A centennial address delivered in the Sanders Theatre, at Cambridge, June 7, 1881 : before the Massachusetts Medical Society.

  • Samuel Abbott Green
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A centennial address delivered in the Sanders Theatre, at Cambridge, June 7, 1881 : before the Massachusetts Medical Society. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Lamar Soutter Library, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

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    have been crude, and comprised little more than infor- mal talks about the dry bones before him ; but even this would be a great help to the learners. At any rate it seems to have excited an interest in the subject, for the recommendation is made, at the session of the General Court beginning October 27, 1647, — a few weeks later than the date of Eliot's letter, — that we conceive it very necessary y* such as studies phisick, or chirurgery may have liberty to reade anotomy & to anotomize once in foure yeares some malefacto' in case there be such as the Courte shall alow of. ^ The apostle Eliot himself was skilled in medicine, and he tried to teach the Indians some general principles of the study as well as a knowledge of the human body. He was desirous that they should be instructed in the rules and precepts of the art, so that they might give up their ^ powwows and rely on prayer in the treat- ment of the sick. Charles Chauncy, that stern puritan, President of Har- vard College, and also Leonard Hoar, who succeeded him in the presidency, were regular graduates of medi- cine at Cambridge in England. Chauncy left six sons, all of whom were educated at Harvard College and became preachers. They had, says Cotton Mather, an Em- inent Skill in Physiclc added unto their Accomplish- ments ; which like Mm [their father], they used for the Good of many ; as, indeed, it is well known, that until Two Hundred Years ago, Physick in England^ was no Profession distinct from Divinity. ^ John Rogers, the first president of the College who had graduated from the institution, was also a practitioner of medicine. Michael Wiggles worth was an early minister and 1 Genei'al Court Records, ii. 175. 2 Magnalia, Book iii., Chap, xxiii. 140.
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