Volume 1

The Harvard Medical School : a history, narrative and documentary : 1782-1905 / By Thomas Francis Harrington, M.D. ; edited by James Gregory Mumford.

  • Thomas Francis Harrington
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Harvard Medical School : a history, narrative and documentary : 1782-1905 / By Thomas Francis Harrington, M.D. ; edited by James Gregory Mumford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    EDITOR'S RREEAGCE, The history of the Medical School of Harvard University is so closely interwoven with the history of medical education in America, and especially in New England, that the author has found it impossible to develop his immediate theme with- out a brief consideration of the broader field. And that broader field is a fascinating field; it remains to be tilled fully by a future historian, but such glimpses of it as are allowed here must show the reader how the struggle for im- provement has been steadily upward against discouraging con- ditions, how far we are from perfection still, and how a familiarity with our past is essential to every teacher who would work intelligently for a continued betterment of the medical profession. Our author has had untrammelled access to authorities and documents, and he tells in elaborate detail the history of the Harvard School, After giving us an account of the medical conditions in New England during colonial times, he recounts what service Harvard men furnished to the medical depart- ment of the Revolutionary Army, and then plunges into the story of the School's founding and feeble growth through the latter part of the 18th century, when the teaching was in Cambridge and hospitals did not exist. Numerous biograph- ical sketches of ancient Harvard Medical worthies follow, and the period ends with the year 1810. iil
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