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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    litter such a proposition, is owing to the fact that the profession is not yet sufficiently impressed with the idea that knowledge, not pretence, is necessary. Here in St. Louis, the Humboldt Medical College, the pioneer in reform, the first and only school in the length and breadth of the land which essays this mighty gage, receives the congratulations of the medical community, who send their students where they can easiest graduate, and not where they are indoctrinated from the simple to the complex, as is requested by the committee, composed of Drs. Davis, Gross, Blackman and Donaldson. We tell these gentlemen not to wait for a simultaneous action of the entire number of medical schools in the country, but to urge their own faculties to buckle on the harness and go forth to the fight. If they do it, representing four great colleges, then we will be just that number more of valiant soldiers doing battle in a good cause. What if the number of students falls off, gentlemen professors, for a few years ? Are you not willing and anxious to promote the welfare of your profession? You certainly do not desire to make any money out of your professorships, for if you did, then you would not labor so hard for the general welfare. Make the sacrifice now, and then the other colleges will not hesitate to follow your example, but until you act more, and talk less, we are disposed to believe that the Teachers’ Convention will result in a fiasco. Here in S-t. Louis, notwithstanding every one admits the principle of reform in medical education, two powerful schools do all they can not to promote it. One school absolutely repudiated the Convention in Cincinnati, and the other failed to be represented. If we of St. Louis are divided in the proportion of two to one against medical reform, as regards the courses of instruction of medical colleges, how are we to judge of the whole country? We have our opinions on these matters, and we shall see, that to accomplish great results, corresponding sac¬ rifices must be made.” II. (Humboldt Medical Archives, December, 1867.) At a meeting of the St. Louis Medical Society, held on the 26th day of October, 1867, a committee was appointed to invite the medical profession of the State of Missouri to assemble in convention, in the City of St. Louis, on the second Tuesday of December, 1867, at 12 M., for the purpose of re-organizing a State Medical Association, and to take some steps to¬ ward securing the passage of an act, by the Missouri Legislature, having for its object the future suppression of knavery and quackery in the profession.” The convention met at the appointed time, and, after effecting an organization, listened to a communication from the St. Louis Medical Society, which, after numerous preambles, says: Therefore, we beg leave, respectfully to suggest, that on the part of this Association a memorial be presented to the Legislature -18 —
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