Dr. Adam Hammer, surgeon and apostle of higher medical education / by James Moores Ball.

  • Ball, James Moores, 1863-1929.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Dr. Adam Hammer, surgeon and apostle of higher medical education / by James Moores Ball. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    8/26 (page 6)
    At a time when the Harvard Medical School,’ the I'niversity of Pennsylvania, the College of Physicians & Surgeons of New York, and the two old medical colleges of St. Louis, were graduating doctors on two terms of four or four and one-half months’ duration. Dr. Hammer’s institutions required sixteen months of actual attendance in college. At a time when other colleges were repeating the same lectures year after year. Dr. Hammer’s students -were receiving graded instniction. All honor to the memory of Dr. Adam Hammer, Surgeon and Apostle of Higher Medical Education. APPENDIX. The preceding paper is based on materials which have been de- rived from many sources. The writer wishes, first of all, to acknowledge his indebtedness to Dr. Adolf Neubert, of St. Louis, who was present, as a student, at the opening of the Humholdt-Institutin 1859. The facsimiles of title-pages of catalogues have been made from originals which are now in the possession of the St. Louis Medical His- tory Club. Much valuable information concerning the state of medical educa- tion fifty years ago, and later, is contained in the medical press of that period. In this connection, especial mention must be made of editorial and other articles which were published in the Humboldt Medical Archives (later known as the Medical Archives) from September, 1867, to (and including) June, 1870. The Transactions of the American Medical Association, from 1848 to 1860, contain numerous strictures on the medical education of that time. The portrait of Dr. Hammer is reproduced from an oil painting by his student. Dr. A, Neubert. The group picture, showing some of the professors of the Humboldt- Institut, was furnished by Miss Thekla Bernays, of St. Louis, whose father and uncle were members of the faculty. Note “A.”—The St. Louis College of Medical & Natural Sciences was founded in 1855 for the specific purpose of placing American medical education upon a plane similar to that of the best foreign universities. It was the first school in the United States to re- quire high preliminary qualifications for matriculation, a graded course of instruction, and four courses of lectures. It was chartered On February 28, 1855, by the Legislature of Missouri. The incorporators were; L. A. Benoist, William Bennett, Taylor Blow, John ]\I. Cooper, Franklin A. Dick, Benjamin Farrar, John O’F. Farrar, John Hogan, William Palm, Isaac M. Sturgeon and James Wilson. iln 1849 the Medical Faculty of Harvard University presented to the American Medical Association a formal defense of the four months’ course in preference to a more extended term. See Transactions Am. Med. Assn., Vol. VII., page 58.