An exposure of the conduct, of the trustees and professors of the Medical College of Ohio, and of the hospital or township trustees : in relation to John F. Henry, M. D.

  • John Flournoy Henry
Date:
1833
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An exposure of the conduct, of the trustees and professors of the Medical College of Ohio, and of the hospital or township trustees : in relation to John F. Henry, M. D. 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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    [9] the next day, the following memorial, (which I never saw until it was presented to me by the students,) was drawn up and subscri- by Ob—there being at that time less than 90 students in attendance It was subsequently subscribed by three more, and I received sepa- rate testimonials Irom two others, making in all 71. The undersigned, students of the Medical College of Ohio, having under- .toodtha ,t i,rumored abroad,that they are much dfssatisfied whhlelct u, ^ Professor Henry, deem it but an act of justice to that Gentleman, to say, that there is no just foundat.on lor such a rumor-that they have derived much instruction from him—that he has earnestlv lnT« , • l V i l«.,i ,.,,..1, i- . ii earnestly and perspicuously travel- Msor/fW ^ S,U^a ytreate<1 ^ a Professor <* Obstetrics, and the hev Z ofT.ren-ri ?K,ldEenrai,d Ullt cosideS this as his first course, ,°f t»'e op.mon tha he has, and is acquitting himself with advan- tage to the pupils, and credit to the Institution. Some ten or twelve students declined signing the memorial, a part of whom acknowledged themselves well pleased with my lec- tures. I have understood that a counter memorial was attempted and actually obtained five signatures. But whether this was pre- sented to the lrustees or not I never ascertained. The memorial of the students came very opportunely to arrest the proceedings of that inquisitorial court, yclept, the Board of Trus- tees. 1 have been told that they were about to determine my ex- pulsion on account of my bad standing with the students, when it was handed to the President, by a deputation of the class. It threw them into a sad dilemma; and how to evade its force requi- red much consideration. Two modes were attempted, neither of which were successful. One was to insinuate that the students who had signed my memorial were actuated by fear of me—that many of them were candidates for graduation, and were apprehensive I would bear hard upon them, if they did not sign in my behalf. The ab- surdity of (his must be apparent to all, when it is known that a majority could always graduate a candidate, and that to oppose me would be the readiest mode of conciliating that majority. But an- other view of the question seemed to quadrate much better with their notions. Wheu they could not make i', appear tbat the young meu had any thing to fear from my opposing their grauation, it was declared that their signatures were obtainedby threatened violence from a few of my friends. But I had gained no favor with the Trustees, by showing that I was respected by the Class. On the contrary, they hated me the more, because I would not suffer myself to be disgraced by restate- ments. They had drawn on the warm and generous feelings of youth, and had their bills protested. They next made a call on the frigid councils of age, and were not disappointed. A communica- tion from the Hospital Trustees was soon at their command. On the 19th or 20th of February, a College Trustee informed me that there were rumors from the Hospital prejudicial to my charac- ter. I explained the whole matter to him, and on the 20th, wrote a statement, which lay on my office table one week, simply because I did not think the charges important enough to require a written answer. But on the 2?th a friend informed me, that allegations of 2*