PROCEEDINGS AND CORRESPONDENCE,
THIRD DISTRICT MEDICAL SOCIETY
STATE OF OHIO.
IN REFERENCE TO THE
MELICAL  COLLEGE OF OHIO.
PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE COMMITTEE CHARGFD WITH
               THAT SUBJECT.
DECEMBER, 1832. 
ARMY MEDICAL LIBRARY
FOUNDED 1836
WASHINGTON, D.C. 
V 
t 

PROCEEDINGS AND CORRESPONDENCE,
THIRD DISTRICT MEDICAL SOCIETY
STATE OF OHIO,
IN REFERENCE TO THB
MEDICAL COLLEGE  OF OHIO.
PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE COMMITTEE CHARGED WITH
                THAT SUBJECT.
DECEMBER, 1832. 
TO THE PHYSICIANS AND CITIZENS OF OHIO:
    The undersigned, a committee of the Third District Medical Society, appointed
to memorialize the Legislature on the subject of re-organizing the Medical College of Ohio,
beg leave to ask the serious attention of the citizens of Ohio, and, especially, its Physicians
to the following Proceedings, Resolutions, Correspondence and Memorial, relative to the In-
stitution ;  and would, most respectfully, solicit their  co-operation, on the Legislature, in the
efforts of the Society to reform the College.
                                              JOSHUA MARTIN,
                                              JOSEPH TEMPLETON,
                                              JNO. ROSS,
                                              JOSEPH  STANTON,
           «    ^                            WM. BELL,
    Xenia, Ohio, December 6,1832.                              Committee. 
PROCEEDINGS  AND  CORRESPONDENCE
RELATIVE TO THE
  I.—PROCEEDINGS OF THE  THIRD DISTRICT MEDICAL SOCIETY.
  At a late  meeting of the third District Medical Society, held in Waynes-
ville, Warren county, the following preamble and resolutions were unani-
mously adopted:
  Whereas, It is  believed that  the legislative enactments under which we
this day assemble, have for their object the improvement of medical science,
we deem it not  only our privilege, but our duty, to inquire  into the causes
which retard this improvement, and at the same time to endeavor to extend
the  means by which it may be elevated to its greatest eminence:
  And whereas, Medical Schools, conducted upon liberal principles and with
ability, are of the utmost importance to the advancement of this science, we
have long cherished an ardent desire to witness the establishment of such an
institution in Ohio:
  And whereas, Our Legislature has bountifully provided all the pecuniary
means for the founding of an institution of the character in contemplation,
and the Medical College of Ohio, the recipient of this legislative beneficence,
having failed to acquire a  high character at home or abroad, we are con-
strained to ascribe this failure to the narrow  policy pursued  by its Board of
Trustees.
  And whereas, a system of partiality and favoritism the most extraordinary and
unprecedented,  has been practised by those Trustees in the appointment of a
gentleman, who frankly  acknowledges his incompetence, to the responsible
chair ofthe Institutes and Medical jurisprudence, (since abolished) for which
he asked and obtained one year to qualify himself, and this too to the exclu-
sion of accomplishments of the  first order, and celebrity ;n the United States;
and there yet being talents and qualifications  of the highest order, in the col-
lege, (contrary to the known wishes of the Trustees) which are so burthened
by a preponderating mediocrity, that they will, ere long we fear, be compelled
to seek a situation, where selfish and disgraceful partiality is  not permitted to
rule, regardless  of  the safety of  society, the benefits of medical science, the
policy, the reputation, and the true interest of our state; we are called upon
to deprecate the abuse of power, and contribute something  in  support of a
profession and a science long too much neglected and degraded:
  Resolved. Therefore, that as a society, and individually, we  will use all
honorable means to induce our Legislature,  at its next regular session, to
so change or extend the Board of Trustees of the Medical College of Ohio, as
that it may thereafter be governed upon such principles as shall conciliate con-
fidence and patronage, and promote those high interests, which were labored
for  in its foundation, and thatDrs. Martin, Templeten, Ross, Staunton, and
Bell be a committee to memorialize the Legislature on this subject.
  Resolved, That  the Trustees of the Medical College of Ohio, have acted
unwisely in  abolishing the chair of the  Institutes and that that chair ought
never to be dispensed with in a  well regulated medical school.
  Resolved, That the power of  appointing and removing Professors ought to
4<  3-MVB— 
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be vested  in a Board of Regents, who should reside in different parts of the
state; and that a part of them should belong to the medical profession.
  Resolved, That our professional brethren throughout  the State,  be invited
to co-operate with us, in our efforts to elevate the character of the Medical
College of Ohio.
  Resolved, That  editors of newspapers throughout the State, be, and they
are hereby respectfally solicited to publish these proceedings.
              By order of the Society.
                                          J. MARTIN,  President.
                                          J. S. PERKINS, Secretary.
  Waynesville, Ohio, May 29. 1832.
                        II—CORRESPONDENCE.
Letter of the Chairman of the Society's Committee, to Daniel Drake, M. D.
                                        Xenia, September 24th, 1832.
  Sir,—At the last meeting of the Third District Medical Society, a pream-
ble and resolutions were unanimously adopted, censuring the Trustees of the
Medical  College of Ohio.  The first resolution reads as follows:  '■'■Resolved
therefore, That  as  a society, and individually,  we will  use all  honorable
means to induce our Legislature at its next regular session, to  so  change or
extend the board of Trustees of the Medical College of Ohio,  as that it
may, thereafter, be  governed upon such principles as shall conciliate confi-
dence and patronage, and promote  those high interests which were labored
for  in its foundation, and that Drs. Martin, Templeton, Ross,  Stanton, and
Bell, be a committee to memorialize the Legislature on this subject."
  As chairman of the above  committee, I  feel it my duty to collect all the
facts within my reach in relation to the  government of the College, that they
may be embodied in our memorial to the Legislature.
  I am, therefore, induced to solicit of you a  short history of the Medical
College of Ohio, from its foundation to  the present period;  embracing all the
facts in relation to the conduct of the trustees, in the appointment and re-
moval of professors, &c.  Your attention to this subject will confer a favor on
            Your obedient Servant,
                                     JOSHUA MARTIN,  Chairman.
                  Dr. Drake's reply to the Committee.
                                   Cincinnati, September 29th, 1832.
  Gentlemen,—I find that I cannot speak of the Medical College of Ohio,
without a constant reference to myself, a circumstance, that has embarassed
my feelings,  whenever 1 have  thought  of complying with  the  request  of
your chairman, for information on the history and present state of that insti-
tution.  The  College is  not, however, a private but a public  Seminary, and
as such, I have the same right, as any other citizen of Ohio, to desire its pros-
perity and expose the abuses that have retarded its  progress.   In cherishing
the former, I will not yield to  any of my fellow citizens, and in executing the
latter, I shall  endeavor to sustain  the character of an unfaltering,  if not a
skilful friend.
  If I know my own heart, I am more anxious to see the institution prospe-
rous and respectable; than, again, to belong to it myself.  A recollection of 
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the origin of the College, will enable you to  appreciate the sincerity of this
declaration.
   Much of the information which I propose to communicate  to you, will be
in the form of documents, which I shall connect together by such a narrative,
as may seem necessary to their explanation.  That you may  understand the
policy which has misdirected the destinies of the school, for the last ten years,
it is indispensable, that I should refer to its origin and early history.
   In the year 1816,1 had the honor to be elected Professor of Materia Med-
ica and Botany, in the projected Medical  Department of Transylvania Uni-
versity; and in the autumn of the next year, entered on my duties.   A win-
ter's residence  in  Lexington, convinced  me, that  Cincinnati even then was,
and in future would more decidedly be, far preferable  to lhat town, for such
an institution;  and in the spring of 1818,1 resigned with the determination of
attempting to found a Medical School in  this place.
   My withdrawal from the Lexington School was followed, I do not say as a
consequence, by the resignation of some of its professors, and a suspension
of its operations, in the succeeding winter.  Had  I  remained at Lexington,
and that institution continued in uninterrupted action, from its organization
in 1817, I do not hesitate to say, that no effort would have been made at this
place for many years, and perhaps not up to the present time;  tor nobody here,
nor in any part of the state, as far as I know, had thought of a medical school,
in Cincinnati;  and not one of those 'who have  since held places in the Col-
lege, was an  inhabitant of Ohio, at the time it was projected.   These  are
facts which I hope you will keep in mind:  I shall,  hereafter, show their bear-
ing.
   In the winter of 1818-19,1 drew up the first charter of the Medical Col-
lege of Ohio;  and visiting Columbus, had it presented in the House of Rep-
resentatives, by Doctor Daniel Smith, a zealous and  intelligent member from
Fairfield  county,  now resident  in  Western Virginia.   It was  referred to a
Committee, which, on the succeeding night,  met in the Senate  Chamber, in
the midst of a considerable  concourse of the members of both houses.  On
the invitation of the Committee, I attended this meeting; and, at their request,
explained to them and their  fellow  members, the nature, objects and advanta--
 ges of the proposed institution.   The only diversity of sentiment which exis-
ted among them,  related to the  location of the School;  but they soon came
to understand, that the largest town of the state was the most eligible; and the
bill, reported by the Committee, as I had drafted it, was forthwith enacted in-
 to a law, with but one  inconsiderable alteration in  its  provisions.  These
 again are facts which I desire you to remember.
    The Charter was dated, January 19th, 1819.   Its promulgation in Cincin-
 nati instantly stirred up the feelings of a number of my medical brethren;
 who seemed to think I was getting some kind of  advantage  over them, and,
 as the gazettes of that day will  sljow, they assailed me on every side, and, at
 least two of those who have since held places  in the school, and had emigrated
 to the city a short time before, were among the number of the aggressors.  As
 I had to look abroad for most of  my colleagues, their publications, dissemi-
 nated 'far and wide,' embarrassed  me exceedingly in the organization of the
 first Faculty;  and led many of  my friends to advise me  to abandon the pro-
 ject:  especially as the president and several  of the professors  of Transylva-
 nia University, were urging  me by letter to give it up  and re-join that institu-
 tion.   However, by very considerable expenditures of time, money and repose
 of mind, I at length succeeded in organizing a faculty of four professors; and
 in the autumn of 1S~Q, the  first session commenced.  Under the aggressions 
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to which I here refer, scarcely an individual came to my aid; and several of
those, who have, for years, been members of the Board of Trustees, were inti-
mately associated with the physicians who sought to destroy the institution in
its infancy.   These, likewise, are facts which I must desire you not to forget.
  Meanwhile the Lexington school, by means of a liberal contribution, as a
bonus to eminent professors from a distance, had recommenced its operations
under highly favorable auspices; and the consequence was, that our class of
pupils was so small, that my receipts, as Professor of the Institutes and Prac-
tice (a chair which I had  received from the Legislature)  were in no  degree
equal to  the expenditures of money—to say nothing of time that should have
been devoted to  my professional business—which I had been compelled to
make.   But undaunted by these difficulties, or, I should rather say, infatuated
by the  object, I resolved, during our first course of lectures, to apply to the
General Assembly, for money to build, and revenues to endow, a hospital,
as a Clinical school for the College, and as one  of the means of attracting
pupils.
  My experienced political friends smiled at my credulity, and predicted that
the Legislature would do nothing,  but grant corporate  powers.  However,
with a kind  of instinctive  impulse, I proceeded to draw  up  the present
Charter of the Commercial Hospital and  Lunatic  Asylum of Ohio; and,
again,  set off for Columbus.   Three weeks of unfaltering  importunity, ob-
tained, not only a charter, but money to build a Hospital, and ample revenues
for its permanent support.   In this establishment, the professors of the College
had'certain advantages secured  to them, forever; which benefits they are now
enjoying; and these, again, are facts which I hope you will not forget.
  On my return with  these beneficial fruits for the College, the anger of its
enemies was  exalted into fury; and I was spoken of by many respectable,
but short-sighted and deluded citizens, as a disturber of the peace of society.
At the instigation of professional rivals, and those who were  disappointed in
lheir aspirations after seats in the College, a great public  meeting was held
in the court house; where several demagogues undertook to demonstrate, that
the acceptance of the charter by the city would ultimately impoverish it; and
resolutions were  actually passed recommending its  rejection!  Still further
to promote the same desirable end, ward meetings were held, at night, over
the whole city, where many of our physicians,  some of whom have since been
professors of  the College, appeared as speakers against the.acceptance of the
charter, and similar resolutions were passed!   While these things were acting,
the newspaper press was again put into requisition, and made to pour out upon
me, the most copious  torrents of calumny  and abuse.  The  intelligent tax-
payers of the city, however, had the sagacity to foresee, that the proposed en-
dowment of the Hospital, would,  as  it has in  fact, already done, work out a
signal reduction of the poor taxes; and through their influence, exerted from
this motive, and united  with the few  friends of the  College, the charter was
finally accepted by a vote of seven to five hundred; and these, also, are facts
which I ask you to bear in mind.
  In the following summer, I succeeded in obtaining the  co-operation of the
late  distinguished and  lamented Dr. Godrnan, then a young man;  and, I
fearlessly assert, that the institution, young as it was, had, then, an abler
Faculty than belonged to it for the succeeding ten years; but so violent had
been  the newspaper publications in Cincinnati, and so  attractive were  the
eminent and developed professors, whom the liberality of the people of Lex-
ington, had  enabled the trustees  of Transylvania University to draw into
that institution; so efficient was the surgical reputation of Dr. Dudley, and so 
m
great was the  popularity of president  Holley, that  our class was scarcely
larger than that of the preceding year.   This discouraged two of my col-
leagues, Drs. Godman and Bohrer, who resigned in the Spring of 1822, and
returned to the eastern states.
  By this time  my other  two associates, Dr. Smith and Mr. Slack, the latter
following the former, were in collusion  with my enemies, because  their nu-
merical force Avas imposing; and without being able to prefer charges of any
kind  against me, they expelled me from  the institution.  Thus I did not
voluntarily abandon it, but was forcibly displaced, by two men, younger than
myself,  who had recently come to the west, and had  received their  appoint-
ments on my own nomination.   At that  time the College was dignified with
the office of President, to which I had been appointed  by the Legislature,
and  my expulsion of course  vacated  that office likewise.   Thus  termi-
nated the first  epoch in the  history of the College; and such, to myself,
were  the  bitter fruits of four years of incessant toil, in the midst of such
a tempest of slander and libels, as never, before or since, was raised against
any other citizen of Ohio,
  In  calmly reviewing, after the lapse of many years, the labors and events
of that period, I feel it due  to myself to claim, that  I conceived the design
and projected the plan, of the Medical College  of Ohio; drew up  its  Char-
ter, and by a personal application to the Legislature got it enacted into a
law;  through the  members of  that honorable  body,  excited an interest
throughout the  state at large, in the institution;  projected the Hospital and
Lunatic asylum, establishments highly beneficial to the state and city, as well
as to  the College; by personal application to the Legislature procured build-
ing funds for the same with opulent revenues, which can never be abolished;
obtained professors and organized the first Faculty for the College; dissemi-
nated a knowledge of the natural and  statistical advantages of Cincinnati
for such a school, overall the west  and south;  relinquished a respectable
and advantageous connection with the Lexington school, for the prosecution
of these objects; neglected my practice  for nearly six weeks, in two visits
to our seat of government; and  expended  a  much  greater sum of money
than I received  for my two  courses of lectures:—far less than which labors
and sacrifices, would be  sufficient to inspire me with an ardent and inextin-
guishable desire for the prosperity and final success of the institution.  But
let us return to its history.
   By the original charter, the professors of the College were themselves its
governors, and there was, consequently, no Board of Trustees.  After my
expulsion, Dr.  Smith and Mr. Slack were the  only members of the corpora-
tion.   They immediately proceeded to an  election of officers, and the former
was chosen President, and the latter Registrar.  They, then, cast about among
their  friends and the friends of those physicians, who  had labored at my over-
throw, and selected  a body of thirteen  Counsellors, whose office  it was to
sanction whatever they might do; and who, I believe, seldom disappointed the
expectations under which they were chosen.
   In the following winter, 1822-3, the  Legislature  amended the charter by
creating a Board of Trustees, and appointed into it, a majority of the Coun-
cil.   The new body met early in 1823, and, as a considerable reaction had
taken place in the public mind, I was credulous  enough to expect,  that their
first act would be, to reinstate me in the places from which I had been violent-
ly expelled; but they adjourned without  considering my case,  and left  me to
speculate on the future.   I confess, that this postponement of my case, by a
body of fellow citizens, many of whom had  known me for more than twenty 
                                 (8)

years, excited a feeling of indignation, which the  lapse of half that long pe-
riod, has not  entirely obliterated; in a great degree because the subsequent
official acts of the same men, have contributed to keep it alive.
   Soon after the meeting of which I have spoken, I  was informed that they
were about to  introduce into the College one of my most busy and violent
enemies, and that they intended to retain both of the men who had  expelled
me from it; at the same time, T was left entirely in  the dark, as to their inten-
tions in reference to myself.  All my hopes were then blasted; and, as  I had
been repeatedly solicited to return to the Lexington School, I  permitted one
of my friends to place my  name before the Transylvania Board.   Soon after
this  was done, the Trustees of our College held another meeting,  and,  elect-
ing into it one of my mortal enemies, restored me to my professorship, but not
to the presidency.   It was  now too late, however, had my  feelings even per-
mitted me to re-enter the School, under such humiliating circumstances, for I
was pledged to return to the Transylvania University if re-elected,—an  event
which happened not long after.
   Thus, by the unprovoked hostility, of those who  successively exercised the
corporate powers of the  institution,  my banishment  from it  was  effected.
With mingled emotions of  sorrow  and resentment, I had the weakness, as I
departed, secretly to pour out upon it, the imprecation of Camillus; but this
fact, I do not ask you to remember.
   My transfer  to the University at Lexington, was hailed by the  Professors
and  Trustees of our College, and many of the physicians of the city, as aus-
picious of peace and prosperity^and, it was confidently predicted, that the
institution  would begin to  flourish, and the profession in  the city, rise in re-
spectability.  As to myself, I felt only the negative gratification, which  arises
from being disenthralled.
  After passing four winters at Lexington, in uninterrupted harmony with my
colleagues and the different classes, I became tired of librating between that
city and this, from which the treatment I had received, had never alienated rny
affections; and I resigned, for the purpose of making this my sole residence.
  Throughout  the whole of this period, I had indulged the hope, of seeing
our College assuming the comparative rank, which I had originally anticipa-
ted for it; but its maladies ran on in an ataxic type, and  no critical discharge
had occurred, nor were any signs of a crisis perceptible.
  But let us  return to the  beginning of this second  epoch.   Soon  after my
departure for Lexington, in 1823, instead of casting about for some  develo-
ped  and experienced man, to fill the chair of the  Practice of Medicine, the
Trustees, on the recommendation of Dr. Smith, who had moved my expulsion,
assigned it to Doctor Cobb, of the state of  Maine, who had been a student
in the same office with Dr. Smith, and had just graduated!  Thus  an inexpe-
rienced young gentleman, who had studied the elements of his profession, in a
different latitude and among a different people, was called, with the ink still un-
dried on his diploma, to teach students of Medicine in the Valley of the Missis-
sippi, how to  cure the diseases  of the West  and South!  . The  motive of Dr.
Smith was to acquire a colleague, whom he supposed would be governed by
this counsels,  and the motive of the Trustees in thus sacrificing the  interests
of the institution, probably was to gratify the man, who had made the nomina-
tion.  Dr. Cobb engaged in his duties;  but after one or two sessions, had the
good sense to perceive, that to teach the Practice of Physic, a man  must, him-
self, have been a practitioner, and very properly required the Board to  trans-
fer him to the chair  of Anatomy, or he must leave the institution.   This prop-
osition greatly aggravated a difference  which had already arisen between Dr. 
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Cobb and Dr. Smith, who held both Anatomy and Surgery; and it eventuated
in an open quarrel, which I mention, because it has often been, falsely, assert-
ed, that the Faculty were always harmonious, after I left the  institution.   In
this quarrel Dr. Moorhead took part with Dr. Cobb, and Mr. Slack, as in ear-
lier times, clung to  Dr. Smith; and thus  the four professors, paired off, were
arrayed against each other in open hostility.  They all concurred, however, in
the gratuitous opinion, that I was desirous of returning to the College, and
that they ought to stand by each other in barring me out.  I am willing to ap-
peal to the citizens of Cincinnati, who knew any thing of the affairs of the
College in 1824, 5 and 6, for the truth of all these statements.   After a con-
siderable struggle, the  influence of Drs. Cobb and Moorhead prevailed, in the
Board of  Trustees, and the  former was placed  in the chair of Anatomy,  for
which he was certainly better qualified than for the Practice  of Physic.  Dr.
Smith dissembled,  and  appearing to acquiesce in this arrangement, suffer-
ed his name to go forth in the annual circular, as professor of Surgery only.
Just before the lectures commenced, however, when he  thought it was too late
for the Board to supply his place, he suddenly resigned, and advertised to lec-
ture on all the branches of the profession, at "a dollar a week for regular stu-
dents, and fifty cents for amateurs!"  Such an unblushing and undignified at-
tempt, to injure the  institution, would have forever alienated him from the con-
fidence of an impartial and  high  minded Board of Trustees;  but the mana-
gers in the Board, were his friends, and as  I shall mention hereafter, he was
subsequently restored to the same chair, by the very  men with whom he had
thus trifled, the vote of one of them, without which, his re-election could  not
have been effected, being given, as I understood, by proxy!   This was in
1825.
   After the resignation of Dr. Smith, Dr. Cobb in turn was required to dis-
charge the duties  of both chairs, although his practice in  Surgery, at  that
time, had  been as  limited as his practice in  Medicine.  The chair of Phy-
sic being now vacant, Dr. Moorhead, who had been but a few years  in Amer-
ica, and was comparatively unacquainted with our diseases, was transferred to
it, from the chair of Materia Medica, and it became necessary to supply  his
place.  To this end,  Dr. Whitman, was judiciously selected, as one of my
old College enemies; being still  further recommended to the Board and the
public, by his being a friend of Dr. Cobb; and having studied in  the office
where that gentleman and  Dr.  Smith were taught.  Thus at the same time,
three of the professors of the College, had  been the  private pupils of  one
New England physician,—the second being elected out of complaisance to
the first, and the third from respect to the second; and  to augment the guards
to that return to the institution,  which it was feared, /still meditated!  At a
subsequent period,  Dr. Whitman was transferred to the new  chair, of Obstet-
rics, and  the Board determined to  complete the usual number of professors by
appointing a sixth man to the chair of Mateira Medica.  The choice naturally
 fell upon Dr. Pierson of New York, an amiable gentleman,  utterly  unknown
to the American profession, both  east and west of the mountains, and to  this
 hour as unknown to the people of Cincinnati, where he does not reside—but pos-
 sessed of these  attractive qualifications, that he was the nephew or cousin of
 one  Trustee, and the  brother-in-law of another, both of whom were intimate
 with Dr.  Smith, at  the time of my expulsion.  In this manner and from these
 motives, the second Faculty of the College was completed, and immediately
 pronounced by the Board, to be equal to any in the Union!
    It was thought safest, however, not to rely too much on the  celebrity of
 these gentlemen;  and to secure the attendance of pupils three or four differ- 
( io)
tent expedients were adopted.  First:  The tickets were reduced in price from
twenty dollars  to ten and  twelve  with a matriculation fee of two dollars,
making an  aggregate of sixty-six  dollars;  while those of the  Philadelphia
school were twenty, and those of the  Lexington school fifteen  dollars each.
Thus a student could meet all his expenses in  Cincinnati, with the sum
which he had  to pay the professors alone in Lexington.   Two consequen-
ces came from this underbidding, so derogatory  to the character of the
school—first, the attraction to it of many  poor students,  who would  have
gone to Lexington,  if the expenses of the two schools  had been equal; and
secondly, a refusal by the  Faculty  of  Transylvania University to recognize a
course of lectures in our institution, as equivalent to one in theirs.
   The second stratagem for  getting a class, was to obtain a law, authorizing
the District  Medical Societies of the  state, more than twenty in number, re-
spectively, to nominate an indigent student of medicine, who should be en-
titled to attend  the lectures gratuitously.  These nominations were made so
faithfuliy, that from an eighth to a seventh part of each class have  been con-
stantly composed  of those, who,  but for this provision, would not have visited
the College.  I do not object to this arrangement, but refer to it, as an ex-
traneous  method, of swelling  the number of  pupils.
   In the third place,  no  student was turned away because he had not the
means of paying for his tickets; and  credits  were granted, annually,  to an
extraordinary number, who  served at least to  fill up  the vacant seats.   This
arrangement, again, I do not object to, as it  regarded the pupils  who were
thus favored; but it should  be known to you, as one  of the means employed
to augment the number in attendance  on the lectures.
   In the fourth and last  place,  the Hospital was  made,  or attempted to be
made, a substitute for the conscious deficiencies of the Professors; and, es-
pecially, was appropriated to their  personal and private advantage.  By a re-
ference to the law establishing that public  charity, January 1821, you will
perceive that as a consideration for the gratuitous attendance of the Faculty of
the College on  the  patients of the  Hospital  and Asylum, they  were to be at
" liberty under such regulations  as they might choose to prescribe, to intro-
duce the pupils of said College into the said Hospital and Asylum, to wit-
ness the treatment of the patients there assembled"—and that  " the moneys
that might accrue to the said College  from the admission of the pupils into
the Asylum, should be employed exclusively, in the purchase of books,
ANATOMICAL PREPARATIONS AND PHILOSOPHICAL APPARATUS FOR SAID COL-
LEGE."
   Now, I presume that you, and the profession, generally, in Ohio, have sup-
posed, that the  law which I have just  quoted, was  strictly carried into effect,
and the Hospital thus made a source of revenue to the College, as was con-
templated by the  Legislature of  1821-2.  But no such thing was performed.
On the contrary, no hospital ticket to be purchased by students, either for sum-
mer or winter, was established, nor did the privilege of seeing the practice in
that public charity,  bring a cent  into the treasury of  the College, during the
three years in which the provision was in force, after  the establishment  of the
Hospital.  In December,  1825, that part  of the law  which appropriated
the moneys arising from the sale of hospital tickets to the benefits of the Col-
lege was repealed.  Still no ticket was issued. In the winter, the pupils of the
College were entitled to admission into the  Hospital under their matriculation
fee of two dollars, and the moneys thus tfcc uing,  went into the contingent
fund of the Faculty, and was absorbed by their current expenses.  In the summer
session the College had no pupils, and cons equently none had a right to ad-
mission into the Hospital; but the professors then introduced their private 
(11)
 pupils, gratuitously, and excluded those of the other physicians of the city;
 thus offering the Hospital as a bonus to those who would study with them.
 This prostitution of a public institution, to the private emolument of the pro-
 fessors, did not pass unnoticed by the physicians  of the city, and in the sum-
 mer of 1827, a respectable portion of them presented a memorial to the Trus-
 tees of the  Hospital  requesting  them  to  establish a Hospital ticket for  the
 summer season when the College had no pupils; that any student of medicine
 who dhose might purchase it, and thus  gain admission to the practice in that
 public charity.   This memorial was immediately laid before the Faculty, who
 of course set their faces  against it, and there the  matter ended.   Thus our
 Hospital is placed on a different footing from  all others in the United States,
 and one which requires the students of Cincinnati  to study with the profes-
 sors of the College, if they would gain  admission to the wards of the Hospi-
 tal through eight months of the year.
    Such  were  some  of the extraneous means, employed, from 1823 to
 1831, to attract pupils to the Medical College of Ohio, and make up for the
 deficiencies of an incompetent Faculty; and still the classes during that long
 period,  were most of  the time far below a hundred, and never rose above it
 till  the last two years, in  which those  professors continued in office; while
 through the same period the Lexington school, at prices fifty per cent, high-
 er, had classes  which fluctuated from one hundred and fifty to two hundred
 and eighty!   Now when we consider that the two  institutions are  nearly of
 the  same age, that Lexington has no Hospital, and  that Cincinnati is univer-
 sally admitted to be the far  more eligible place  of the two for such a semi-
 nary, the great disparity in the number  of students in the two  schools  can
 only be  ascribed to a disparity in the talents  and character of  their profes-
 sors.  Mortifying as this disparity in numbers  should have been  to the Trus-
 tees of  our institution,  they seem  absolutely to have been proud of their
 success.   They have at all times manifested, that they thought it marvellous,
 that their school should have attracted so many pupils  as it did; instead  of
 being disappointed and chagrined, that it did not equal a  rival institution,
 laboring for  distinction, under circumstances  far less propitious.   They  ap-
 pear to have  felt towards their protegees, as fond parents feel towards chil-
 dren of  feeble intellect, (from whom little is expected,) when  they happen
 to say or  do any thing  of uncommon smartness.  They considered that
 the Faculty had not buried its '■one talent' in the earth, and was, therefore,
 entitled  to praise and continued confidence.
   The simple fact was, that each of the Professors  was the favorite, family
 physician, personal friend or relative, of some one or two of the Trustees;
 and  as the former were equal to a majority of the latter—six to eleven;—a
 majority of the Board were at all times ready to resist changes in the Faculty,
 A sort of feudal  relation of  vassal and lord was established; and as long as
 the Professor recommended himself by personal considerations to the Trus-
 tee,  the latter owed him protection.   This state of  things, disastrous to any
 public institution, was the natural, and must always be the inevitable conse-
 quence,  of having a small Board of Trustees,  resident entirely in the city,
 and  by  re-elections  continued  for an indefinite  period,  in one dynasty.
 Should  you cdntinue to prosecute the important  object  to  which you have
directed  your attention, I hope  you will keep these facts and suggestions
constantly  in  view.   No such dynasty, however respectable its composition,
will very long conduct the affairs of the College on sound principles.
  During this long period of eight years, the Trustees made their annual re-
ports to the Legislature, setting  forth the prosperity of the school, and th« 
( 12)
merits of the Professors, without  their being formally contradicted on either
point.   Now and then, it is true, some medical gentlemen, in this city, ven-
tured, in the newspapers, to call  in question the wisdom and impartiality of
the Board, or the competency of the Faculty; but they were met and silenced
by the  sneering remark, that they, themselves, were disappointed aspirants for
places in the College.   Once  during the time, the State Medical Conven-
tion recommended to the Legislature, then in session, to re-orpanize the Board
of Trustees; but the president of that body was then in Columbus, and, as I
have been informed, assured the members of Assembly, that the Convention
were the dupes of Dr. Drake, who was seeking to destroy the College, and
there the matter stopped.
  The fact is, that, from its origin  to the present hour, the Legislature has
not instituted one inquiry into the existing condition and management of the
College; although it is our only state institution, for literary and scientific
improvement.   This is the more surprising, as that honorable body has, at all
times, manifested, by its grants of revenue, as well  as by the establishment
and permanent endowment of the Hospital, a  most liberal disposition.   It
should have perceived and felt,  however,  that if it was a duty to give, it was
an equal duty, to see that its gifts were made productive of the greatest possi-
ble  benefit and distinction to the state; and, I hope, the time will come, when
the  General Assembly will open their  eyes to this subject.  We  shall then,
and not till then, be in the way  of rearing a school that will do honor to the
fourth state of the union, and make itself felt throughout the Valley of the
Mississippi.
  Having exposed the governing motives of the  Board in making up  and sus-
taining the second Faculty of the College; and, with the strictest regard  to
truth, disclosed some  of the prominent abuses practised by that  Faculty, I
must now direct your attention to  the causes  aud manner  of its partial  over-
throw,  in 1831, after having, for  eight years, rested, like an incubus, on the
institution.
  Not long after my final return from Lexingtou, in  1827,1 was sounded  on
the subject of re-entering the school, not on the chair from which  I had been
expelled, but a new one.  I replied to the Trustees, who spoke to me on the
subject, that I would never serve in it, with the two men  who had expelled
me; but that I could furnish the Board with  the names of  eminent  men,  as
Professors, if it would re-organize the Faculty.  Notwithstanding these decla-
rations, I received, on the 3d of July, a note, from the chairman of a  commit-
tee, informing me that the Board had it in contemplation, to establish one  or
two new professorships, and wishing to know, if I would accept that of the
'Institutes and Medical Jurisprudence?'  In answer, I expressed my  surprise,
that when it was known to the Board, that I would not serve with  the men
who had expelled me, it should still offer me  a  place, and  that, too, not the
one which I originally held; and added, that were this difficulty obviated, my
returning to the College, would depend on its receiving such an organization
as would render it worthy of the state, which had cherished it with  so much
zeal;  and deserving  of that extended patronage, in the West and South,
which, from its location, it might  be made to acquire.   As it was no part  of
the policy of the Trustees, to bring about this beneficial change by disturbing
incumbents,  who, as they were not selected  for iheir knowledge, could not,
consistently, be removed for their ignorance, our correspondence  terminated
with my reply.  They  had, as they thought, appeased  the feelings of my
friends, by offering me a place,  which  they knew, beforehand, I would not ac-
cept, and, therefore, considered a further step unnecessary.  Still,  all con- 
( 13)
cemed  in  the  institution, paid me the compliment, of seeing  the sword of
Damocles suspended over their heads, and their whole policy was shaped, as
throughout the  preceding five years, not to stregthen  themselves against the
expected blow,  but to elude it.  in short, to sustain the existing  organization,
and thwart the schemes of revolution, which they apprehended I had in train,
were the animating principles  of  all their acts and doings!   It was mortify-
ing, to see an institution which I had projected in  the high  hopes of  earlier
days, for the establishment of which I had labored four  years, and,  for the
honor of which I cherished  a sleepless anxiety,—confided  to men who had
no higher aims, or nobler ambition, than to exhaust the time they should have
devoted to study, and the prosperity of the institution, in watching the move-
ments of an  humble individual!   Meanwhile, I was, for three years, a mere
looker-on;  and, quietly occupied in the study  and practice of my profession,
concocted  none of the many plans of Medical College reform, which the ter-
rified imaginations of the Faculty, enabled them to  espy in my ordinary ac-
tions.
  I was not, however, indifferent to the character of the state and city, as far
as it was involved in the degraded state of our College; nor satisfied with my
own condition, as the first public teacher, in medicine, (however humble,) who
had arisen  in the state; but  I  resolved  to let  the College alone, and refused
several invitations, to co-operate in plans for its melioration, because I thought
they would prove abortive.
  Perceiving, at last, that the policy of the Board was unchangeable, and that
no hopes of a spontaneous reform need  any longer  be indulged, I began to
think, seriously, on the organization of a new school;  which would either su-
persede, or revolutionize, the College Faculty, and  prove worthy of the state.
I conjectured, however, that it would be extremely difficult 1o convince  emi-
nent men,  in other parts of the United  States, of the weakness of the institu-
tion already here;  and that I should, on that  account, and that  only, find it
difficult to  make up an able  Faculty.  And, here I must be permitted to say,
that I could not but deeply regret, that the Trustees of the  College, would not
authorize me to seek out for it, a Faculty that would place it on a footing, with
any other institution in the country, convinced as  I was, that I  could  obtain
such an one; and I now, solemnly, declare (from what I learned in a visit to
the East soon afterwards,) that if I had been thus commissioned, I could have
obtained for the institution, a body of Professors, equal in point of talents,
learning, and reputation, to any others in America.
  But to return to my narrative.  Early in the year 1830, while pondering on
this subject, I was unexpectedly  offered the Chair of the  Theory and Prac-
tice in Jefferson College, Philadelphia, which I accepted, on the condition
that I might  resign it  at the end of my first  course of lectures, if I chose.
Finding that by this event,  I should soon be placed under favorable circum-
stances  for selecting Professors,  for a new Western Institution,  I applied to
the  Trustees of Miami University, for a warrant.  I believed, if an  able
Faculty  could  be organized,  one of two consequences  would ensue—the
General  Assembly would either  reform the   Trustees  of the College,  and ,
appoint men who would bring  the new Professors into that  institution; or they
would turn over the College edifice, and other property, to the University, in
trust for its medical department;  and by vacating the Board of Trustees and
Faculty, of the former, terminate all its operations;—either of which results,
would  benefit the public, as far as the new Faculty might be superior to the
old.   With these views, communicated to a number of respectable citizens of
Cincinnati, and various parts of the State, and approved by them all, I made 
(14)
a personal application to the Board of Trustees of the University, at the pub-
lic Commencement of 1830.  Convinced, as I suppose, of the incompetency
of the existing College Faculty; desirous of advancing the interests of science;
of opinion, as may be presumed, that a body of Medical Professors, resident in
Cincinnati, would  exert a beneficial influence,  in favor of the Academical
Department of the University; and, aware, that its charter was older than that
of the College;—the Trustees, liberally and promptly, granted the request;
and, appointing me Professor of the Institutes and Practice, and Dean of the
Faculty, authorized me to select and nominate my colleagues.
  With this commission, I departed for Philadelphia, and turned my attention
towards its execution.   Then  it was, that I found, as 1  have already stated,
that the existence of the College in Cincinnati,  was the  only obstacle, to an
affirmative answer from several gentlemen, distinguished in other Universities;
and, that if my power of nomination,  had been  derived  from the College, I
could have filled its Faculty with professors, who would have crowded its halls
with  pupils,  the first  session.   However,  notwithstanding  the  difficulties,
which beset the undertaking, I succeeded in forming an abler Faculty than
Cincinnati had as yet known; and,  in the month of February, sent on their
names to the Trustees of the University at Oxford, who immediately confirm-
ed the nominations, and announced their new Department.
  A fresh paroxysm of terror, by  this time,  convulsed the College; and both
Professors and Trustees, turned instinctively to the General  Assembly  for
protection.  An elaborate memorial was presented to that body by a commit-
tee of the Board—praising the Faculty, and praying for a law to estop the
University.  The petition  was referred to a committee of the Senate.   Arriv-
ing soon  afterwards in Columbus, on  my way back from Philadelphia, I drew
up and presented a remonstrance—asking the Legislature to  let us alone—
which was  referred to  the same committee.  While the subject was  under
consideration, its Chairman, and the Agentof the  Board, requested an interview
with me, when they, jointly, proposed, as a compromise, that myself, and two
of my colleagues,  Drs. Eberle, and McClellan,  should leave  the University,
and  enter  the  College;  three  of its (able and  lauded)  Professors being
displaced, to  make way  for us.   I  told them,  at once, that I felt myself
pledged,  both publicly and privately, not to desert any  of my colleagues for
the purpose of entering the College; that Drs. Mitchell, Staughton and Henry,
would remain unprovided for, and that nothing could induce  me to leave them
behind; facts which were known, at the time, to one of your own body, and
which, for several reasons, I wish you all to remember.  I further stated, what
at that time, I thought self-evident, that the  Agent, who was, also, a member
of the Board of  College Trustees, had no power to bind that institution; but
I have since perceived, that his wishes, suggest the rules of action of the honor-
able Board.
  Meanwhile, numerous petitions from Cincinnati and various parts of the
state, were sent to the Legislature, praying it not to estop the Miami Univer-
sity; all of which were referred to the same  Committee  with  the memorial.
Under these circumstances the Committee determined not to report a bill of
estoppel against the University; but recommended  the  passage of a law, for
increasing the Trustees of the College, from eleven to twenty, with instruc-
tions to  re-organize the Faculty.  Before this  report was  called up  in the
Senate, it was  recollected, that  the  triennial election  of College Trustees,
would take place the next winter; and, by common consent, the whole business
was laid over to the opening of the ensuing session.  Thus the application of the 
( 15)
College for a law to suppress the Miami School, led to a report, by a commit-
tee of the friends of the former, declaring that a re-organization was necessary!
Such an unexpected  result, was well calculated to aggravate the fears of all
persons connected with that establishment;  and, they, forthwith, resolved to
seek in the courts of justice, that protection which the General Assembly had
denied them. Accordingly, two of ther Professors becoming informers, before
the Mayor of Cincinnati, deposed  to that which would enable the Trustees to
apply for a writ of quo  warranto,  against  the University.  A  motion was
forthwith made,  in the Supreme Court of Butler county, and argued in favor
of the College, by counsel, prompted and instructed by the President of the
Board.   The Court gave no  opinion on the merits of the  application, but
carried up the whole matter to the annual convocation of the judges in Co-
lumbus.
   The Trustees of the College,  now becoming desperate, bethought them-
selves of a compromise, and began to proscribe several of the Professors whom
for years, and just before, in their circulars  and memorials, they had praised
and  flattered, and recommended  to  the  confidence of the profession in the
West, a fact  which I hope you will  remember.  They seemed to feel, that
their official character for sagacity, tact and vigilance, would be in dan-
ger, if they suffered a rival school to spring up in Cincinnati.  They foresaw
that the General Assembly might, charge them with mismanagement, and elect
others in their stead,  the ensuing winter.   They could not endure  the
mortification, that  a single, unaided individual, whom  in conversation they
and  their Professors, had, so often, represented as a factious, but  harmless, be-
cause, a fallen man, should have succeeded in organizing, under the very walls
of the College, an able Faculty than that which had for eight years, vegetated
in its halls.  They were, in short, sorely  troubled  in spirit, and bent, as ulte-
rior  proceedings demonstrated, on practising  a ruse de guerre.
   As  I  had refused, in Columbus, to  abandon  any  of my  associates, the
scheme now  was, to induce a part of them to abandon  me; and  thus to break
up the Miami Faculty.  But  the enterprise  was not without  its difficulties.
They could not  hope, that, unless, I were offered a place  in the  College also,
the professors whom but two months before, I had  refused to desert, could be
induced to  leave me;  but  they knew that 1 would not re-enter it, with Dr.
Smith there, nor while any of my colleagues  were left behind; and,  therefore,
they felt assured, that in tendering me a situation,  there was no danger of my
acceptance.
   In this state of mind, they proceeded to revive the old seventh  professorship
of the Institutes and Medical Jurisprudence; and, at the same time, did that,
which they ought to have done long before,  but which they  refused to do in
1827—declare all the professorships vacant.   This being accomplished, they
elected Drs.  Mitchell  and Staughton, to  the chairs of  Chemistry and Obstet-
rics, and, myself, not to the Theory and Practice, which, 1 originally held, and
from which I had been expelled,  but to the  Institutes and Medical Jurispru-
dence.   To  the other four chairs, they meant, as soon as  Drs. Staughton and
Mitchell accepted, to re-elect their late incumbents, Drs. Smith,  Cobb, Moor-
head,  and  Pierson.  You will naturally ask  why  they  did not do this at the
same time, they made a draft upon  the Miami School?   I answer, that as I
had  told some  members  and confidential  friends  of the Board, but a  few
hours before these proceedings took place, that I never would, again, act with
Dr.  Smith, common decency required that they should put him out, long enough
to fake me in,
   Such were the circumstances, under which I was offered a reinstatement in 
( 16)
 the College.  Circumstances which the Board knew must prevent my accep-
 tance.   I repeat which they knew,—for only an hour before the  appointment
 was made, I told one of its members,  on his way to the meeting, that I could
 not, and would not be faithless to my  colleagues nor go into the  College ex-
 cept all of them  were provided for.   You may think it strange, that with this
 knowledge, they  should have proceeded to appoint me.   I certainly thought it
 so myself.  You  will agree with me, that, they felt and perceived, that I could
 not accept without dishonor; and, was it not insulting, to hunt me up, and pro-
 pose to me to do that, by which 1 should be disgraced in the eyes of every hono-
 rable man, who might  witness it?  When I had let them alone, in the quiet pos-
 session of an institution projected by myself, and amply endowed by the state;
 and, unassisted by others, had organized a new Faculty here, which any citizen
 had a right to do, was it not a little action, to labor with my colleagues, excite
 their fears, and endeavor to draw them  from the  enterprize, in which we had
 engaged under reciprocal pledges of fidelity?   I cannot view it otherwise.
 If they had been ignorant of engagements on my part, which could not be vio-
 lated without disgrace, the case would have been  entirely different.  As it
 was, they saw the dilemma in which their cunning placed me—if I accepted, I
 was disgraced,—if I refused, and a part of my associates could be frightened
 into a desertion of the rest, the Miami project was a failure, and myself brought
 into derision.  I  dwell the longer on this stratagem, because, some of my
 friends were made to believe, that in this offer, the Board had, at last, design-
 ed  to make reparation, for my unjust expulsion, from the School.   If offering
 me that, which they were assured I could not  accept, without a sacrifice of
 principle, was performing an act of justice, then I have no further claims; and,
if an attempt to bribe a fellow citizen into the paths of dishonor, was compat-
 ible with sound morality, why then the character of the institution, on  this
point, is unstained.
  When I received this, pro forma, invitation, and heard of the  election of
 two of my colleagues, and that all the  old Professors of the  College were dis-
 placed, I perceived that a revolution had commenced; but did not pretend to
 foresee its course or termination.  I believed, however, that, but one school
 would emerge from the chaos, and was anxious that it should be composed of
the best possible materials.  My appointment was dated on the 11th of June,
 and on the 14th I returned an answer—neither declining nor accepting—from
which I shall transcribe the following paragraph: "Some of my (Miami)  col-
leagues are  now  here, and others are preparing to join us from a distance.—
To the whole I am under pledges, both implied and expressed, not to prove
unfaithful to our common cause.   I must, therefore, be allowed time, not only
to consult those in the city; but, also, those in Philadelphia, and my final an-
swer must turn, in a great degree,  upon the replies I may receive from them."
  On the 5th of  July, having received letters from Philadelphia, I addressed
the following to the Board of Trustees:

                                          "Cincinnati, July 5th, 1830.
                 To the Trustees of the Medical College of Ohio.
  Gentlemen,—In my letter to the committee of nomination, I stated my earnest desire
to re-enter me Medical t ollege, and the pleasure it would afford me to lend my feeble assis-
 tance to your honorable body, in rendering it, forthwith, one of the most distinguished insiitu-
 tions in America; but at  the same time I informed them,  that I was  under inviolable
 pledges to my colleagues, that I  would not desert any of them in th^s stage  of our enter-
 prise.  Dr. McC'lellan has engaged  himself by written  covenants,  for one year, which
 are equally binding on Drs. Staughton, k'enry and myself, but his case could be met by us,
 by paying him the stipulated sum.  The case, however, is different with Dr. tberle, who is 
(17)
one of our permanent professors, has a guaranty for a term of years, and is already prepared
to remove to  this city.  Of the characer of this gentleman, I may say, that he is an able
lecturer, and one of the most distinguished  writers on Materia Medica and the Practice of
Physic, which this country has yet produced.  He is withal an eminent Botanist, and as well
acquainted  with the Medical Botany of  the United States as any other individual within its
limits.  His mind is strongly bent on this branch of science, as he is coining to a new country;
and it is his design to deliver, every year, a course of lectures on that subject;  hence Botany
was at his own request, added to the Professorship which he  now holds.   In confirmation of
the whole of thi--, I could, if time had permitted, have obtained a volume of testimony.  What
has come into my hands, I herewith transmit to the honorable Board.
   Dr. Henry is as yet, comparatively an untried man, but the documents which accompany
this communication will show to your honorable body, that I did not select him without suffi-
cient reason.   I was desirous of having  in  the school, a native of the West, the more cer-
tainly to secure its sympathies with the institution.   I also  wished to have one, if possible,
from Kentucky, not only because it might make a diversion from  the  Lexington school;  but
because, as the manners and customs of that state  are the same  as those of  the other slave
states to which we must look for the majority of our pupils, he would be acceptable to the
students from that region. Of the estimation in which he is held in Kentucky, and the southern
parts  of Indiana and Illinois, I need say nothing, in addition tothe ample and highly respect-
able testimony contained in the recommendations I herewith transmit.
   It has been hinted to me that my engagements with this gentleman  are, perhaps, not such,
but that I might disregard them, without dishonor to myself  or disadvantage to him; but this
is a mistake.   1st.  After I determined to choose  Dr. Henry, his friends rendered me valua-
ble assistance in obtaining a warrant from the University, and acted under my declaration to
them, that I meant to nominate him to the Trustees.
   2d. The disclosure of  this to him, determined his residence in this city.
   'M. I le promptly united with Dr. Staughton and myself,  in offering and executing guaran-
ties, to the amount of near seven thousand dollars, and is, therefore, one of the  founders of the
Miami school.
   From this  statement the Board  will at once perceive, that no considerations on earth
could justify  my desertion of him, while  the  memorials in  his  favor equally evince that
ije is  a gentleman whose co-operation is likely to be of substantial and permanent value.
   The circumstance of his having studied his profession with Dr. Richardson,  the professor of
 Obstetrics in Transylvania University, is, prima facie, evidence that his mind was turned,
at an  early period, to the subjects of the professorship which he now holds.   Dr. Richardson's
opinion  of him I have long known.   He always regarded him as one of the most talented
pupils he ever had, and  used to speak of him to me as  a suitable person for a chair in
Transylvania.
          I have the honor to be, most respectfully, your obedient servant,
                                                             DAN. DRAKE."


   In connexion with this letter,  I transmitted one from the  Reverend and
venerable president of Miami University, in which he exhorted me, in lan-
guage  the most solemn, not to desert any of my colleagues, and, at the  same
time, expressed  the opinion, that  if they should all be invited, and accept ap-
pointments in the Colle^, the Trustees of the University, would acquiesce
in the  arrangement; as, in fact, they did, by a formal  resolution, in the suc-
ceeding September.
   Two days after my letter was sent, the Board held another meeting, at which
I could not have expected  them to  make any further efforts upon the Miami
Faculty, unless they invited all, except Dr. McClellan, whom I was authorized
to omit in the arrangement;  but such was not their course.   The result of their
labors  at this meeting was the following:—Leaving  Dr. Mitchell and myself
in the  chairs to which we had been appointed, they gave up Dr. Smith, and
transferred  Dr. Staughton from Obstetrics to Surgery; they then  assigned  the
former  chair to Dr. Pierson, who had, previously, held Materia Medica,  to
which  they now  elected Dr. Eberle: and, reinstating Dr.  Moorhead in  the
Theory and Practice, and Dr. Cobb in Anatomy,  presented their second pro-
tocol.   This arrangement, you will  observe, left  Dr. Henry unprovided for, 
( 18)
 and, consequently, I was by my early pledges still precluded from accepting,
 and Dr. Eberle refused to do so, unless I did; and Dr. Henry was also embra-
 ced in the arrangement.
   While this was going forward,  the most  unjustifiable efforts were made to
 depreciate the character of Dr. Henry, then a stranger, in Cincinnati; and 1
 was represented, as  adhering to him, not from regard to declarations, (made
 long  before,) of fidelity to all my colleagues; but from personal friendship;
 though 1 had never seen him but three times, prior to my return from Philadel-
 phia,  four months previously!   The fact  was that Dr. Henry stood in the way
 of Dr. Pierson's restoration, as his chair  had  been given to Dr. Eberle, and
 some  other must be found for him.  Now you will naturally inquire who Dr.
 Pierson is, and why the Board, in attempting to build up a new and abler fac-
 ulty, by seducing off the members of a rival school, should have adhered, so per-
 tinaciously, to him ?  I will inform you.  Dr.  Pierson is a resident of the city of
 New York, where he has so limited a practice, that he-finds it an object, to leave
 both it and his family, and spend half the year in Cincinnati, for the paltry in-
 come  of a few hundred dollars, which the College has hitherto yielded.  Of
 his  lecture room celebrity, and his  connexions and sympathies with the West,
you know as much  as  myself.   But, a leading  member of  the Board,  is his
brother-in-law, and this is the true secret of his value to  the School.  This
 brother-in-law, is the neighbor and friend of the ten other Trustees, who com-
 pose that body, and how could it be expected, that they would oppose bis wish-
 es, or speak out their sentiments and opinions, when he was present!  Here,,
 then,  is an  evidence, of the impolicy of committing a richly endowed state
 institution, for public  instruction^ to a small body of city Trustees, who fill
 their own vacancies, and at the end of every three years, promote their own re-
 election, by personal efforts with the Legislature.  I look upon this  error in
 the construction of  the Board of Trustees, as the source of all the degrada-
 tion and inferiority, under which the College has laboured; and am quite con-
vinced, that it will never assume an elevated rank, till its government is placed
 in the hands of a Board, which from its numbers, and their scattered location,
 cannot be brought under the sinister influence, of two or three managers, in
their own body; or two or three Professors, who may recommend themselves,
 to the Trustees, by personal attentions and subserviency.
  The second arrangement of the Faculty,  which I have just detailed, seem-
ed to  me, to be the prelude to a crisis.   1 had facts in my possession, which
I need not here detail, which left no doubt on my mind, and that of my friends,
that the Miami Faculty was in reality broken up.   W^th this conviction) it only
remained to render the crisis as salutary as possible. ""As I  would not enter the
 College myself, while a single colleague was left  behind, and  as Dr. Eberle,
would not join it unless I did, and Dr. Henry was, also, offered a place; and
 as I had, at that time, no hope,  that under  all the circumstances, he and Dr.
McClellan, would wish to prosecute the Miami project, I felt myself reduced
to the necessity, of either relinquishing altogether the subject of Medical Ed-
 ucation, in  Cincinnati, or of devising some mode of bringing in  Dr. Henry,
and at the same time, retaining Dr. Pierson, to whom, I found the Board, were
determined to adhere  at every hazard to  the institution; which was then in a
state of decomposition, not four months before the lectures were to commence.
 Under these circumstances it was, that, as a means of final Union,  between
the two schools, and of saving the interests of Medical instruction, in the city
from  total shipwreck,  I proposed  the eighth professorship—that of Clinical
Medicine.  I was aware, that the limits of that chair, would be very restricted. 
( 19)
and on that account, to obviate the objection of Dr. Pierson's friends, propo-
sed to take it myself, and by yielding the Institutes to him, make way for Dr.
Henry, into the chair of Obstetrics, which he held in the Miami School.
   Still further, to preclude the objections which the  Board might raise, to the
expense of an eighth professorship, I  proposed that  it should be left optional
with the students to lake or omit my ticket.   My friends, not less than myself,
were apprehensive that such a chair, unconnected with any other, could not be
sustained;  but I knew, and  said so to them, that if it were found deficient in
subjects, I  could resign it in the spring; when I should have, at least the grati-
fication, of seeing my colleagues provided, in the College, with the same chairs
they held in the University, and the School considerably improved in its com-
position and character.
   Accordingly, I addressed to the Board the following plan of consolidation.

                                                 "Cincinnati, July 7th, 1831.
  Gentlemen,—In  further reply to your note, offering me the Professorship of the Insti-
tutes and Medical Jurisprudence, in the Medical College of Ohio, I beg leave to suggest the
following plan of consolidation as the only one, as far as I know, that can leave me at liberty
to accept a chair in the Institution.

                        PLAN  OF CONSOLIDATION.
          Anatomy, Dr.  Cobb,
          Institutes of Medicine and Medical Jurisprudence, Dr. Pierson,
          Theory and Practice of Medicine, Dr.  Moorhead,
          Surgeiy, Dr. Staughton,
          Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children, Dr. Henry,
          Materia Medica and Botany, Dr. Eberle,
          Chemistry and Pharmacy, Dr. Mitchell,
          Clinical Medicine, Dr.  Drake.
  I would prefer the chnifcto- which I have affixed my name, to the one offered to me by the
Board;.but if the friends of Dr.  Pierson, would prefer to place him in  that chair, I will
acquiesce.
  If the Board fear an injurious augmentation of expense, I will accept either of these chairs
without having it obligatory  on the students, to take my ticket.
  I am induced to make this suggestion, by the hope that it will promote that consolidation,
which your honourable  body have expressed a desire to  effect, and which  could not fail to
prove beneficial to the interests of society.
                I have the honor to be, respectfully, your obedient servant,
                                                       DAN. DRAKE.
  To the Hon. Board of Trustees of the Medical College of Ohio."

   The Board met the same evening, and, as Dr. Pierson's interests were no
longer in question, they  promptly agreed to  the compromise, and forthwith an-
nounced the consolidated Faculty.   They did not, however, leave it optional,
but  made it obligatory, on the students, who meant to graduate, to take my
ticket;  in doing which, the sagacious members of that body, doubtless fore-
saw, that the period of my connexion with the school was dated.  For as my
range of subjects would be too limited, to enable me  to give satisfaction to the
class, it would soon  become necessary to abolish the chair, and thus dissolve
my connexion  with the  School.  However, as the union could be effected in
no other way, I suffered no misgivings  about the result, to generate a serious
regret  at the arrangement.
   The third Faculty of the College was now perfected; anew epoch commen-
ced, and with it new difficulties, and new acts of a favouritism, in the  Board
of Trustees.
   Dr.  Pierson was in New  York, and when his appointment to the  Institutes
was sent to him (that to Obstetrics  had not been forwarded) he returned for 
(  20 )
answer, that he would accept the chair, if the  Board would allow him a year
for preparation!   My friends and myself,  now thought that this answer would
enable the Board to terminate the greatest difficulty under which  the institu-
tion labored.   Dr. Pierson had  no claims upon them, to allow him a year  for
preparation; one third of that period  would actually elapse before be must
lecture;  by refusing his request, and uniting the Institutes to Clinical Medi-
cine, 1 would have a good professorship, and the number would be reduced to
seven, which the Board  had professed to regard as the most suitable.
   Very different, however, was  their course.  They met to consider his con-
ditional  acceptance, and the following resolution sets forth the result of their
profound and impartial deliberations, on the interests of the institution.

  "Resolved,—That the course of lectures, to be delivered from the chair of the Institutes and
Medical Jurisprudence, be suspended for one year; and that the Board of Faculty be respect-
fully requested to distribute the duties of  that chair, at the approaching session, among them-
selves, in such manner as they may judge most  expedient; and to increase the price of the
tickets forthe next session, of those professors, whose duties will be augmented by the arrange-
ment, so as to prevent the aggregate fees of the next course, from being reduced below the sum
of ninety-nine dollars, exclusive of the matriculation fee."
  August 24th, 1831.

   It was now settled  that the Board intended   to  adhere to Dr.  Pierson.
Were they under any obligation to do so?  I think not.   If they violated his
rights in transferring him from  Materia Medica to the Institutes, in their gra-
tuitous efforts to break up the Miami Faculty, they ought not to have done it:
If they committed no such violation, why, then they were under no obligation
to keep the professorship open for him, while he was schooling himself for it,
and compel  his  colleagues to perform his duties.   Dr.,Henry had never lec-
tured before in any public  institution; and he did not ask a year for prepara-
tion:  Had he done so, the Board would have laughed at his request.
   In obedience  to the resolution of the Board, the Faculty  proceeded to divide
the chair of the Institutes and Medical Jurisprudence, for the ensuing winter.
To myself they  assigned the former, while the lalter was distributed among
the other professors, according to the nature of the subjects which compose it.
   Soon  after this, the  session opened;  and,  although the Faculty was in a
state of decomposition, till  after the time when  a circular should have gone
forth;  and I was placed in  a  station which, my intelligent medical friends
could not fail to perceive, would not admit of my  doing much, and, therefore,
the little attraction I might have exerted on pupils was greatly reduced, still
the class was larger than the College ever presented before.
   The lectures  commenced, and the first  three weeks were sufficient to esta-
blish the unpleasant fact, that  Clinical Medicine  could not be sustained as  a
separate chair.   The wards of the Hospital were too small to admit the entire
class, and its Trustees, uneducated and superstitious men, instead of promoting
post mortem examinations, sought rather to prevent them.
   In the month of December, the  sudents, by  an  almost unanimous vote,
represented these facts to the Board of Trustees, in a respectful memorial; to
which that body gave no reply; and on the second of January, the class sent
another petition to  the General Assembly, representing the same facts, and
praying that honorable body to re-organize and enlarge the Board.
   The following  is a copy of this memorial, as it was passed by a large vote
 of the Class; but the committee to whom the engrossing  and transmitting of
 >t to the Legislature were confided, out of courtesy, as I understood, to some 
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 of their fellow students, omitted that part which contained a criticism on  the
 organization of the Faculty, but retained what related to the enlargement of
 the Board, and to post mortem examinations in the Hospital.
    The following is a copy of the resolution as it was adopted by the vote of a
 decided majority of the largest class which the College ever had.

                   " To the General Assembly of the State of Ohio:

   We, the undersigned, pupils of, and constituting the class of the  Medical College of Ohio,
 beg leave respectfully to present to your honorable body the following memorial on the state
 of the institution.
   The number of Professorships established in the College is eight: while in most  of the
 schools in the United States, there are but six;  in many, five; and in none, the number re-
 cently instituted in this College.   There  are, however, but seven  professors in commission
 this winter, one having remained east of the mountains to prepare himself for his lectures; his
 duties, ad interim, being confided to one of his colleagues.  According to our experience and
 observation, seven professors are amply  sufficient; and we believe that the school is more
 likely to be useful and flourishing with that number than with eight.  We are informed that
 your honorable body  are about to* re-elect  a Board of Trustees.  Without cherishing the least
 sentiment of disrespect to the present honorable Board, we would respectfully suggest to your
 honorable body, the propriety of increasing the number, and of introducing several intelligent
 and influential gentlemen from other parts of the state, in the hope that they might  pursue a
 different policy from that to which the existing Board is pledged, and which seems to us  is
 fraught with injury to the institution.
   We would also respectfully inform your honorable body, that the managers of the Hospital
 have  thrown obstructions in the way of the Faculty of the College, in their attempts to ex-
 amine, in the Hospital, before interment, the bodies of those, who die in that public charity;
 which examinations are practised in all other Hospitals, and affsrd very precious advantages
 to students of medicine, as  by such examinations, better than by any other means, the causes
 and seats of disease can be known.  Therefore, your petitioners would respectfully solicit,
 that your honorable body will pass a law requiring the managers of the Hospital to permit the
 professors of the College to make such examinations for the benefit of  the pupils of the insti-
 tution.*                                          J. T. TELLER, Chairman,
   Medical College of Ohio, January 2nd, 1832."


   Their memorial, I  believe, was  not acted upon by the Legislature; nor, as
 far as I know, was the  report of the Senatorial  Committee of the preceding
 session, recommending the same thing, ever called up.   But early in January,
 the President  and  Secretary of the Board,having made a circuitous journey
 to Columbus, effected,  by a silent vote of the Legislature, the re-appointment
 of the old Trustees, with a single substitution.
   Thus all hopes of a radical reform, and a just, impartial, and libera] admi-
 nistration of the affairs of the institution, were blasted.  The Trustees  were
 elected for three years,  unless the Legislature should please to supersede them
 with  others;  and not choosing to remain  for that  length of time, a supernu-
 merary of the Faculty, I  saw that no alternative was left me but to resign,—
 the result  which  the  Board had  constantly wished to produce.  They had
 balanced  between  Dr. Pierson  and  myself, and  preferred  retaining him to
 keeping me.    Accordingly, on  the 19th  of January, 1832,1, confidentially,
 transmitted tb them, the following letter of resignation, in the terms and tem-
 per of which, I trust you will find nothing to condemn.


                                                  " Cincinnati, Jan. 19th,  1832.

         To the Honorable Board of Trustees, of the  Medical College of Ohio.

  Gentlemen :—Last summer, when I suggested and agreed to accept the chair of  Clinical
 Medicine, in the Medical College of Ohio, as the only means in my power of effecting the
union  of the Medical Department of the Miami University, with the College, an object which
you had originated and were anxious to accomplish, my chief motive was to prevent the in- 
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terests of medical education, in Cincinnati, from being seriously injured by a protracted negotia-
tion.  At the moment of devising the professorship, I felt an apprehension, that its subjects
and limits would be too restricted in the existing condition of the Hospital, to afford me an
opportunity of "being useful to the class; but I felt and perceived, that a  state of things had
been produced by others, which left me no alternative, and I accepted the chair, resolving, if
my apprehensions should be realized, to resign it at the end of the first session.
   When the chair of  the Institutes was declined by the gentleman, eDr. Pierson, of Neiv
York.) to whom it was offered, unless he were allowed a year for preparation, and 1 saw
that branch assigned to me, {for the time being,)  by the unanimous vote of the Faculty,  I
cherished  the hope, that your honorable body would not grant the favor, which he solicited;
but, at once, confirm the union of the Institutes with Clinical Medicine, and by reducing the
number of chairs from eight to seven, afford me a sufficient amount of duties.  You  have,
however,  preferred a different course, and I am, therefore,  compelled, to request you to ac-
cept my  resignation; which I wish to take effect immediately after the. next public  com-
mencement.                                                          _   "
  Thirteen years have this day elapsed, since I had the honor to solicit and obtain from our
Legislature, the charter of the college;  and to be appointed  President and Professor of the
Institutes and Practice of Medicine.  From that day down to the present anniversary, wheth-
er belonging to it, or to other institutions, in different and distant cities, the Medical College
of Ohio, has never ceased; nor can it hereafter  cease, to be with me an object of the deepest
interest.  Therefore it is that I send in my  resignation before the end of the session, that
your honorable body may be able to make and  promulgate  arrangements for  the next course
of lectures, before the class shall disperse.
  In taking a final leave of an institution, which for many years, has been an object of affec-
tion, but to the prosperity of which I can no longer contribute the influence of my feeble'ex-
ertions, I  cannot forego the opportunity of expressing a hope, that it will  continue to flourish,
until it shall reach the high  distinction and  impart the solid advantages, anticipated in its
foundation.                I have the honor to be, respectfully, your obedient servant,
                                                           DAN.  DRAKE."


   You will perceive, from the tenor of this letter, and its being sent confiden-
tially, that I delicately suggested to them,  what several of my friends and, col-
leagues  had already done to individual Trustees, that I should  be happyrto con-
tinue in the school, on  the united chairs of the Institutes and Clinical Medi-
cine .   They had, then, a fair and final opportunity to retain me, if they chose;
a fact, which  I hope you will not forget.   So far, however, from proposing any
tiling of the  kind, or conferring with me officially or unofficially on the sub-
ject,  they promptly  accepted  my resignation, recording their  votes by yeas
and nays,  and then  had not even the courtesy to  give me a  reply.   Certain*
members of  the Board, however, immediately began to  tell my friends, that
if I had remained  in  the  College, the Trustees would  have given me any
place that I  desired!  Thus, after creating and sustaining a state of things
which they foresaw would compel me to leave the school, and declining to
give me the Institutes—which they soon after abolished—when I should have
remained, they had the insincerity to throw the blame of the separation on
myself!
   I now supposed, that the period of revolution had passed, and  that each of
the remaining seven professors, would be continued in the chair  assigned him
the preceding summer.  But it was soon discoverable, that a Halcyon period
had  not yet  arrived; and I  here  commence  the  history of a new, and  still
more complicated operation, of which Dr. Pierson's wishes are again the end
and aim.
   That gentleman, it would seem, had found himself overmatched  by the In-
stitutes, and of course  he must be, finally, brought back to Materia Medica
But that chair was filled by Dr. Eberle, who was unwilling to exchange.   Still
the interests  of Dr. Pierson must be looked after,  at  every hazard.  The first
act in the plot, was to abolish the chair,  for which he had been, six months pre-
paring  himself; and which, but a few weeks before they refused to assign to 
(23)
 me.   This being done, he must be provided for, by displacing some one from
 the school.  The lot, of course,-was destined to fall on Dr. Henry; whom they
 had,  the summer before, pronounced unqualified, and whose expulsion would
 prov® the  correctness of their opinion!  But,  then a  difficulty existed.   Dr.
 Pierson must have Materia Medica, and Dr. Eberle, would not have Obstetrics!
 This  difficulty  suggested the second  act of the drama.   The friends of
 Dr. Pierson proposed to Dr. Eberle, and his friends in the Board, to unite with
 them, in compelling Dr. Moorhead to step down to Obstetrics, that Dr. Eberle
 might step up into the Theory and Practice, and thus  vacate Materia Medica
 to  Dr. Pierson!   The  third act  of the play, was  to get from the professors a
 sanction for abolishing  the chair  of the Institutes.   Accordingly, they sent
 to  the Dean of the Faculty, the following preamble and resolution, which you
 will observe, contain, in  the manner of a leading question to a witness, a clear
 indication of the kind of answer which they wished and expected the Faculty
 to give.  It was dated  on the 22d of February.

  "The Trustees having understood, that several medical men of experience and judgment,
 have expressed an opinion, that the condition of the Medical College of Ohio, would be im-
 proved, and its utility increased by  reducing the  number of professorships to six,—Therefore,
 Resolved, that the Board of Faculty  be respectfully requested to communicate to the Board of
 Trustees their opinion on that subject."

  Now, the chair of Institutes was established in 1827, and put, unsuccess-
 fully, into market.   It was, again, put forth in 1831.   On both occasions, the
 Trustees spoke of it, as an  important and dignified chair,  the institution of
 which was approved  by  the Faculty.  Who then are the  "medical men  of
 judgment and experience," who opened the eyes of the honorable Board to the
 error  they had committed ?  Certainly not the existing professors, for they are
 applied to for an opinion.  I presume not  the professors whom a few months
 before they had dismissed from the College.   Undoubtedly, not the respecta-
 ble and intelligent physicians of the city, who have never belonged to the in-
 stitution, for I believe, without an exception, they laughed at and  condemned
 the reduction.   Who then were  these sapient friends  of the  Board, that for
 once, and once only, vouchsafed  to light up its benighted  path?  No one, I
 believe, has yet found them out.   Taken collectively, they are the "Great Un-
 known," and will probably descend to  the grave with the gratitude of no cit-
 izen of Ohio, but the honorable Trustees.
  You will observe that the resolution calls for the opinion, not of the individ-
 ual professors, but of the  "Board of Faculty.'1''   It will strike you as curious,
 then,  that the  Faculty was not convened on the occasion, for a free and full
 discussion  of the subject,  and a regular vote.  Instead of this, the Dean sent a
 note to each of the professors, requesting his separate  opinion.   Being still,
 de facto, a member of the school, one was sent to me.   The following was my
 answer, which I preferred, to address and send directly to the Trustees..

                                      *         " Cincinnati, Feb. 22,1832.
         To the President of the Board of  Trustees, Medical College of Ohio.
  Sir,—I have, this evening,  received from the  Dean of the Faculty, a copy of a preamble
 and resolution of the Honorable Board of Trustees, calling upon the Faculty, for an opinion,
 on the expediency of reducing the number of professorships to six, and, in obedience to the
wishes of the Dean for an immediate reply, proceed to answer the inquiry.
  I  am of opinion  that every Medical School  should have at least  seven professorships.
There  is little room for diversity of sentiment, as to Anatomy, Surgery, Materia Medica, Ob- 
(24)
stetrics, and Chemistry;  but in reference to the Institutes and Practice of Medicine, a doobt
might exist.  In some school?, both branches are confided to one person; but the duty is too
extensive, and the best schools of Europe and the United States, if I am  not  misinformed,
have two, and sometimes three persons, on these branches.   In the new London  University,
projected by  the Hon. Mr. Brougham and his distinguished associates, with the experience of
Europe to guide them, Mr. Charles  Bell, one of the most celebrated men of the age, was ap-
pointed on apart of the Institutes.
  About four years ago, the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania found it necessary to
separate the Institutes from the Practice, as, even, Dr. Chapman, could not carry on both ; and
Dr. Jackson, one of the most able and eloquent lecturers in the U. S., was appointed to the
former.  In Baltimore, they have had, from the hep/inning, a professor of the Institutes, dis-
tinct from the Practice, although the latter was held by a gentleman of great talents and eru-
dition, Dr. Potter.   In Lexington, ever since the reorganization of the school in  1819, the In-
stitutes and Practice have been carried on by two men—the former by Dr.  Caldwell, the lat-
ter by Dr. Brown, myself and Dr. Cooke in succession.  These three have generallyhad the
largest classes of any schools in America.   I may add, that Drs. McClellan and Eberle, in
founding the Jefferson School, established a chair of the Institutes, notwithstanding Dr. Eberle
himself was to fill that of the Practice of Medicine.   In the Medical College of Ohio, I  have
lectured four times a week on the Institutes throughout? the session which is now closing, and
am not yet through;  while the Professor of the  Practice of Physic, is, I am informed, so far
from having completed a full course, that many  large groups of common and dangerous dis-
eases, have not even been entered upon, although he has lectured regularly six times a week.
On the whole, therefore,  I am compelled to say that the "medical men of experience and judg-
ment," who have advised the honorable Board that six professorships are better than seven, have
expressed opinions at variance with the spirit and practice of the age, and  such as cannot be
adopted without injury to the College.
                         I have  the honor to be respectfully, yourob't. serv't.
                                                               DAN. DRAKE.

   P. S.  I feel it  due to myself to state that in projecting the Miami School, I made several
unsuccessful efforts to obtain a Professor of the Institutes; and had, finally, to  leave them in
connection with the Practice."

   Dr. Eberle and Dr. Henry informed me, that their answers were of the same
import with mine.    Of the  rest I  know nothing.   Whatever they  might  have
been, the Trustees now spoke without reserve of executing their predetermin-
ed purpose; and it was soon understood by the students, and medical public
generally in the city, that the changes which I have already  indicated, would
shortly be made.
   In this state of things, the respectful sympathies of the Class became enlist-
ed for Dr.  Henry; who in addition to being proscribed,  was calumniated in
every variety of mode, which the subservient friends of the Board and their co-
adjutors  of the Hospital, could invent.  Among the  various slanders, was  a
declaration by the Trustees of the Hospital, that he had  grossly neglected his
duties in that establishment, and maltreated  his patients.   On  this he  chal-
enged a public investigation.   It was made  by a committee of the Faculty,
and resulted in the following triumphant acquittal by that body.

   " Resolved, that from the report of thecommittee appointed to enquire into the validity of the
allegations made by the Trustees of the  Commercial Hospital, in a communication addressed
by them to the Board ofTrusteesof the Medical College of Ohio, it does not appear, that there
is any truth or correctness in any of the charges or criminations made in said communication,
against the Professor of Obstetrics.
   Resolved, that the result of this investigation be communicated forthwith to  the Board of
Trustees of the Medical College of Ohio. "

   Both resolutions were passed unanimously.

   Of his lectures, stories equally  unfounded and cruel, were industriously cir-
culated ; but they were spontaneously met and refuted by the Class, who pre-
sented to the Board  of Trustees the following  address:— 
(25)
   "The undersigned,  students of the Medical College of Ohio, having understood that it is
 rumored abroad, that they are much dissatisfied with the lectures of Professor Henry, deem it
 but an act of justice to that Gentleman, to say, that there is no just foundation for such a ru-
 mor—that they have derived much instruction from him—that he has earnestly and perspicu-
 ously travelled over the subjects usually treated by a  Professor of Obstetrics, and the diseases
 of Women and Children—and that considering this as his first course, they are of the opinion
 that he has, and is acquitting himself with advantage to the pupils, and credit to  the Insti-
 tution. "  (Signed by 69 members of the class.)
   Feb. 15th, 1832.


   This address was subscribed by a majority of all the pupils,  who attended
 the College during the winter; although when it was drawn up,more than forty
 of them  had left the city.   An opposing address wasgolten up and signed, as
 I understood, by 5 or 7!   In addition, a  majority of all the graduates on Com-
 mencement day, drew up, and put Dr. Henry  in possession of another memo-
 rial, equally strong; but it was stemming the cataract; his doovn was fixed; Dr.
 Pierson could not be replaced in Materia Medica, unless Dr. Henry should be
 expelled, although, it would be in violation of the compact and  consolidation
 of the preceding summer; of the expressed wishes  and petitions  of the Class;
 and of the request of a considerable number of highly respectable and intelligent
 citizens  and physicians, who likewise  interested themselves in his favor.

   While this last act of  the drama was in performance, a majority of  the
 graduates present on Commencement day, drew up and presented to the Board,
 a  petition, requesting them, to drop Dr. Pierson, transfer Dr. Moorhead to the
 Institutes and Medical Jurisprudence,  and  appoint me to the chair  of Theory
 and Practice, which  I originally held.   This document  1 will give you pres-
 ently.   Being furnished  with a  copy  of it, and still  hearing it reported, that
 the  Trustees were desirous  of retaining  me in the Institution when I resigned,
 and learning that they were about to  vacate the chair from which  1 had been
 expelled, ten years before, I  determined to  test the sincerity of their profes-
 sions, by asserting my claims, to that professorship.  Accordingly, I addressed
 to them the following letter.


                                           "Cincinnati, March 15th,  1832.

   Gentlemen,—When I resigned the professorship of Clinical Medicine, I had the  im-
 pression that your honorable body would carry into full  effect  the arrangements made  last
 summer, between the College and University,  and  I left the former, without the smallest de-
 sign of being a candidate for readmission into its Faculty.  I would willingly have  remained
 in it, on the united professorships, of Clinical Medicine and the Institutes, and wrote to  Dr.
 Pierson to that effjet; but he and your honorable  body, saw fit, to sustain his claims to  future
 admission  into the operative duties of the latter chair.   On resigning, I cherished,  as I have
 said, no expectations of  re-joining  the  school; for I was determined  never to enter it again
 but in the professorship of Theory and Practice; and I was equally determined, to do nothing
 that should disturb the existing incumbent of that chair; and it is far from being the  object of
 this communication, to propose his removal from the school, or to any other chair,  or in any
 way to distract the counsels of the Institution.  It has, however, been communicated tome,
 that your honorable body have it in contemplation, to transfer him  to another chair, and thus
 to  change the state of things, which I had supposed was settled by the compromise of the  7lh
 of July last.  Now, if this should be the case, but not otherwise,  I wish to be considered a
 candidate for the chair of Theory and Practice.
   I was originally appointed to it, by the General Assembly, and lectured in it for  two ses-
 sions.  I was expelled from it.   The Board thought me worthy of being reinstated;  but pre-
viously to their acting on my case, I was under obligation to go to Lexington, on  the chair of
 Materia Medica, and could not therefore accept.  After a residence of two years in that town,
as professor of Materia  Medica,  I was, on the resignation of professor Brown, by the unani-
 mous voice of the pupils, professors and Trustees, and by the recommendation of several of
 my Cincinnati medical brethren, called to the chair of Theory and Practice.
                                        4 
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  The following is a copy of the memorial of the students on that occasion.   It was signed by
191.
         ' To the Cltairman ant Board of Trustees of Transylvania University.
  It has come to the knowledge of the undersigned, members of the Medica) class in the Tran-
sylvania University, and other friends of Medical science  in  the West, that our venerable
Professor of the  Theoiy and Practice  of Medicine is about to  retire from the  important sta-
tion he fills with so much eclat in the School.  In looking around for an  individual to supply
the station, and fill the  void created  by  his resignation, we are forcibly drawn  towards the
Professor of Materia Medica and Medical Botany, as an individual,  more-eminently calcula-
ted, from his genins, Medical learning, and experience in the diseases of the West, to fill the
station, than any other individual in the Western states.  This arrangement, we humbly con-
ceive, will not impair the value of Professor  Drake's lectures on Materia Medica, as they can
be adapted to practical purposes, while the Professor of the  Institutes, and Clinical Medicine,
and the Professor of Obstetrics,  and  the Diseases of  Women  and  Children  deal largely  in
Practical Medicine,  Most of your petitioners feel more fully  persuaded of the correctness
and reasonableness of what they ask,  from having heard Professor Drake  in that department
one month.  We, therefore, hope, that these considerations, together with the ardent desire
they feel for the welfare and prosperity of Transylvania, will be ample apology for the memo-
rial they herewith respectfully present to its regents and patrons.'  (Signed by 191.)
  February,  1825.

  The address of certain physicians of Cincinnati, one of whom was Dr. E. H. Pierson, then
or afterwards, a  member of your honorable  body, was in the following words:

        ' To the Faculty of the Medical Department of Transylvania University.
  The undersigned, Physicians of Cincinnati, learning that Dr. Brown has resigned his  pro-
fessorship of  the Theory and Practice of  Medicine in Transylvania University,—take the
liberty of respectfully recommendingtheir fellow citizen, Dr. Daniel Drake, at present professor
of Materia Medica in that Institution, as a person  eminently qualified from  his talents, in-
dustry, and long practical experience, to fill  the important chair thus  vacated, in a manner, at
once honorable to himself, and worthy of the University with which he is connected.
  The undersigned  are of opinion, that no individual could be chosen, possessing more entirely
the confidence of,the Medical men of Ohio, than Dr. Drake—and they cannot but believe
that the best interests of the Medical School of Transylvania would be  essentially promoted
by his appointment.
  Cincinnati, March 4th,  1825.'

   This post I held for two years longer, then resigned, and returned to Cincinnati.  While
residing here, I was, by the unanimous concurrence of the Board of Trustees, and the Profes-
sors, of the Medical Department of Jefferson  College, in Philadelphia, called, without the
least previous knowledge on my part of their design, to the chair of Theory and  Practice,
which Dr. Eberle had previously held; but from which he was transferred to Materia Medica.
In his letter, the Secretary, the Rev. Dr. Ely writes:

   ' The Additional Trustees of Jefferson College, to whom is committed, by statute of the
State of Pennsylvania, the direction of the  Medical Faculty of said  College,  ha\ ing become
acquainted, in various ways,  with your distinguished character, as a teacher of the healing
Art,  have resolved  to offer you the professorship of the Theory and Practice of Physic in said
College.  By a perfectly unanimous  vote of the Trustees, and agreeably to the wishes of the
Professors in the Institution,  I now have the pleasure of tendering to you the first chair in Jef-
ferson Medical College, located in this city.  Your acceptance  will complete  our arrange-
ments, and much gratify us; while it will afford you, we  flatter ourselves, an extensive field
for usefulness, and even for increased celebrity.'

   On receiving my acceptance, made on certain conditions, the Board instructed the Secre-
 tary  to inform me that,

   * Your favor of the 3d  instant, and a duplicate of the same,  have been duly received, and I
 am happy to inform you, that all persons concerned, have  cheerfully agreed to the  conditions
 on which you have accepted  the Professorship of the Theory and Practice of Medicine  in
 Jefferson College.'

    The sentiments of  Drs. McClellan and Eberle, founders of the Jefferson School, in refer-
 ence to my appointment,  may be collected from the following extracts.—On receiving my ac-
 ceptance, Dr. McClellan wrote as follows: 
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   41 am happy, very happy, in welcoming  you into  our  ranks.  We consider you a very
great acquisition; and so dons the public.  There is but one voice on the subject here,  and
that is strongly expressed in favor of our present organization.'

   On the same occasion, Dr. Eberle wrote in these words:

   ' I have just received your favor of the 3d  inst. and am exceedingly gratified with its con-
tents.   Be assured that we all rejoice at the prospect of having your valuable services in our
Institution, and we trust that your connection with it will turn out as satisfactory and advan-
tageous to yourself, as we believe it will to us.'

   That I did not disappoint the expectations of these  gentlemen, maybe inferred from the
fact, that both of them engaged, before  the end  of the  session, to unite with  me, in Cincin-
nati, as professors in the Miami School.
   Previously to my going to Philadelphia, I was appointed to the chair of Theory and Prac-
tice, in the Medical department of the Miami University.
   Thus, I have been five times elected  to that Professorship, and have lectured on it, in three
different Universities.  That I have acquitted myself to my own  satisfaction, is far  from be-
ing true; but that I have not wholly failed to fulfil the  hopes of my friends, I  may infer, from
the absence of all complaints by the different  classes before which I have appeared; and from
the memorials of a majority ofthe graduates at the latepublic commencement of the College; and
a large proportion ofthe few undergraduates, still remaining in the city, recommending me for
the chair of Theory and Practice, both of which, I understand, have been transmitted to your
honorable body; but to present my case entire, I  here embody  them.   That  of the gradu-
ates is in the  following terms:

                                                        c Cincinnati, March 7,1832.
              To the Hon. Board of Trustees ofthe Medical College of Ohio.

   Gentlemen,—The time has arrived for our depaiture from the halls of our Alma Mater.
The interesting period we have spent under her instructions, and  the benefits received, enlist
our earnest desires for her increased and permanent prosperity.   We have indulged the hope,
that in this parting hour something may be contributed  by us, towards the future glory of the
Medical College of Ohio, whose testimonials, this day received, we wish to be proud of through
life.  Influenced by this hope and an ardent desire for the elevation of  our profession in the
West, we present you a few facts for consideration, which seem to us of vital importance to the
Institution overwhich you preside, and  of which we are the  youngest offspring.
   It becomes  us to wear in your presence, the garb of modesty; and  we would not cast it off.
This, however, does not require a pusilauimous acquiescence in existing evils, nor does it im-
pose silence, when there are motives  to speak out.  With these views impressed upon our
minds, we respectfully  address you.
   In relation  to  Medical Schools, there is one position which cannot  be controverted,  and
which each of you will admit to be true.  Such institutions can  never attain to exalted rank,
nor become attractive to young gentlemen of liberal qualifications and high  aspirations, unless
their leading chairs are occupied by men of commanding talents, and thorough  professional
attainments.   The expectation  that we should find this the case here, led  us to this place.
But our estimate was, in some respects incorrect.   It is true, that some of the most experienced
lecturers, and  learned physicians, have  been during the winter, connected with  your school;
and you have  others of bright promise,  who will soon win for themselves and for the  College
wreaths of honor.   But all are not thus qualified, and there is obviously an unfortunate allot-
ment of some of the chairs. To one instance only we now call your attention, because it is the
most prominent and the most important.
   Tne chair of Theory and Practice, the most important, the most influential, the most diffi-
cult is filled by one, who would occupy with more advantage another  station.   We  cannot
offer you on the present occasion all the evidence which might be concentrated to  sustain this
declaration, but we believe that sufficient testimony will be found in the following exhibit.
   During the  session just closed, the professor of Theory and  Practice has lectured on the fol-
lowing subjects;—(.ostiveness;  Bilious Derangements; Dyspepsia; the different  kinds  of
Colic ; Cholera Morbus,  and Cholera Infantum ; Dianhsea; Dysentery ; Inflammation in gen-
eral, with particular Inflammations ofthe Abdomen, Chest, and Head ; Erysipelas; Fever  in
general, with  an account of  Intermittent Fever;  as far as apart ofthe  treatment.  These
are the only diseases about which we have received instruction from the chair of Theory and
Practice.
  To euableyouto form some conception ofthe scope of its duties, and how limited is the above
enumeration, we subjoin a catalogue of aportionof those which have not been touched: Asthma; 
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  Pulmonary Consumption; Gout;  Rheumatism; all the Chronic diseases of the Skin; Hemor-
  rhage--, or Discharges of blood from the Limns, Stomach, Bowels, and  Bladder; Asphyxia or
  Suspended Animation: Diabetes; Angina  Pectoris; Apoplexy;  Palsy; Epilepsy; Chorea;
  Tetanus; Hysteria: Hv liophobia; Neuralgia; Sniteningol tiie Brain, and all other Nervous
  affections; Mental |)i-rain,cuient in all its varieties; Scarlet Fever; .Measles; Chicken  Pox;
  Cow Pox; Small Pox; Varioloid, and  other eruptive Fevers; Mumps;  Whooping Cough;
  Scurvy; Dropsies of  every kind; Hemming Bilious Fever; Typhus Fever;  Yellow  Fever;
  Diseases ofthe Eye; Diseases of the Ear; Di-ea-esof the Heart.
    We might extend the number, but prefer to limit ourselves to such as we believe are consid-
  ered indispensable objects of attention in other schools,  and which your honorable  body will
  perceive are important maladies.
    Is not this sufficient to justify the present  step?  What we say ofthe  course this  winter, is
  said of those of preceding winters.   Does not the  mattercall for your interference .•   We dic-
  tate nothing to you on  this  occasion.  We  appear as respectful applicants in behalf of the
  College and of our profession.   You have at your disposal, unappropriated, a  chair of high re-
  spectability, though of less vital interest.  Let him to whom the Institutes was once  tendered,
  and who declined its acceptance, unless time to  qialify himself was granted,  be permitted to
  remain in New York.   We can con.'eii e of no paramount claims, which he can advance, and
  let this chair be given  to Professor Moorhead.  Tiie most important post would then be va-
  cant, and an opportunity afforiled you  for providing those who resort here to qualify themselves
  to practice medicine, with that instruction w hich they seek.  And to whom could you look to
  fulfil its exalted functions.  Every voice,  North, Fast, South, and West, will  proclaim to
  you, Dr. Drake, the man who was constrained  to withdraw from the  Institution because con-:
  fined to an  insignificant professorship,—and whose  resignation filled us with  regret.  All are
  acquainted with his talents, and  tiie voice of several conspicuous Medical Schools, and the un-
 bounded approbatio'n of every class to which he has lectured bear witness to his peculiar quali-
  fications for the chair of Theory and Praciice.  We have listened with great pleasure and ben-
 efit to his able and lucid teachings, and add our testimony in favor of his claims.'

   The memorial ofthe under graduates is as follows:

                                                       ' Cincinnati, March 8th, 1832,
        To the Honorable the Board of Trustees of the  Medical College of Ohio.
   Gentlemen,—As students ofthe Medical College of Ohio, (having attended  a course of
 lectuies in the last session,) and as among those who feel a  deep interest in the future prosper-
 ity and success of that school, we beg leave to respectfully submit the following suggestions for
 your consideialion.
   That as Piolc-sor Drake has held the chair of Theory and  Practice of Medicine in two
 Mediral Colleges, (both of which are in  possession of no unenviable reputation,) and always
 acquitted himseif with the most distinguished honor; and as lie did hold the sain.' chair in this
 College in the commencement of its operations ; and as his fame is  so much identified  with
 this Professorship, we firmly believe the best interests ofthe College would be advanced by his
 restoration to it.
   To accomplish this much desired object, we would humbly suggest to your honorable body
 a transfer of Professorships, believing no other Professor's character to be so intimately asso-
 ciated with his chair, and that it  might be advantageously made without injury  to any  indi-
 viduals concerned.'

   Thus sustained, I hope that I violate no sentiment of delicacy,  in presenting  myself as a
 candidate for the chair  from which  I was expelled, whenever your honorable  body may  con-
 template to make a change in its incumbent.
                  I have the honor to be respectfully, your obedient servant,
                                                                DAN,  DRAKE. »

   Simultaneously with this application to the Board, I opened  a correspond-
ence with  Dr. Eberle, oi which I shall likewise give you a copy.


                            Dr. Drake to Dr. Eberle.

                                                     " Cincinnati, March 15, 1832.
  Mr Dear Sir,—On  the 15th of July last, when  you understood that I had  been offered
the Chair of Institutes and Medical Jurisprudence in the Medical College of Ohio, you asked
the question  in your letter, 'Will you accept of your appointment ?  If it is  not entirely re- 
(29)
 pugnant, I could wish you would do so, for I think we shall be able by a well concerted  and
 persisting operation on the Trustees to get you  into the. Chair of the  Practice before long.'
 Ha I this event happened, or had  I even  received the  Institutes in connexion with  Clinical
 Medicii)", I should not have left the College.   When  I resigned the latter, I had no hope or
 expectation of again  entering the School, for I saw nothing to indicate that tiie Professor of
 the Theory and  Practice would ever be removed ; but such a measure  it seems is now under
 advisement in the Hon. B >ard of Trustees.  Meanwhile a majority ofthe graduates present at
 the late commencement, aild a larg?  proportion  of tie undergraduates still remaining in the
 city, have recommended me to the Trustees, for the Ciair of Theory and Practice, proposing
 the transf-r of its present incumbent to  the Institutes and  the dropping of Dr. Pierson; se-
 veral of them moreover  have  spoken to  me personally  in  pressing terms, and many of my
 friends have urged me to become a can lidate for that Chair.  I have reflected  On the matter
 as dispassionately as possible, and  have finally come to the conclusion to address a communi-
 cation to the Board, professing myself as  a candidate for that Chair in  the event of  their va-
 cating it.
   As you have constantly manifested a desire to see me in that station, I feel assured  that
 I shall have your valuable influence on this occasion.  I do not, indeed, think, it probable that
 the Board will make any innovation on the compact of last Summer; but if they  should, you
 may consider that I am an applicant for the Chair which  I originally held in  the  school; and
 I shall confidently hope for your aid in recovering it.   Please to let me hear from you on the
 subject.                     Very respectfully, your friend,
                                                                 DAN.  DRAKE."

                             Dr. Eberle to Dr.  Drake.
                                                       "Cincinnati, March 16, 1832.
   Dear Sir,—Yours of yesterday has been put into my hands.  You are  entirely right in
 saying that I have always professed a desire to see you placed  in the chair of the  Theory and
 Practie in our College; for I am well persuaded  that such a measure would enhance the
 usefulness and success ofthe Institution.  I fear, however, that my means of contributing to
 the accomplishment of this object, are much more  limited man you ssem to think.   There is
 not  the slightest probability that Dr.  Pierson will be dropped  by the  Trustees.   They  will
 provide a Chair for him some way or other, and  all calculations made  on a contrary suppo-
 sition are, I am confident, wholly fallacious.   The Trustees, I believe, have made up their
 minds that there shall be but  six Chairs.   The Professorship of the Institutes, must, therefore,
 be abolished; and as Dr.  Pierson v ill not take the Chair of Obstetrics, his friends have been
 engiged in clearing the chair ofthe Mat:ria Medica for him.  Through their persuasion and
 advice, Dr. Moorhead has been brought to consent to accept of the chair of Obstetrics and
 Clinical Medicine, in order that by my translation to  the chair of the  Theory and Practice,
 Dr.  Pierson  may be placed in the chair ofthe Materia Medica.  This, I believe, is the ar-
 rangement which the Trustees mean to a  lopt.   I have not had the smallest participation in
 the getting up or concoction of this scheme.   When the committee called on me  to ascertain
 my sentiments, I told them explicitly  that I would neither ask, nor even express a wish, to be
 appointed  to the chair of t ie Practi ee,  but that if they thought it expedient to do so,  I would
 acquiesce.    As you had  mentioned to me, on several occasions, that you meant  never again
 to take part in any  medical school—that you had bidden a final adieu to all Medical Colleges,
 I  did not think it  proper  to  propose you  to  the committee  for the chair of  the Theory and
 Practice; yet I afterwards proposed, in the presence of three of my  colleagues, to take  any
 chair, except that ofthe Institutes, if the Trustees would appoint you to the chair  held by Dr.
 Moorhead.  The reply was, that Dr. Moorhead would not yield his chair unless the  arrange-
 ment mentioned above be adopted, and that the thing was not to be accomplished.
   Thus I  find myself in  an unpleasant  position.   With the sincerest desire to see you in
 the  chair of the Theory and Practice, I stand myself in the situation of a candidate for this
 chair.  1 did not,  however, place myself in this situation either by direct or  indirect means.
 Yet I believe that my translation to  this chair would be favorable  to the prospects of our
 school; and 1 can see nothing which would imply breach  of  faith or honor,  were  I to accept
 this  appointment.  I was the more ready  to acquiesce in  this arrangement by  your  free  and
 entire approval of it, when I men'".oned it to you, about four weeksago.   Youthen said that my
 appointment to the chair in question would be a redeeming act in the Board of Trustees;  and
 that it was very desirable it should be done.   Nevertheless,  if  your success depends, in  any
 way, on the relinquishment of my wishes to obtain the chair,  the affair can be speedily settled.
 I disclaim all pretensions to the chair of the  Theory and Practice of Medicine, if there is any
 disposition  manifested by the  Board to appoint you to it; and I ardently wish that  such might
be the determination ofthe Trustees.  But how, and in what manner can I forward  this pur-
pose ?   If I refuse to accept the chair  of Practice, Dr. Moorhead will most certainly reclaim 
(30)
and retain it.  If I consent to take the professorship of Obstetrics, then Dr. Pierson will be
appointed to the chair of M it. .Med., and Dr. Moorhead will remain where he is.  All these
things are predicated on the presumption that the chair of Obstetrics will be vacated.  If thi9
should not be done—and I openly declare that it ought not, the difficulties in your way will be
still greater.   There are two things fixed in relation to all present arrangements of our Faculty.
The one is, that the chair of the Theory and Practice will not be vacated without the volun-
tary recession of Dr. M.; and the other is, that a chair must and will  be provided for  Dr.
Pierson.*  Your own judgment will tell you how these difficulties will operate.  They may
yield to a partial melioration of the  Faculty, though they will not, I apprehend, yield to the
best arrangement that might be made.
  If my feeble influence can aid you, in the way you mention, you may calculate on having
it entirely.
                              With sentiments of great esteem, I am yours,
                                                               J NO. EBERLE."
  Daniel Drake, M. D.

   You cannot  fail to  perceive that in  this letter, Dr. Eberle  bears me out in
almost every  thing I have said ofthe conduct of the Board of Trustees after
the union ofthe two schools.   Jn a few days, I sent him the following answer:

                            Dr. Drake to Dr. Eberle.
                                                     "Cincinnati, March 19,1832.
  My dear Sin,—I should have replied to your friendly letter ofthe 16th immediately, but
that a variety of engagements  left me too little time to go into the full consideration  of several
things connected with the  object on which I first wrote to you.
  Last summer, when Dr. Pierson declined taking the chair of the Institutes unless allowed
a year for preparation, it was  the  opinion of yourself and  Doctors Staughton, Mitchell,
and  Hemy, that  the Board should and would unite it with Clinical  Medicine, so as to  give
me a  professorship  of equal extent  and  dignity  with those of my colleagues.  All of
you repeatedly conversed  with me on the subject, during the autumn which succeeded to our
transfer from the liniversiry to the College; and Dr. Mitchell  once suggested the propriety of
a meeting of the late Miami professors, for that very purpose.   Throughout that period  and
afterwards, 1 did  not doubt that an  effort of some  kind  would be made on this subject; but
by mid-winter I became convinced it would not.  I had then no alternative but to resign.   In
doing this, I acted under  the  impression, and expressed  it to  you and other  friends, that I
should never again belong to the College or  any other school; but I,  at no time, said that I
never tcould re-enter that Institution.  1 did not, at that time, believe that any state of things
would arise that could bring me into the chair of Theory and Practice; and, on resigning, I
was determined never to rejoin the school except in that station.  When you told me, a few
weeks since, that  you should probably be offered that chair, I  felt in the same way, in refer-
ence to my  prospects, and said  that the school would certainly be much improved from its
present condition by sqch a transfer.   I still thought my own  prospects hopeless.  But since
that time several things have transpired to change  my views and expectations.
  First.  I have discovered that even the present Trustees can bring themselves to resolve on
transferring  Dr. Moorhead from  the Theory  and Practice; although they have always  held
the language that his qualifications for that chair were pre-eminent.
  Secondly.  The students have passed resolutions, in my favor, and presented memorials to
the Board, praying that such a step maybe  taken, and that I maybe placed in his chair;
and no counter memorials, as far as I know, have been gotten up.
  Thirdly. I have  been  told by a  member of the Board,  and others have heard  the  same
thing, that if I had not resigned, I might have had any place in the  school that suited me.
But 1 assigned the narrow limits of my chair as the sole reason for leaving it; and I need not
put the question to you, did the Board  propose any thing more for me on receiving  my letter,
or before?   What they did, in conclave, I  know not; but this I know, that up to the present
hour, they have not had the civility e en to acknowledge the receipt of my letter, and have left
me to depend for information concerning their decision, on  public rumor.  So adroitly, indeed,
have they managed this matter,  that many of my frtends actually believe that I might have
had any place in the school that I desired, and that my resigning was a mere act of capricious-
ness.   It is due to myself to correct this imputation: and I shall best accomplish it  by an ap-
plication to the  Board for my original chair, which it seems they are about to vacate.
  Fourthly. Several of my friends,  both in  town and country, who are men of respectability,

  * As though he did not at  that time hold Vie Institutes—remaining in New York to pre-
pare himself, while his colleagues were discharging his duties!                      D. 
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have voluntarily assured me, that they are determined, in due time, to make an effort for the
amelioration  ofthe Board, and have  insisted that I should make and keep myself an appli-
cant for the chair from which I was originally expelled.
  These are  the considerations which have induced  me to become a candidate, even to the
present Trustees.  But I do not  ask them to displace Dr. Moorhead for my accommodation.
I only wish, by them, to be regarded as a candidate for the chair,"in the  event of their trans-
ferring him to any other.
  I collect from your letter, however, that the object of that transfer would be to provide Dr.
Pierson with  a substitute for the  Institutes, which he has held for eight months;  which substi-
tute, of course, could be no other than your chair; but which he could not get without your
transfer to the Theory  and  Practice, and Dr. Mooituad's transfer from it to  Dr. Henry's
chair.   Thus, the argument would run that I cannot,by possibility,get the Theory and Prac-
tice, because it will not be relinquished by its present incumbent, except under an arrange-
ment that would necessarily bring you into it; and, therefore, that in allowing yourself to be a
candidate for it, you do nothing  to my prejudice.  All this would be correct, and  conclusive
against  me, if I did not confidently anticipate an amelioration of the Board ; but under this
anticipation,  I am a candidate,  unconditionally, as it respects the future, and  should, by
your transfer to that chair  at the present time,  be  embarrassed in my attempts to obtain it
from another Board.
  You must  be fully aware, that I refused to abandon any of my Miami colleagues for the
Medical College of Ohio.  At first, when the Trustees of  the  latter commenced operations
on us, you were not elected, and  I had to decline the Institutes in favor of  Dr. Pierson, so as
to open the chairs of Materia Medica and Obstetrics to you  and  Dr. Henry—suggesting and
accepting for myself the limited* station of Clinical Medicine.  The Board did not lack con-
fidence  in you; but Dr.  Pierson was ihekprotegee.  I wrote to my friends over Ohio and
other parts of the West, and obtained  strong recommendations for you; all of which, together
with my own humble but earnest  testimony, I transmitted  to the Trustees.  Finally, you and
all your colleagues, except myself, were adopted into the College on the same chairs you held
in the University;  while I  had to enter a very different one from that which I relinquished.
It is well known to a number of my friends, that when I suggested, and offered to accept that
chair, I did it under the  impression, that I might have to leave it at the end of the session, on
account of its limited extent; and I can refer you to several of them, to whom I said, that the
great object I, finally, had in view, was, to save you  from injury: That I believed the Miami
School was blighted  by the attempt of the College to draw off a part of its  Professors:  That
you had left the Jefferson School, to come to Cincinnati in connexion with me; and  that, be-
yond a doubt, notwithstanding the guaranty of which you had a right to claim the benefit, you
would be sorely disappointed, if  not  seriously injured.  To obviate these evils to you, was,
indeed, my absorbing motive; and I declared at the time, and now solemnly repeat the asser-
tion, that I would not have entered the College on the chair of Clinical Medicine but to secure
your introduction on the same professorship you held in the University.    I trust, my dear sir,
you will pardon my reference to  these circumstances, never before, I believe, fully developed
to you.    I have endeavored to look at the matter impartially ; have thought how I would act
if our situations were reversed, and am unable to perceive, that I ask of you any sacrifice, or
solicit any thing that I should not, if placed in your situation be  willing to grant.   You must
be convinced, that the object of your transfer to the Theory and  Practice, is, to accommodate
Dr. Pierson,  and displace Dr. Henry, by one and the same movement on the chess-board of
the institution,—not to advance vour interests.  Indeed, I do not see how your interests  could
be as much promoted by that arrangement as by my restoration to the school; for what the
chair of  Theory and Practice would  gain by your transfer,  that of Materia Medica would
lose.   I may, it is true, over-rate myself; but if I do, the fault is yours more than mine; for
I have made your own declarations of my competence, a  chief element in my  estimate of its
amount.  In the most frank and friendly manner, then, I would express  the hope, that you
will recognize in my peculiar relations to yourself, to the College, and to the chair of Theory
and Practice, an adequate reason, why you should refuse to accept it, so long as the wishes
of my friends, (including yourself,) or my own views, may keep me a candidate.
   But there  are considerations of self respect, which, should  they occur to you, will not, I am
convinced, be without their influence over you on  this occasion.   The proceedings of the
Board are demonstrably unjust and  discreditable, as  I shall endeavor to show, by a  refer-
ence to facts, most of which are  already known  to you.
   When you  said in the Autumn, that if I had to  resign in consequence of the retention of
Dr. Pierson, you would resign also—a step to which I should not have consented—you  spoke
under the conviction, that an adherence to him would be  an act of favoritism, and you con-
demned it.   And  what is  now  the temper of the Board in reference to him?  The same.
But more developed—more active—more desolating to  the rights and  interests of others.
Did any of us go after the College last summer, and ask for the displacement of itsjirofes- 
(32)
 sors?  Did not the Trustees seek out the Miami Faculty, and try to destroy by dividing and
 distracting it?  Where was the power that compelled them to elect any or nil of us into the
 College?   No where but in ourselves,—not as candidates for places, but as pr< fissors in a
 rival school.  Underthe apprehensions thus inspired, they opened to us the gates of their ciiadcl,
 before we  had discharged the artillery of our lecture rooms against them, and hid us enter.
 They made certain reservations for a portion of their  own professors', and gave the remaining
 places to  us.  For Dr. Pierson they reserved the Institute, and gave his professorship to
 yourself.   If  this was an act of injustice to  him, they ought not to have  done i7,  and he
 should have refused at the time—if it was not, Viey should not now become unjust, and
 seek by arbitrary resolves and unwarrantable displacements to reinstate him.   And yet, is
 not  their whole policy directed to this end?   Does not his brother-in-law, Col. Da vies, the
 Secretary,  govern  the Board and  diiect all their movements to his personal ohjeet ?  Is not
 the plighted faith ofthe Corporation to be violated, and its reputation for fair dealing tarnish-
 ed, to  support a family compact, the idol of which is little known, and, as you are aware,
 still less worshipped out of its own temple?  When Dr. Pierson agreed to take the Institutes
 as a substitute fur Materia Medica,  provided time was granted  him  for preparation, did he
 not acquiesce in his transfer from one chair to another, and thus preclude his  friends from all
 right to intrigue for his restoration?   Did  the Board not grant the delay which he required,
 and assign  his duties for the late session to his colleagues,  who turned them chiefly over to
 me. because it was anticipated, by us all, that the chair of Clinical Medicine would be defi-
 cient in subjects?   Did he not engage in schooling himself, and send from New York  to Cin-
 cinnati for  the writings  of Boerhaave and Van Sweiten to aid  him in the  task?   Why, then,
 should he not be required to keep the chair thus solemnly given and  accepted?   Why  should
 the Board, without your desire, transfer you and  restore him to that which  he had consented
 to relinquish?  Why  should they displace Dr. Henry, who has  without previous discipline
 as a public  lecturer, and without a year of preparation, acquitted himself  to the satisfaction
 ofthe  class; and, so  well, as  to receive your  own approbation !   The answer to all these
 questions is obvious.   Dr. Pierson finding himself unable to weave the web of Philosophy,
 which the  Institutes require, wishes to  be restored to  Materia Medica.   To this  end that
 chair must  be vacated, and the Institutes abolished.
   And what is the pretext for abolishing this imporant professorship, established and put into
 market as far back as the year 1827?   A professoiship which you  know$ as well as myself, is
 regarded by the profession generally of thepresentday, as an essential part of everygood school?
 Why, forsooth, that the present Faculty of the College  advise it.  1 deny that the Faculty has
 ever acted on it. When the Trustees,a short time since,submitted  the question to the Faculty $
 the Dean, you know, did not convene it, but sent  to the  different professors for their separate
 opinions.   I did not like this irregular proceeding; nor did  I like the language and manner of
 the resolution of the Board, for, by obvious implication, it conveyed a hope that the Faculty
 would sanction the reduction of the chairs  to six.  It was like a leading question  put to a
witness.  What the professors did sanction I kuow not; but 1 recollect, that you  read to me,
 in your reply, a decided opinion, that Medical Schools ought to have at  least seven  profes-
 sors; and you told  me that Dr. Mitchell said he  should give  a similar answer.   Dr.  Henry
 and  myself were likewise against the reduction.   How then  can  the majority ofthe  profes-
sors have sanctioned it?   Moreover, in  1827, I was assured by Mr. Ruter, who came to me as
 a committee, that the Faculty  at  that lime, were in  favor of a chair  of the  Institutes, and
wished me to accept it; and I was also told, last summer,  on what I regarded good authority,
 that the Faculty were still ofthe same opinion.   If they were not, why was  the chair  then
 revived?  So  much for  the opinions ofthe Faculty.  As to the Trustees themselves, they
have held but one  language on this subject since  1827.   In the summer of  that year, Dr.
 Ramsay, the President of the Board, assured me,  that the Trustees looked upon  the Institutes
 as a professorship of great dignity and usefulness, and  urged  my acceptance of it.   In  1831,
 Judge Burnet, who was then the President, expressly  told me, that  the Board  regarded that
 chair, as not inferior in rank, to the best in the school,  and indeed, would offer me none that
 was.  In the course of this interview, the compromise between the two schools being on foot,
 I offered to  yield that chair to Dr.  Pierson, and take Clinical  Medicine, if the friends  of that
 gentleman chose,upon which both Judge Burnet and Mr. Este urged, thatthe latu-rchai* would
 not satisfy the public, which would require of them to assign nit a higher station—such  as the
 Board regarded the Institutes.   Finally, the present head ofthe Corporation, Mr.  Cony, ad-
 mitted to me on the morning of the late Commencement day,  that the Board considered that
 professorship as equal in respectability and value to the otl.er chairs ofthe  School.  Thus 1
 have shown you, that it has been the  policy of the institution, for five years past, to  have  a
 professor of the Institutes.  Last summer they found one,  and regarding the chair as of great
 difficulty, allowed him time to prepare himself.  But they  have now, by some  kind of second
 sight, suddenly discerned that it is of no value, but rather a detriment to the  school and ought
 to be suppressed! 
(33)
   It was well known to the Board all winter, that my chair of Clinical Medicine was  too
 limited, and that if they did not eYilaige it, I should resign.   If the chair of Institutes on which
 I was lecturing daily for Dr. Pierson, while licwasdigestingBoerhaave and Van Swieten in New
 York, had become so unimportant in the  estimation of the  Board, why did they not form a
 good one out of the two, and place me, as they had professed to believe  I merited, on  a foot-
 ing, as to otbciM  consequence, with the  highest in the school?  The answer is easy—they
 wished to promote my resignation.  After that had taken place, why did they not suffer  the
 school to move on as they had arranged it last summer.  By what logic, after getting rid of a
 supernumerary chair, did they come to the conclusion, that they ought  to abolish one, which
 for years they had regarded as essential?  Thus having at one  time three  teachers ofthe
 Institutes and Practice, and at another time but one!   Such Vibrations prove, that either from
 ignorance or pcisonal partiality, the'Trustees are incapable of pursuing any settled policy,
 and are unworthy of the momentous trust confided to them by the  State.
   'The secret of all these absurd vacillations is their desire  to indulge Dr. Pierson.  Forthe
 purpose of gratifying his taste and wishes, Dr. Henry, in violation of the compromise of last
 summer, must be  removed from the  school, and a new place  opened  for Dr. Moorhead, to
 whose  chair you are to be transferred, that yours may be offered to  Dr. Pierson, though he'had
 relinquished his claims upon it,  eight months ago!  Thus, you see,  the  reduction ofthe
 chairs  to six, is a  means, not an end, and so  the community  will come to understand  it.
 Could  the wisdom ofthe Board have devised any easier mode of  re-establishing Dr. Pierson
 in Materia Medica, we should have heard  nothing about  this reduction.  On the whole, I
 may say, that Dr. Henry is to be sacrificed, the faith ofthe College violated, and an impor-
 tant professorship abolished, not because the prosperity of the school requires either; but be-
 cause, Dr. Pierson can compile manuscripts on Materia Medica,  but cannot arrange princi-
 ples into a system ofthe Institutes.
   This is legislating downwards to the mediocrity of a favorite,  but it will not be permitted
 much longer.  I saw enough ofthe temper of  the General Assembly last winter, when  the
 Trustees, ineffectually,  besought that honorable body for protection against us of the  Miami
 School, to be as:-ured, that a true and candid expose of facts, is all that the State  will require,
 to induce it to confide the Institution to other men. The members  ofthe presant Board are re-
 spectable citizens, most of whom I esteem as acquaintances in/jm'afc life, and.someof them are
 disposed to be unprejudiced,   f lence the reflections which I have cast  upon  certain  official
,acts are  not  intended to involve all the members of the Board; for  it cannot be asserted,
 that all are governed by the gentleman to  whom I have ascribed the power of regulating  the
 admission and expulsion of Professors.  Still he commands the majority in every movement
 thatrelates to Dr.  Pierson, and his presence in the Board undoubtedly suppresses a free  ex-
 pression of sentiment against the claims and merits of that gentleman.
                                                     Respectfully, your friend,
                                                              DAN. DRAKE."


   To this letter, I received no reply.    In a  few days, I heard that Dr. Henry
 was dismissed, and Dr. Moorhead put in his place; Dr. Eberle raised to the The-
 ory and Practice, and Dr. Pierson  restored to Materia Medica, the grand ob-
 ject of all  these devious movements, and the  final development ofthe plot.
   The Institutes and  Clinical  Medicine were of course abolished; and thus
 the two important chairs, on which united, 1 would gladly have remained  in
 the College, were denied to me and then struck from the roll of professorships,
 by those, who every day told  my friends that  they recognized my claims to a
 respectable place in the school, and were anxious to do me justice!
   But not  content with  thus banishing  me, the Board  proceeded  in subse-
 quent public acts, to false accusations  and statements, as a  means  of justifi-
 cation.                                  •
   A few  weeks after the close of the  transactions of  which I  have spoken,
 they published a circular, in  which they state, that  my resignation  was  un-
 expected to them.   Now, in the preceding November,  I wrote a letter to Dr.
 Pierson, in which, among other things, I told him that his coming on, would
 lead to my resignation in the Spring.   In December, a  copy of this letter was
 sent,  as  I understood, back to Cincinnati, to some one of the Trustees, and
 was a topic of conversation among them, the professors, and pupils.  My re-
 signation, therefore, was not unexpected, to the Board. 
(84)
   In the next place, they inform the public, in the same circular, that my
resigning " imposed " on them the " necessity'''' of a further reduction of ihe
chairs, and as a "consequence," the transfer of  several professors.  But this
is disingenuous, and untrue.  My resignation vacated only the new, limited, and
supernumerary chair of  Clinical Medicine, leaving all the rest as they had
filled  them  the  preceding  summer, and it,  only, required to be  abolished.
Now, of the appointments then  made, they speak, in their report to the  Leg-
islature, Dec. 19th, in these  words.   " The Trustees  feel gratified in stating
that their expectations from  this change have been realized "—" The  present
state ofthe College is one of increased prosperity and its future prospects are
flattering."—Such is its condition with eight professorships; but, one of them
is found by its incumbent to be so limited in its range, that  he has not sub-
jects for a full course of lectures, and as the  Trustees failed to enlarge it,  he
resigns; whereupon  they immediately proceed, not merely  to abolish that,
but another of wider  range  and deeper interest which he would gladly have
taken, thus reducing the number to six! Having  lostone professor by resigna-
tion, when they had  a  number which rendered the future prospects of the
Schoool flattering, they find, in  that event, a reason for expelling another, and
reducing the number still lower!   By a parity of reasoning, if another had resign-
ed, the  chairs should have been reduced  to four, and so on!   It seems to me,
that the honorable Board,  seven  out of eleven of whom, belong to a profession
distinguished for acuteness,  did not tax  its ingenuity with  much success,
when it gave the resignation of an eighth professor,  who held the humblest
chair  ofthe School, as the sole reason, for expelling another,  whom the class
desired  to have retained;  for abolishing two chairs, of which his was not one;
and, making three transfers among the remainder!  A more plausible excuse
might certainly have been hit upon; but  the  honorable Board seem  to have
nodded over the preparation ofthis important manifesto ;and a certainnamc being
always present with them, they  concluded to employ it, and save  themselves
the necessity of inventing a reason, in place of that  which they were afraid to
give, but which I trust has been disclosed to you in the course ofthis letter-
being nothing more nor less, than to disgrace Dr. Henry, and relieving Dr.
Pierson from the responsibility ofthe Institutes, to bring him  back upon Ma-
teria Medica.
   In  the third place, it is asserted in the same circular—so prolific'in false
statements—that the College " Commenced its first session in 1824, with a
class  of fifteen pupils."   But it went into operation in the month of Novem-
ber, 1820,  with four Professors, who delivered public introductoryalectures,
and had a class  of twenty-four pupils; seven of whom were graduated at a
public commencement the ensuing April, and three  of these first graduates,
are now physicians in Cincinnati.
   Its second session began  in  November, 1821, with five Professors, and a
class of thirty-two  students—of whom  seven  received  diplomas, the next
Spring.  At the public Commencement held for this purpose, Drs. Edmiston
and Canby, two  of the most respectable  physicians of the state, attended as
Visiters, appointed  by the Medical Convention of the state, acting under a
law since unwisely repealed.   They were present, as was their duty, at, and
participated in, the examinations of the candidates, both in private and public
subscribed their diplomas and made a report to  the Legislature on the state
of the institution.  Had this annual visitation been continued, the College
would have remained, defacto, a state, and  not been made a city institution.
   The third session opened in the Autumn of 1822, with public introduc- 
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 tory lectures, by two Professors, Drs. Smith and Slack, who had a class of
 eighteen pupils.
    In 1823, there were three  Professors, but no  class; and  consequently, I
 believe, no lectures.
    In 1824, there were four Professors, two of whom had lectured from the
 beginning in 1820, and fifteen pupils; and this is pronounced by the honor-
 able Board to be the fint session of the School!   Now, if this is true, it follows
 that the College of 1821 was a distinct corporation from that of 1820.   But,
 the  minutes of the Faculty for 1824 were kept in  the sime book, that had
 been used for that purpose from 1820, and Professors  Slack and Smith ap-
 pointed before the session of the latter year,  continued to hold their places,
 without being  reappointed, in the former year.   The Legislature, 'however,
 has decided this matter, and established  the fact, that the College of 1824,
 was the same as that of 1820.   The following extract from the law of 1825,
 is conclusive on this point.

   " Whereas health is essentially necessary to the happiness of society, and its preservation and
 recovery closely connected with a knowledge of the animal economy and the properties and
 effects of medicine; and it having been represented to this General Assembly, by the Trustees
 and Faculty of the M;dical Collegeof Ohio, that the act  to authorize the establishment of
 a Medical College, passed the nineteeth  day of January, in the year eighteen hundred and
 nineteen, and the several acts amendatory thereto, passed the  thirtieth day of December in
 the year eighteen hundred and nineteen, and  the thirteenth day of December, eighteen hundred
 and twenty two, and the act for the better regulation of the same, passed the fifth day of Feb-
 ruary in the year  eighteen hundrsd  and twenty-five,  have been found insufficient to effect
 the important purposes for which they were designed ;  and that it is necessary they should be
 revised, with such alterations and additions as will tend to advance the character, improve
 the condition, extend the usefulness, and promote  the future prosperity of said College:
   "Therefore,
   "Sec.  1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly ofthe State of Ohio, That the Medical
 College of Ohio, for instruction in Physic aud Surgery, and the auxiliary  sciences, heretofore
 located  in the city ojf Cincinnati, be, aud the same is hereby  continued and  established at
 that place."

   I h.-.ve established the fact,  then, that the present  College  is the same that
 went into operation in 1820; and consequently  it follows that the Honorable
 Board of Trustees  have published a deliberate—untruth.
   How the Board of Trustees could be so indiscreet as to publish a false state-
 ment, so easily exposed and refuted, you may explain for  yourselves.   To me,
 it is much more mysterious, than the motive  by which they were instigated.
 This is quite  plain.   They could not fail to perceive  and feel, that mylabors
 for four years, in forwarding and establishing, the school and  hospital,  would
 aggravate the treatment I had received at their hands; and,  hence, they re-
 sorted to the expedient, of attempting to  make the community believe, that
 the present College is a distinct corporation from that which I had projected!
   I confess that I was indignant at this publication,  and at the annual  meet-
 ing of our District Medical Society, where it was distributed amono-the  mem-
 bers, I publicly pronounced it a false document.   I did think thai after em-
 ploying the delegated power of the state,  in  a long series  of  unjust, disinge-
 nuous,  and mystical  acts, to  expel me  from  the school, and prevent' my
 permanent return to it, in a  respectable station, (to say  nothing of that from
 which I was dismissed;)  and after having  succeeded  so perfectly, its gover-
nors, now, that  I am treading  on the downhill of life, might  have left to my
vanity, the harmless gratification  of being regarded as its  founder; but they
have sought, even in violation of truth, to despoil me of this humble distinction. 
(30)
   I must now, Gentlemen, bring this  long letter  to a close.  I have mainly
sought to establish in your minds a few great truths.
   First. That fifteen years ago I projected the Medical College of Ohio; and
that I have ever since looked upon  Cincinnati, as the spot where the great
medical school ofthe West might and ought to be located.
   Secondly.  That in the infancy of the College, after having, through many
perils and difficulties, got it organized, I was unjustly  expelled from  it; and
its destinies placed in the hands of my enemies, who have made  my contin-
ued exclusion, the polar star of their movements, for the last ten years.
   Third. That throughout this long period, at least till the reluctant union
with the Miami Faculty in 1831, the Trustees  selected their Professors from
motives  of convenience or  personal partiality; and maintained them in sta-
tions for which they were incompetent; instead of introducing, as  they might
have done, into one ofthe most central and eligible cities ofthe nation, some
ofthe ablest men which the nation affords.
   Fourth.  That the chief means by which they were enabled to keep such
professors in office, in defiance of public sentiment, was  low charging.  On
this subject there can be no mistake.  Hear what the Trustees have, them-
selves, said to the Legislature, in tiicir memorial, of the 10th of February,
1831—" There is no school, either east or west of the mountains, where the
price of tuition has been placed so  low as in this!'''1  It would have been
wonderful, indeed, if an average class equal to one third of that of our rival
school, at Lexington, could not have been collected, on this principle, taken
in connexion with that  of free tickets and extended credits.
   Fifth. That, as a necessary consequence ofthis sinister policy, the College
has, throughout the  whole period, been  far inferior  in reputation  and the
number of its pupils, to  the Transylvania School; although, they were both
instituted nearly at the same  time, and the location ofthe latter  is, confess-
edly, far less eligible than that of the former.  During the last twelve years,
the whole number of matriculated sludents, composing the different  classes
ofthe Ohio School, fell considerably short of800, of  which not less than 75
were beneficiaries; while within the same period, ihe number enrolled in the
classes  ofthe  Kentucky School, was 2300, or  at least three to one!  The
largest class ever matriculated, in Cincinnati, was that of last year, amount-
ing to 131—the largest Lexington Class was 2N2;  a difference of 151!  All
of which can be ascribed to nolhing  but.  the difference, in the talents, learn-
ing, and fame of ihe professors of the two schools.
   Sixthly. That the state of Ohio has acted munificently towards the institu-
tion; but has never ordered one inquiry into ihe character of its professors, or
the management of the Board of Trustees; while, the Legislature of Ken-
tucky has repeatedly sent committees of its own body, to Lexington, to exa-
mine into the state of the Transylvania School, and report to them on its prog-
ress and  actual eondH ion.
   Lastly. That the Board of Trustees should embrace a number of medical
gentlemen, who should not be residents  of the city, on account of the jeal-
ousies which might arise between them and the Professors, all of whom would
,be candidates for professional  business.*
   Gentlemen!  The work which you have  undertaken, is every way praisewor-
thy; but you  may expect to meet with decided opposition from the Board of

  * The present Board centains but one physician, Dr. Duncan, a member of the  General
Assembly.  He did not, as I have been informed, attend the meetings of the Board, when
the doings of 1831-2, of which I have spoken, were in progress, and is not, therefore, respon-
sible for them. 
(37)
Trustees, and their friends.  You and all who may co-operate with you, will be
denounced as enemies of the College!  But how does this matter stand? Let us
look at it for a moment.   The College is a public eleemosynary corporation,
founded and endowed by the state, and, technically,the slate is the superintend-
ing Visiler.  You have signified 1o the  people of Ohio, Ihat you intend to repre-
sent to 1 his Visiter,that those to whom it has enlrusted the power and moneys of
the state, to be employed forthe interests of medical education, have not been
faithful to the Irust.   That they have acted without skill or enlarged views, in
their appointments, and suffered the Institution, for a long series of years to lag
behind a rival of nearly the  same age in  a  sister state,  placed under cir-
cumstances far less favorable to success; that it. is your desire to see our own
school assume the rank, and confer the benefits, originally anticipated; and
which its admirable location, and ample endowments, might long  since have
effected, had its affairs been managed with wisdom and impartiality.  Finally,
you ask its founder, to commit its destinies, to better informed and more im-
partial men.  Now,  what is the logical conclusion from these  premises?
Most assuredly, that you are its friends,  not its enemies.   If the  latter, you
would not petition for a change, as the bitterest enmity, could not desire for
it a more decided inferiority than that  in which it has languished.  It may be
said, however, that the Board  has lately dismissed some of its  incompetent
professors, and introduced others of better qualifications.  But was not this
forced upon them by a rival school, which their mismanagement  suffered to
start up?  And is the Institution, even when thus improved such as the inte-
ests ofthe state require?   No  intelligent physician, who is acquainted with its
composition, and real power, can answer this question in the affirmative.
  To doubt the competency of its Trustees or Professors is to plot the  over-
throw ofthe College!  But might not all its powers and functions, be at any
time transferred  to other men,  and the institution still continue?  The  Fac-
ulty  make no part of the corporation, and if  it were abo'ished,  that would
still remain; or the offices of all the Trustees might be vacated,  and its foun-
der, the  state become its governor  without  its becoming extinct.   If those
who administer its powers, and perform its functions, for the time  being, are
above the reach  of public opinion, they are placed on a higher eminence
than the legislature  itself.  If to point out their defects, and  petition for
abler men, is hostility to the prosperity ofthe Institution,  why, then,  farewell
to all improvement in its condition.   To complain of a bad officer, is not to
object  to the office; to question the sufficiency of a Faculty, or the impartial-
ity of a Board of Trustees, by no sound logic can be tortured into an act of
hostility against the institution, whose progress they may  embarrass.  Still
you may expect  lo hear ihe oft repeated cabalistic words, " restless spirit,"
"disappointed aspirant,"  " intriguer, " and  " enemy of the College," ap-
plied to me, and the courteous phrases, " tools  " and  " sycophants, " meted
out to you,  and all who may co-operate with  you.   It remains to be seen,
whether the dynasty, which basso long maintained itself in place, by this lan-
guage, will find in it a power sufficient to paralyze the laudable efforts of your
Society.
              I have the honor to  be, most respectfully, your otft. serv't.
                                               DAN.  DRAKE, M. D.

Drs. Martin, Ross, Templeton, j Committee  ofthe Third
    Staxtox, and Bell.        ) District Medical Society. 
(38)
           III.—MEMORIAL TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
       To the Honorable, the Legislature of the State of  Ohio:
    Your memorialists, a committee appointed by the Third District Medical
Society, to inquire into the condition and promote the improvement of the
Medical  College of Ohio, would respectfully represent  to  your honorable
body—That the Medical College was incorporated by your predecessors at
the session of 1818-19, and that the charter has been subsequently amended,
and the institution munificently endowed.   With the most eligible site in the
extended Valley ofthe Mississippi, and the liberal patronage ofthe state, the
College has not attained that degree of eminence, usefulness, and respecta-
bility, which was anticipated by the state, and the medical profession, at its
foundation.   It  has existed for more than twelve years  in an unprosperous
condition, with small  classes of pupils annually, many of whom were benefi-
ciaries; whilst a rival institution, of nearly the same age, in an  adjoining
state, with an ineligible site, and with less pecuniary patronage  from the
state, has, by the enlarged and liberal policy of those who govern it, become
eminently distinguished  as a school of medicine; alluring, annually, to  its
halls, large classes of  pupils.   Your memorialists would respectfully suggest
to your honorable body,  the propriety and urgent necessity of the most vigi-
lant and scrutinizing investigation into the causes of this great disparity be-
tween the two institutions.
   The languishing condition ofthe Medical College of Ohio, which had, as
your memorialists are informed, but 62 pupils at the close of last month, while
that of Kentucky had 218, must be owing to  defects both in'organization
and government.  Of the present Board of Trustees but one is a Physician, and
consequently they are not the  best judges ofthe talents and qualifications of
medical men, as professors.  They all, except one, reside in the city of Cincin-
nati, and seem to look upon the medical college, as having been instituted
for the exclusive use and benefit of that city.
   Professors, with but slender qualifications, have been selected for the Col-
lege, from among the personal friends, family physicians,  and relatives of the
Trustees, without much regard to the interests of the state,  or the science of
medicine.
   Although recent events have forced upon the Board a  few men of distin-
guished talents and reputation, yet the pertinacity with which they  have sub-
sequently adhered to an undistinguished and foreign favorite (even though a
year be required for preparation, and an important professorship be abolished)
evinces but too palpably their disregard ofthe true interests ofthe institution.
   With these  facts before them, your memorialists  feel constrained to ask
your honorable body, to re-organize the Medical College; and with due 
                              (89)
deference, beg leave to  suggest to  your honorable  body, the propriety and
expediency of confiding  the prerogative of appointing and removing medical
Professors in the College, to a Board, selected from  different sections ofthe
state, a majority of whom should be physicians, or that your honorable body
would so  augment the  number of Trustees, as to give a preponderating
influence to those who reside without the city.
  Your memorialists beg leave to refer your honorable body to the subjoined
documents, trusting that the College  may find in your wisdom, an emanci-
pation from  that  system of favoritism and bad government which has ever
blighted its fairest prospects.
                                   JOSHUA MARTIN,
                                   JOSEPH TEMPLETON,
                                   JNO. ROSS,
                                   JOSEPH STANTON,
                                   WM. BELL,        Committee.
  Xenia, Ohio, Dec. 6,1832.
FINIS. 
 
Tmhso






 DEC 29 1947