The life and letters of Nathan Smith / by Emily A. Smith ; with an introduction by William H. Welch.

  • Smith, Emily Anna Jones, 1840-
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The life and letters of Nathan Smith / by Emily A. Smith ; with an introduction by William H. Welch. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    ■ Edn'or, New England Journal op Medicine. After reading the delightful paper on Dr. Smith in your issue of July 12, I am led to say that the only sources of accuracy concerning the foundation of the Dartmouth Medical School, and of the reasons for I Dr. Smith deserting it for Yale, are to be found in the Lite of Dr. Lyman Spalding, Originator of the U. S. Pharmacopoeia. Prom those letters we learn, that the School was opened November 20, 1797 (not 1798 as so often stated) and that there were two lec- turers. Dr. Smith, the Veteran and Dr. Spalding, a recent graduate at the Harvard Medical School, born in Cornish and an assistant to Dr. Smith whilst prac- tising in that village. The N. Y. Medical Repository Vol. 2, p. 339, advertises also the two lecturers by name; the elder physician for every topic except Chemistry, the younger man for that branch alone. The reasons why Dr. Smith abandoned Dartmouth tor Yale were as stated in his letters already alluded to; that he was threatened with arrest for dissecting a grave-robbed body. This threat followed with oth- ers of a similar nature, led to the resignation of Dr. Smith from Dartmouth. It will forever remain a source of medical regret that the General Educational Board declined my sug- gestion of 1921, that they should endow the Medical School at Bowdoin liberally, in Honor of the Cen- tenary of its Foundation by that famous teacher. Dr. Nathan Smith. James A. Spaldins, M.D., Portland, Maine.