 30, 1825 / by Thomas Sewall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    They brought around them a few individuals, who manifested an in- terest in the object, and applied to Congress for a charter. In the winter of 1821, a charter was granted, constituting thirteen individuals a Board of Trustees, with full power to appoint a faculty, provide means of instruction, and to confer degrees in the liberal arts and sciences. From the commencement of the undertaking, the founders of the College contemplated a University; an institution which should not only provide for a system of classical education, but embrace distinct departments for Medicine, Divinity, and Law. Soon after the char- ter was procured, the classical department was organized, a faculty appointed, and a course of instruction commenced. The Trustees, in their first circular, announced their intention to bring the medical department mto operation, as early as circumstan- ces should permit. Soon after, they appointed two professors to the medical department, and in the September of 1824, two others. In October following, the organization of the medical department was completed, and arrangements made for a course of lectures on the various branches of medicine. With a view to the accommodation of the medical students of this District, as well as those who should resort hither for education from abroad, and particularly that they might enjoy the advantages of clini- cal practice, the Trustees directed that the lectures should be deliver- ed in a central part of the City of Washington. Agreeably to this arrangement, the building which we now occupy has been procured, and fitted up for the accommodation of the school. As early as November last, the medical faculty announced to the public, that their first course of lectures on the different branches of medicine, would commence on the last Wednesday in March. In conformity with that notice, we this day open the school, and com- mence a course of public lectures. Whether it be with a fair pros- pect of usefulness and success, and under circumstances which justi- fy the undertaking, we leave for future events to unfold. We do not expect to accomplish, in a day, what has been found equal to the la- bour of years, in those schools that have gone before us. If success await the enterprise, sure we are that it is only through a scries of persevering efforts, and self-denying labour, that we shall reap its fruits, or receive its rewards. The history of the commencement and early progress of all other schools, informs us that we have much labour to endure, and many opposing obstacles to overcome; and, resting as we do, on our own resources, unaided by the rich endowments that other institutions have received, and unprotected, except by the guardian care of a Board