Dr. Adam Hammer, surgeon and apostle of higher medical education / [James Moores Ball].

  • James Moores Ball
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Dr. Adam Hammer, surgeon and apostle of higher medical education / [James Moores Ball]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    For many years, Dr. Adam Hammer stood forth like a great oak, with rugged knots and gnarled branches, battling for higher medical education, for more light, and for the betterment of the medical pro¬ fession. Surely we owe it to this fair State, and to the medical men of this State, that his name should be honored and his good deeds should be perpetuated. In the cause of higher medical education, Dr. Adam Hammer was the first and the foremost American leader of his time. He founded institutions, which were the first ones in the United States to stand for three important principles: I. An adequate preliminary education. II. A graded course of instruction. III. Four courses of lectures. While the ^American Medical Association was meeting, and resolv¬ ing, year after year, that something ought to be done to advance the standard of education of physicians, Dr. Adam Hammer was, acting. Who was this man Hammer? In the little town of Mingalsheim, in the grand Duchy of Baden, not far from the city of Mannheim, near the point where the Neckar joins the Rhine, Adam Hammer was born on the 27th day of December, in the year 1818. This province, now one of the fairest parts of Germany, had been cruelly ravaged during the Napoleonic wars. Its inhabitants have long been noted for their love of learning and of liberty. Its chief city is Heidelberg, with its famous University. Young Hammer was sent to the gymnasium at Bruchsal for his elementary training. In every class he gained the first prize. Leaving the gymnasium, in 1837 he entered the University of Heidelberg, where he gave especial attention to the natural sciences and to mathematics. In the latter subject he acquired remarkable proficiency; in fact, it was originally his intention to become a professor of mathematics. While he was a student in the literary department of the University, his father, becoming dissatisfied with the political status of Germany, mi¬ grated to this country. The son soon turned his attention to the study of medicine, and in 1842, after a brilliant career as a student, Adam Hammer received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of Heidelberg. The next three years he spent in the Baden army service as assistant surgeon. In 1845 he established himself in private practice in the city of Mannheim. Here he met and married Mrs. Hammer, who is still living. In 1847, in the brief uprising known as the Sonderbundskriege, he tendered his services to the Swiss as an army surgeon. His offer was accepted and he served on the staff of General Ochsenbein until the end of the war. The love of liberty, the desire for a representative form of gov¬ ernment, and the wish for freedom of speech, have always been strong in South Germany. The citizens of Mannheim bitterly resented the double dealing of Frederick William IV. When, in 1848, Hecker -3-
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