An address delivered at the annual commencement of the Medical School of Harvard University : Wednesday, March 6, 1861 / by George C. Shattuck.

  • Shattuck, George C. (George Cheyne), 1813-1894.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An address delivered at the annual commencement of the Medical School of Harvard University : Wednesday, March 6, 1861 / by George C. Shattuck. 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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    the proceeds of his professional labors. The seventh resolution of the committee of conference with the teacher's convention, adopted last year by the American Medical Association, was an approval of all proper efforts by which the attention of persons of means and liberal dispositions, as well as of legislative bodies, shall be called to the importance of the en- dowment of medical colleges and professorships. Our excellent President, in his inaugural address, called attention to the endow- ments of the University, their great value, and the indebtedness of students to them. At college commencements, the names of de- ceased benefactors have always been mentioned with honor. Our building, our museum, our library, and funds to keep them in good condition, are the results of the munificence of the State as well as of private individuals. A medical education is the most expensive of all professional educations, whilst medical students are, as a class, possessed of less means than others; arc less able to provide them- selves with what is needed for their education. With few excep- tions, all in our country who devote time to teaching, could spend it with more pecuniary profit in the practice of their profession. Pic, then, who offers to supply means for better medical education, has well-founded claims on the gratitude of the community, and his views and suggestions arc entitled to a respectful consideration, and we believe that such was accorded to them in the case just refer- red to. The provision contemplated in the report of the committee of the Massachusetts Medical Society, on which I would now say a few words, was one for the establishment of a board of supervision, to be composed of prominent gentlemen from the community, whose official rank was a guarantee of the estimation in which they were held, with whom should be joined medical men of repute and experi- ence. Those, however, who established this school of medicine, had not been unmindful of such a representation of the parties interested in the results of medical education. The Corporation of Harvard Col- lege is a small but a carefully selected body of gentlemen, whose accomplishments and qualifications have been proved in various posts of duly and responsibility. One of them is a Judge of the Su- preme Court of Judicature of this Commonwealth; and another has but lately ceased to preside over the same court as its Chief