< I £ < <■* < <~ K < ■ .< c < - << <. c : X*s > (cni ht wis 20 too good a University Man for that, and his plan was set aside and one almost its oposite finally secured. On the 9th day of December, 1843, Jno. M. Bass, Esq., a member of the Board, resolved that a Committee of three be ap- pointed to take into consideration the propriety of establishing a Medical School attached to the University. Messrs. K. C. Foster, Sr., Bass, and Ewin were appointed. On the 8th of February, the following year, this Committee report "that the Board at once establish said Medical School. 7 ' The Committee had opened a correspondence with and received suggestions and a memorial from J. M. Briggs, M. D., of Bowling Green, Kentucky, a distinguished physician and father ot our present Professor of Obstetrics. On the 17th of the same month President Phillip Lindsley submitted the following resolutions. 1st. That it is expedient to establish a medicarschool in con- nection with the University of Nashville. 2nd. That no portion of the funds of the University shall be appropriated to the aid or support of the said medical school, and that this Board will assume no pecuniary responsibilities whatever in its behalf. 3d. That qualification for degrees should be equal to those required by the most respectable medicaPschools in the United States. 4th. That no student shall be admitted to the degree of Doctor of Medicine under the age of twenty-one. 5th. That no person shall be admitted to the Degree of Doctor of Medicine, except Bachelors of Arts, or such as shall be found on examination to be adequately acquainted with classical literature and the liberal sciences. And that the said examina- tion shall be conducted in the manner hereafter to be prescribed by this Board. 6 th'. That .the, entire supervision and control of the medical school in all respects and tor all purposes, together wi£h the power of discontinuing the same do rest in this Board, and shall be exercised agreeably to the charter and for the best interests of the University and of the Commonwealth, 21 Two days after this, a paper Faculty was made of which the world has heard nothing from that day to this. In 1849 Charles Caldwell, M.D., long a distinguished medical teacher in Transylvania University and the conceded founder of the Medical Department ot the University of Louisville, having had his chair destroyed at Louisville by the Trustees, in high dudgeon came down to Nashville to establish a rival of Louis- ville here. He got an audience, made a speech, a committee was appointed to raise funds which has not yet reported pro- gress. The professor returned to Louisville and so little interest did the newspapers of the city take in the matter that the one I took, the Banner, had to be paid for mentioning the matter in its news column, as is evidenced by the notice having a star at the end of it. In September 1850 the name of J. Berrien Lindsley was left on my office slate. I had never seen him. The next day he called while I was in. We had a long conversation upon medical men and medical schools. He was born and reared in a university with the lofty ideas of his distinguished father. We were both full of medical schools and rather anxious that a medical school should be partially full of us. By him I was introduced to kin- dred spirits. We had frequent meetings at my office. All were enthusiastic. The club consisted of Dr. J. Berrien Lindsley, Drs. A. H. Buchanan, Robert Porter, Charles K. Winston, Jno. M. Watson, and myself. The various members conceded to me a higher knowledge of medical men and medical matters than I deserved. By their unanimous solicitation I drew up the speech to the Trustees asking for such powers as astonished University men andwdrich, if conceded, would reverse the President's grand idea of a medical school's utter dependence upon the parent in- ititution, an indefinite babyhood or such, alas ! as is too often extinguished by the sacred but dark waters of the Ganges. Andrew Ewing read the speech to the Board and the powers were granted. I drew up the articles of confederation and elab- orated a government. Each was acceptable to the club, and ratified by the Board, and ihe names mentioned above, as those of our medical club, the Board of Trustees of the University of Nashville organized into a Medical Faculty. None of them had any experience save as office teachers, but all had enthusiasm, energy and unfaltering determination of purpose. It seems but yesterday, yet one-half of them have passed away like a dream. Before the course commenced, however, Dr Paul F. Ev<\ loner a journalist and lecturer, and who enjoyed a splendid reputation north and south of us as an eloquent and impassioned speaker, and an operating surgeon of unrivaled splendor, joined us, and this accession of unquestioned strength very naturally augmented our confidence in the enterprise. The success was unprecedented. From 1851 to 1861 we taught no less than 3787 young gentlemen, and oi this number graduated 1105. From the beginning until now we have taught in this institu- tion 4000 and gradutted 1186. In 1859 Dr. Halsey allows Nashville a population of thirty- two thousand. The late civil commotions that laid waste so many beautiful Southern cities left Nashville unscathed. A great centre of military operations millions ot course were expen- ded here amid surrounding desolation. The coolest of her citizens in the absense of accurate statistics compute her population at sixty thousand. No department of the University was injured, in its buildings, libraries, museums, or cabinets. Since the bless- ings of peace have again smiled up -n our troubled land a new department has sprung up in the University, rhe Montgomery Bell Academy, upon a permanent foundation. It is now in suc- cessful operation with 60 students. Other schools or depart- ments will soon be re-organized and there is no reason why we should despair of its reaching the glory and magnidcence pre- saged of it by him who so long and so triumphantly shaped her destiny. And now, young gentlemen, full of the same hope and trust that filled the heart of the great and good Lindsley, 1 apply his words to you. " We say — or rather let the university proudly say — there are our sons. We send them forth into the world. And by the world's spontaneous verdict upon their training and their bear- ing will we abide. We calmly and confidently await the world's decision ; and we feel assured of no mortifying disappointment. Our faith is strong, unwavering, invincible. And our purpose to persevere in the good work, which has thus far been signally prospered in the midst of every species of hinderance anil dis- couragement, can not be shaken. The tongue whieh now speaks our high resolve, and bids defiance to sciutiny, to prejudice, to jealousy, to cowardice, to calumny, to male vole rice, may be silent in the tomb long ere the glorious victory shall be achieved. But WE, the UNIVERSITY, live forever! And generations yet unboro shall rejoice in our triumphs, and prououuue theeulogium which ©ur hihora wail have aobly wos." 23 POSTSCRIPT. For those who are curious in tracing grand effects to the radi- cal causes insignificantly minute this postcript as, an addendum to the ahove address is given with it to the printer. It is made up in p rt out of a correspondence of the author with Dr. W. A. Cheatham, late Superintendent of the Tennessee Hospital for the Insane, and in part from a diary kept by Dr. J. Berrien Lindsley. Nothing is set down hero except from the record. [Extracts from correspondence of the author with Dr. W. A. Cheatham.] (" CONFIDENTIAL NO. 1.) "At Home, March 5th, 1848. Drar Doctou :— -I have determined upon a short series of letters to you with a view of unfolding the elements of an enter- prise which have long occupied a prominent position in my cogi- tations. My r'.'flec ions upon that subject aro thoroughly diges- ted and the conclusion to which they direct me / know to be sound. * ' :: ' * Thirty years ago a few physicians at Lexington determined upon a medical school. Dudley, a mau possessing uncommon force of character, put the ball in motion and when every body knew it would fail it succeeded without the siighest difficulty. The first school in a place, wherever insti- tuted has succeeded. * * ::: ' * * When medical schools have failed they have invaribly been neiv schools, reared up in open opposition to an existing one in the same place. ;:: ' * ;: " In the whole history of medicine in the South and West there never was so favorable a period to insure the success of one as now at the proper point. ** * Louisville ruined Lexington because it became, in a professional sense, a ligature upon her artery of nutrition. The students of the South touched Louisville first and were booked A school South of Louisville will cut off her supplies i.j like manner/' In other letters of this series, still in the possession of Dr. Cheatham, the plan of a medical school is farther elaborated. In the plan two leading ideas are kept prominent. 1st. The faculty must be chiefly of Nashville physicians. Home influence of every importance, for even talent, genius, and learning in medicine can not make head against local and partisan opposition. 2nd. The school must be an attache of the University to secure thu uiiiuuiiiw uj m miuv at iiomu tm\ fciiuc oi ^ta vkws uUvad, 24 The author who Was then residing in Logan' county, Ken- tucky, requested his friend Dr. Cheatham to show these letters to prominent Nashville physicians and collect their opinions. He did so. hut all seemed to regard the scheme 1 Utopian, and in the beginning of 1850, the author removed to Nashville deter- mined, if he could find a few Nashville physician's to aid himy to tes.t the feasibility of his scheme, even if it should wreck his private fortune. [From Dr. Lindsley's Diary.] " 1849, Oct. 22— Monday— Called on Dr. Caldwell. " 26 — Heard Dr. Caldwell deliver an introductory pn Medical Jurisprudence." During Dr. Caldwell's visit to Nashville, he attempted to form f a Medical Faculty and establish a school in Nashville. In this fScbeme Drs. Winston and Buchanan were active men. They ^applied ; to J. Berrien Lindsley to take the chair of Chemistry. Nothing resulted from this effort. Dr. Lindsley spent the en- suing winter in visiting the medical schools of Louisville, New 'York, etc. On his return in the spring, he had free consultations vwith Dr. Chas. K. Winston, concerning a plan of a medical .school as an integral p®rt of the University. Dr. Winston fully -.seconded the plan.. "Aug. 30, 1850 — Opened my medical project to R. J. Meigs. fOne of the Trustees of the University of Nashville.] Pretty £u«y at it after this. •'.'Sept. 2d— Called on D. W. Yandell. & 19— Called on Dr, Bowling, Dr. Winston. U 20— Dr. Bowling. .« 21— Doctors. (* 23— Dr. Bowling. M 24— Dr. jBowling. i " 25— Drs. Bowling, Porter, etc. Evening — Three hours doctors' meeting. ff 26— Evening — Doctors' Meeting. " 27— Dr. Bowling. Evening — Dr, Bowling and Mr. Meigs. " 2S— Dr. Bowling." These extracts from Dr. Lindsley's diary show how the " medi- cal club," spoken of in the address, originated and developed. This club thus formed, with the., addition of names mentioned in the address, by t}ie power vested in the Trustees of the Univer- sity of Hashvillft, wa£ &>nve*r tM info tMr M^dit^l Faculty. 25 The following is the speech of the author read to the Trustees by the Hon. E. H. Ewing : To the Trustees of the Nashville University : — We have no hesitation in believing that the popular voice here is in favor of a Medical School. Many attempts have heretofore been made in vain to meet the expectations of the public upon the subject. The great difficulty in the way of this enterprise, as is shown by its history running through a period of fifteen years, has been means to put it in successful operation. We propose to supply this desideratum from our private resources, and to chance the result for reimbursement. W T e ask of you, Gentlemen, only a recognition and the loan of your College buildings for the period of twenty years. We wish to have the sole management of the Department ourselves : 1st. Because experience and the history of similar institutions show that this power is safest with those most deeply interested v and Secondly. Because this will be an enterprise in which we will have invested no inconsiderable amount of money, and would, on that account, desire to be untrammeled in the management of it. We herewith exhibit th^ constitution which, in the event of our recognition, is to regulate the internal affairs of the depart- ment, and which will more clearly illustrate our plan of a Medi- cal College. We ask if our proposition be favorably received, such action on your part as will insure us against molestation by your suc- cessors, in the possession of the buildings and the professorships which you will confer upon us. The history of the Medical Colleges in America is but the his- tory of broils and difficulties. Most of these we are firmly per- suaded are legitimately referable to the fact that in nearly all of them the tenure of the professorship is exclusively dependent on the caprice of the Trustees in the first place, and in the second to the fact, that the professor has no pecuniary interest separate and apart from his fees in the Institution. In this organization the professors are stimulated toexertion by the length of their lease, and by the great swdetener oi labor — the hope of reward. They 4 26 will feel that the fruition for which they so zealously toil will not be stricken untasted from the lips and conferred by capricious task-masters on new favorites, and that the adage " one shall sow and another reap" shall not be the bitter end of their labors. They will have money invested in the enterprise, and that prudence incident to the ordinary affairs of man, will sug- gest the energy neccessary to make the investment profitable.. Some of them have grown grey in the toils of the profession which they now propose to teach, and whatever of reputation has accrued to them from a life of labor and self-denial they also in- vest in this enterprise. Others, younger, bind the bright hopes of a sunny future firmly to the destinies of this effort. We prefer no claims superior to those of our co-laborers in an arduous and responsible profession. We propose to do what we believe ought to be done, and what public sentiment demands, to- establish a Medical College in Nashville. We contend that it is. the sublimity of human folly for medical men to sit idly prating about the necessity of elevating the standard of medical literature, and that the multiplication of Medical Colleges tends to depress it, when daily observation demonstrates that precisely in pro- portion as regularly educated medical gentlemen decline the labor of teaching, and of thus multiplying regular physicians, audacious empiricism organizes hot beds for generating its swag- gering offspring. Nashville, the great political and mercantile emporium of the State, has contented itself with a Medical College on paper for fifteen years, during which long period it has not added a single member to the regular profession, and the result of this medical paralysis is that two empirical colleges in the State are now in successful operation.* This is elevating the standard of medicine with a vengeance. It is infinitely more sensible for qualified medical men to struggle energetically to supply the demands of the public for physicians than by " masterly inac- tivity" to permit empiricism to do it for them. The people everywhere manifest a decided preference for regular physicians, if they can proqure them, and whenever, and not before, the ♦There are none ntfw (ISGS}. 27 supply equals the demand empiricism perishes. The rmmher of Medical Colleges cannot be limited by the power of Trustees of Universities in a Republic. There is a higher resort which has always been found available — the State Legislature — and Medi- cal Colleges will be multiplied by statutory provision, irrespec- tive of the wishes or the peculiar views of Trustees of Universi- ties, and a large majority of Medical Colleges in the United States at this hour exist on that basis. The argument therefore that Universities ought not to multiply medical departments because there are already enough for a healthy condition of medical science utterly fails, inasmuch as a constant successful demand upon Legislatures fur additional Charters demonstrates that in the estimation of the people there are not enough ; and when the people and the doctors are at issue, it does not require the wisdom of a Solomon to foresee which party will triumph. Is it contended that there is not medical talent enough in this the metropolis of a great State to teach the healing art? We reply it is to just such talent that the health and lives of the chivalrous people of Tennessee are entrusted. Is it contended that greater advantages can be secured to the medical student in the great tramontane institutions ? We reply that they will remain open to such as have means or in- clination to patronise them. All we ask is the privilege ol teaching such as are willing to be taught at home, and by us, and we have no fears of the result. We ask of the University vxt ,-aordinary poivers : the entire control of our own department for a term of years. We render to the University in return extraordinary advantages : making ourselves liable to heavy expenses for the sake of starting this department, when it is quite uncertain whether our success will pay for our venture. For the time being we serve as active in- terested agents oft the University in procuring funds to erect additional buildings needed by the department, and in getting up a medical library and museum, all of which will be the ab- solute property of the University when this agreement ceases. We respecttully solicit your eaily action in this matter, with the assurance that whatever that action may tfe ? we shall can- tinue to maintain the conviction of your wise, prudent and patri- otic intentions Jno. M. Watson, M. D., A. H. Buchanan, M. D., "vV. K. Bowling, M. D., Charles K. Winston, M. D., Robert M. Porter, M.D., J. Berrien Lindsley, M. D. Nashville, Sep. 28 th, 1850. Immediately after the reading a Committee composed of Dr. Felix Kobertson, Messrs. Washington, Williams, Bass and Meigs was appointed to confer with the above medical gentle- men freely and fully and report at the next meeting of the Board. Accordingly at the next meeting the Committee report that " the Committee to whom was referred the proposition for the estab- lishment of a Medical Department of the University of Nash- ville, as contained in the plan and memorial submitted to this Board by Messrs. W. K. Bowling, Robert M. Porter, Charles K. Winston, John M. Watson, John B. Lindsley, and A. H. Buchanan, beg leave to report that the plan on which said De- partment is proposed to be organized and conducted and the known character and ability of those who propose to embark in the enterprise give to the public and this Board the strongest hope of success and that it is the duty of the Board to give to «aid Department the use of what is called the new College build- ing, etc., * * >* * for the term of twenty-two yeais as proposed in said memorial and that a Committee be ap- pointed on the part of this Board to prepare articles of agree- ment, to be executed by the proper officers of this Board on our part, setting forth terms on which the grant or lease is proposed £0 be made and said Department established. Sigaaed* Felix Robertson, Thos. Washington, Will. Williams, R. J. Meigs, Jno. M. Bass. Oct 11th, 1850. Agreeably to this Report it was H on motion-of Jno. M, Bass, £9 Resolved, That a Medical Department be established in con- nection with the University, * * * * and that a Com- mittee be appointed to draw the articles of agreement between the University and the professors in the Medical Department thus created, etc. Messrs. Ewing, Meigs and Bass were appoin- ted on said Committee. The Board then proceeded to an election of Professors in the Medical Department in the University of Nashville, when the following Gentlemen were unanimously elected to fill the Chairs, viz : Jno. M. Watson, M.D., Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children. A. H. Buchanan, M.D., Surgery. W. K. Bowling, M.D., Institutes and Practice of Medicine. C. K. Winston, M.D., fl Materia Medica and Pharmacy. Itobt. M. Porter, M.D., Anatomy and Physiology. J. Berrien Lindsley, M D., Chemistry and Pharmacy." At the next meeting, Friday Oct. 18, 1850, "on motion it was •was resolved that the Committee appointed at the last meeting viz. : Messrs. Ewing, Meigs and Bass be authorized to conclude a contract with the professors of the Medical Department of the University of Nashville and that any agreement which they in their discretion might enter into with said professors should be binding on this Board." The indenture between the University and the Professors in the newly created Medical Department signed by the Committee of the Board of Trustees, Ewing, Meigs and Bass, on the part of the University and by the newly created Professors on the part of the Medical Department, says that the latter " shall peaceably and quietly have hold and occupy, possess and enjoy the said p ; ece or parcel of ground and premises hereby devised with all its appurtenances for, and during the said term of 30 twenty-two years, hereby granted without any lawful let, trouble, denial or interruption of or by the said University of Nashville, or any person or persons -lawfully claiming or to claim by from or under the same." To the aforesaid professors is furthermore granted the power " in case of vacancies in any of said professorships to nominate successors and the right and power of changing, abolishing or vacating professorships and right and power of conducting all the affairs of the Department as fully as the Trustees themselves, free from interference of said Trustees during the term aforesaid." The government adopted for the College was extremely simple. There were to be two officers, each to be elected annually, viz. : a President of the Faculty to call meetings, and preside at them, and a Dean upon whom devolved the duty of managing the entire machinery at home and of representing the Institution abroad. He appoints Janitors and all operatives and is the sole custodian of the building and its contents. The In- stitution has never had a Treasurer, the Dean managing the pub- lic funds. When the graduating fees, matriculating fees, and other resources of the Dean were insufficient to pay the expenses of the College the balance was provided for by pro rata assess- ments upon each professor. In early years, while furnishing the museum, these assessments were often very heavy but in those years were cheerfully met. , From time to time attempts have been made to increase the number of officers but always failed. Prof. Winston has held the office of President of the Faculty from the beginning. Prof. Lindsley held the office of Dean the first six years when he resigned. Prof. Eve then held it two years and the author has held it ten years and though re- elected unanimously on the 30th of October last resigned, for his resignation to take effect on the 1st of April next. Prof. Linds- ley was elected to the Deanship for the year after the 1st day of April, 1868. The eminently just and conservative rule was adopted that a majority of the professors should rule, but should have no power, to make the fees of different chairs unequal. A maj >rity could ftweffl each proft^sor to any amount. The profesi&r's remedy 31 was resignation if he did not like the assessment, and if he did not pay his assessment within ninety days after it was agreed on by a majority of the Faculty and recorded by the Dean that fact was to be taken as his resignation without farther action of the Faculty. In prosperous times these rules would be, and were regarded as just and proper, but when assessments, however nec- essary, swallowed up fees almost to the last dollar, the more stringently organized could see no beauty in assessments, and would defy majorities. A government so simple and so just ought to commend itself to all. It secured perfect harmony here for sixteen years out of the seventeen, during which the Institution has existed. We have never been in sympathy with those who believe that a class of men outside the pale of medicine can govern medical mat- ters better than medical men themselves can. We objected there- fore to Dr. Philip Lindsley's plan which gave the medical teachers no power. We never could understand the sense or propriety of Baying to a medical student who had passed a satisfactory exam- ination before judges of his qualifications, (his professors,) that if it were the pleasure of those who were no judges at all of his qualifications, (the Trustees, ) he should have the degree con- ferred upon him. 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