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    INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE




           DCLIVEKIO AT Till




COMMENCEMENT OP THE COURSE OF LECTURES



             TO THE




     RUTGERS MEDICAL FACULTY



              or




         GENEVA COLLEGE.
ON MONDAY, THE 14th DAY OP NOVEMBER, ]fc!7.
:?1w5eE
~pat//J   MaSacM 
*- 
At a meeting of the Students of Rutgers Medical College, held in
   the Hall on the morning of November 14,1827, Mr. Gunning S.
   Bedford was called to the Chair,  and Mr. Alexander Robert-
   son appointed  Secretary:

  It was, on motion, unanimously resolved, that a committee be ap-
pointed to wait on Professor Hosack, and solicit a copy of his able and
eloquent Discourse for publication.

  Resolved, that B. R. Tinslar, J. H. Borrowe, and A. A. Adee.
compose that committee.
GUNNING S. BEDFORD, Chairman.
ALEXANDER ROBERTSON, Sec'rv. 
    To David Hosack, M.D.
President of the Rutgers Medical Faculty of Geneva College.
  Sir,
     As a Committee of the Students of Rutgers Medical College, we have
the honour of acquainting you with their unanimous resolve  that a copy of
your Introductory Address, delivered on Monday, 5th instant, be requested for
publication.
    The sentiments of satisfaction evinced by the numerous and highly respec-
table audience present, and the gratification we ourselves experienced, have
induced us to be thus solicitous for your compliance with our request.
         With the highest considerations of respect,
                  We have the honour to remain,
                          Your obedient and humble servants,
                                        AUGUSTUS A.  ADEE, M.D.
                                        B. R.  TINSLAR.
                                        J. HALLETT BORROWE.
    Nov. 16th,  1S27.
                                         New-York, Nov. 17th, 1827.
Gentlemen,
        It would be affectation on my part to withhold the expression of the
gratification I feel at the request preferred in your favour of the 16th instant;
for I am thereby convinced, that, although the subject of the Discourse, a copy
of which you ask for publication, is a continuance of the history of the progress
of this Institution,  and of the opposition it  has received, your opinions and
feelings are in accordance with mine, that the establishment of two Medical
Colleges in this rapidly increasing city, is not only called for, but by awakening
an  honourable spirit of competition between their several  professors, will
become alike favourable to the interests of both schools, to the improvement
of the students resorting to this city for their professional education, and to the
diffusion of medical literature througliout our state  and country.   On these
accounts it is also earnestly to be desired, that both institutions may be per-
mitted to proceed upon their own merits, and alike receive the protection of an
enlightened government.   In complying with your request, I beg you, gentle-
men,  to accept,  in behalf of the class whom you represent, as well as for
3'ourselves,
                                 My respectful regards,
                                                  DAVID  HOS \CK.
To Augustus A. Adee, M.D.
   B. R. Tinslar, and
   J. Hallett Borrowe,
           Committee of the Slvdents of Rutgers Medical College. 
INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE.
FELLOW-CITIZENS AND STUDENTS OF MEDICINE,
      In the 185th  chapter of the volume of the
Laws of the State of New-York, passed during the
last session of the  honourable the legislature, you
will find these words :
   " Be it enacted by the people of the state of New-
^York represented in Senate and Assembly, That
all diplomas, granted by authorities out of this state
to individuals who have pursued their studies in any
medical school in this  state, shall be void and of no
effect, as it regards authorizing the said individuals
to practise physic and  surgery in this state/'
   As the legislature of the state of New-York han
seen fit, in its wisdom, to pass the law just read—
a law exclusively and  avowedly hostile to, and  in-
tended to counteract,  the views  and interests of
the medical faculty of Rutgers College, and thereby
to create an impression upon the public mind un-
favourable to its character, and destructive of  its
rising prospects—I feel it my duty at this time, for
the information of our  fellow-citizens and the med-
ical profession,  to exhibit  a detail of some of the
more  prominent facts  and circumstances which
have }ed to the passage of this memorable law, and
   vol. in.             *H 
•jy.2
RUTGERS MEDICAL 1'AtlLTV
to point out the present condition and prospects of
this institution.
  It certainly was not an event to be looked for,
that the professors of this College,—after expend-
ing a sum  exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars
in the erection of this building, dedicated to the
benefit of  the profession, and in providing the
materials necessary to complete the system of in-
struction that had been contemplated, and that,
too, without calling upon the treasury of the state
or our fellow-citizens for the smallest aid,—would
have been opposed in their proceedings by the very
gentlemen  whom the Regents have selected as
their successors; or that, through their instrumen-
tality, the  Medical County Society, or rather, as
will appear, a small packed minority of them, could
have been induced to become partners in this work
of proscription.
  You will  be still further surprised, that the mem-
bers of the State Medical Society, who were contem-
plated, in the original organization of that society,
(as he who now addresses you well knows, having
himself had no inconsiderable  share in its forma-
tion,) to be the patrons of, not the opponents to, the
progress of medical literature, should have lent its
aid in destroying, instead of protecting, an institu-
tion, certainly intended to elevate the profession, of
which they were presumed to be among the most
distinguished members.
  But what will be your surprise to be told, that,
through the indefatigable and combined efforts I 
OF GENEVA COLLEGE.
293
have  enumerated, the Regents of the  University
should have found a majority of that board favour-
able to their unhallowed views !   And,  moreover.
that the legislature of the state, making  due allow-
ance for all the frailties,  weaknesses, private inte-
rests,  prejudices,  and even the follies  of human
nature, could have been prevailed upon to pass an
act so directly destructive in its consequences, so
injurious to the  reputation of the  state and to the
literary character of our country, is  certainly passing
comprehension.   Yet such are the facts now to be
presented for your consideration; and in expressing
any sentiments or feelings, which  may arise in the
progress of this Discourse, I beg it may be under-
stood, they are  those of the individual who now
addresses you, and for which he alone is to be con-
sidered as responsible.
   To pass over, in silence, the occurrences of the
last year relating to this  college, and the measures
which, through  the intrigues and machinations of
its enemies, have been  adopted,  and the baneful
effects they are calculated to produce upon the
character and interests of the profession, and the
reputation of the state,  would be a dereliction of
duty,  and an ignoble surrender  of those  rights.
which, as the citizens of a free government, as the
members of a republic possessing the blessings of
independence, we are permitted to enjoy.
   In a former discourse, delivered at the opening
of Rutgers College in November last, it will be
recollected, that, after taking a general survey  of 
294       RUTGERS MEDICAL FACULTY

the progress of medical education  in the United
States, and having given a sketch of the medical
schools of the state of New-York,  from the first
establishment  of Kings (now Columbia) College
in 1768, to the institution of the College of Physi-
cians and Surgeons in 1807, I proceeded to point
out the defects  contained in the charter of that
college ;  the  changes and modifications  which,
from time to time, it had undergone; the feuds and
dissentions to  which they gave rise, and the irre-
mediable condition of that  institution, under  the
controlling and conflicting powers exercised by the
Regents of the University, on the one hand; and
by a separate board of trustees, appointed at the
pleasure of the regents, on  the  other.  I pointed
out, as I think, with sufficient minuteness, this ano-
maly of government, when I stated that the former
power not only exercised an immediate and direct
control over the fiscal concerns of  the professors,
viz. in prescribing  the amount of the fees to be
received for instruction, and again, at their pleasure,
levying taxes upon them; but also, in delegating to
a subordinate board of trustees still  further powers
of controlling  the privileges of the professors in
the performance of their duties, in teaching, in ex-
amining,  and in deciding upon the qualifications of
the candidates for the honours of the college.
   I then proceeded to notice those  circumstances
which induced the professors to resist the exactions
imposed by the regents, and ultimately to withdraw
from the  bondage to which they were about to be 
OF GENEVA COLLEGE.
295
subjected, and to abandon a connexion thus fettered
by conditions,  which rendered it impossible for us
to do justice to ourselves, or to others, in those re-
lations which we had so long and  so honourably
sustained.
   Thus situated, and supported by the fact that the
board of regents  had approved of  our conduct
during the whole controversy that had existed be-
tween the  trustees and the  professors,* having
received the unanimous approbation of  that body
for our services to the  college, as well as the suc-
cess with which our professorial duties  had been
performed, and in the full confidence that  we should
never experience from  them opposition to the mea-
sures we were now about to adopt, but continue to
receive their protection,  we, at once, resolved to
unite and renew our  labours as  teachers of medi-
cine ; and for this purpose, if practicable, to connect
ourselves as a medical  faculty, with some respecta-
ble college, either in this or a neighbouring state.
For until the late memorable act of the legislature
of the state of New-York, I believe, it  was never
deemed  expedient that medical science should be
measured by degrees of latitude or longitude; or
that literature, like the  waters of the Hudson wash-
   * See the reports of Col. Troup, and the report of the committee
of the board of regents, composed of the hon. Lieutenant Governor
Talmadge, Mr. Murray, and Mr. Van Rensselaer, a document of deep
interest and much ability; also, the annual reports of the regents to
the legislature, and Governor Clinton's messages. 
296        RUTGERS MEDICAL FACULT\

ing the shores of New-Jersey,  was to be confined
by territorial boundaries.*
  As Columbia College formerly had a  medical
faculty, it at once occurred to us, that, under exist-
ing circumstances, a connexion with that venerable
institution  might prove  a mutual benefit.  With
this view, a conference was held with some of the
most intelligent  and  influential members of the
board of trustees of that incorporation, relative to
a union with that institution as their medical faculty.
This proposition immediately received the counte-
nance of those gentlemen with whom  we conferred;
and,  among others,  was  honoured  by the appro-
bation of  the  learned and  dignified prelate who
presides over the episcopacy of the state.
   It  was justly thought, that the establishment of
a second medical school in the city of New-York,
by creating a competition with the College of Phy-
sicians and Surgeons and other medical institutions
of this state, would contribute to the promotion of
medical learning, offer additional advantages to the
pupils of medicine, and elevate the character of the
 city, by  presenting more ample means of  practical
instruction in medicine  and  surgery than  had
hitherto been enjoyed  in  this  rapidly increasing
 metropolis, and be calculated to reflect credit upon
  * At this time the long agitated question, relative to the boundaries
of the state of New-York and New-Jersey on the shores of the Hud-
son, had been renewed with much rancour in our state legislature.
and had produced no little hostility to New-Jersey. 
              OF GENEVA COLLEGE.           297
                4
Columbia College;  and through the medium of
the numerous medical  pupils,  collected from all
parts of the union, to make more extensively known
the character of that college and the high advan-
tages it enjoys as a school of arts;—for it must be
admitted by all who give attention to the progress
of literature in  the United States, that Columbia
College does not hold that rank, in comparison with
her sister institutions, nor enjoy that celebrity which
the learning and abilities of her professors would
lead us to expect, and which we trust, ere long, she
is destined to attain.  The  advantages, therefore,
of uniting to herself, as a medical faculty, a body
of professors well known throughout the state and
nation, and possessed  of  character  sufficient to
reflect some share of credit upon their  associate
institution, were obvious.
   Many, too, of its enlightened  friends deemed this
an auspicious moment for increasing the pecuniary
interests of the college, as well as extending its
reputation; for  its funds would have been immedi-
ately benefited  by a sum equal to the interest of
ten thousand dollars, which that union would have
secured—equal to the amount which the trustees
of Columbia College had  often, but unavailingly,
solicited from the legislature.   But the advantages
of this proposal made to Columbia College, great
as they were, could not overcome the hostility and
jealousy of our enemies.   It certainly was not to
be expected, that  in this application we were to be
opposed by any of the gentlemen whom the regents 
298       KUTGERS MEDICAL 1ACLLT*

had appointed as our  successors in the College of
Physicians and Surgeons, and who were denomi-
nated,  even  by the regents themselves,  "untried
professors:" nevertheless, in  certain publications.
these newly  created teachers  were stated to pos-
sess  merits and talents far superior to their  prede-
cessors ;  and by  the  late president  of the  State
Medical Society it was affirmed,  that they would
not consider it flattering to their pride to be com-
pared  with  the  ex-professors of  the College of
Physicians and Surgeons.
  Had these " untried professors," and their par-
tial adherents, felt that confidence in their boasted
powers, they surely would not have shrunk from a
competition with men of such inferior worth as the
old professors were represented to be, and who, in
their opinion, had forfeited all claims, as well to the
regard and  support of the profession,  as  of the
countenance of  the youth about  to  engage in the
study of medicine.  On the contrary, it would have
been their interest to  have courted such competi-
tion, by which they were to be  so manifestly the
gainers;—not so—on the contrary, like " Imlac in
Rasselas, they affected to deny with their tongues
what they confessed  by their fears."  Our rivals
having obtained the  places  they so long  and  so
assiduously  had sought—dignified with the rank of
professors,  and  filling the seats we had vacated—
the most pleasing results were anticipated : on the
one  hand, the " new lights" of science were to shed
their radiance on the future  members  of the pro- 
OF GENEVA COLLEGE.
299
fession, with a lustre pure and as brilliant as the legi-
timacy of the fount from which they had derived their
aliment; on the other hand, the former professors
indulged the hope, that they should be enabled to
continue their labours as teachers, under a different
organization, unincumbered with a complexity of
regulations, and more  in conformity to the genius
of institutions most celebrated for their success in
the promulgation of knowledge.  Matters, how-
ever,  were not permitted to rest in this condition.
It was forgotten that it was equally lawful for one
set of men to associate and pursue the business of
instruction as another.   Pretensions equally absurd
and exclusive were advanced, asseverations  the
most unjustifiable were made,  and a delusion crea-
ted in the minds of many, which it may be doubtful
whether to consider more with the feelings of com-
miseration or of contempt.
   During these pending negociations, dispassionate
inquiry seems to  have been wholly laid aside, and
the suggestions of disappointed revenge supplied
the place of good sense and fair argumentation.
   Rernonstrance was unavailing; conciliatory lan-
guage, however  sound and sincere, proved nuga-
tory, and reason was no more heard than  a whisper
in a whirlwind.   On the part of our opponents, no
measure was omitted, no stratagem was left untried
to defeat the application that had been made to
Columbia College.  I forbear  from noticing, in de-
tail, the unwearied  exertions, the base  intrigues,
and the unqualified misrepresentations, which were
   vol. in.               38 
300
RUTGERS MEDICAL FACULTY
resorted to by certain persons in order to disappoint
and  counteract  our views and  interests.   u Tu
Brute," might also, upon this* occasion, be applied
to some individuals, from whom were justly claimed
and expected a friendly and independent support-
but I refrain.  Suffice it to remark, our  opponents
were successful in resisting the alliance that was
contemplated, and that the board of trustees, when
 convened to decide upon  the connexion that had
 been proposed, were prevailed upon to decline the
 union that had been tendered!   It now remains for
 those whose enmity to the late professors of the
 College of Physicians and Surgeons, so far exceeded
 their regard for the interest and reputation of Co-
 lumbia College, to make good to the latter institu-
 tion the pecuniary loss they have thereby caused it
 to incur.   I am not so  unreasonable as to expect
 from them any other kind of restitution.  Those
 persons gratified their malice for the moment, and
 believed that they had triumphed definitively, which
 only showed how little they understood the perse-
 vering character and tenacity of purpose of the old
 professors.
   Notwithstanding their unceasing hostility, we
 have succeeded to our utmost wishes.   Frustrated
 jn our  application to the trustees of Columbia Col-
 ajftVWe lost no time in seeking a connexion with
 attend  respectable chartered  institution.   Our
 in theTtaT8 f°rthwith dire<*ed to Rutgers College
 which, for  t f New"Jersey; an  establishment in
              °ng series of vears, theological and 
OF GENEVA COLLEGE.
301
classical studies had been cultivated with advan-
tage and success.
  I was  of the committee who had the honour to
submit to the venerable president, the faculty and
trustees  of Rutgers College, the several proposi-
tions we  had determined upon  as the grounds of
our confederation.   After a prompt and full delibe-
ration, we were unanimously received, with all that
kindness  and liberality which a regard  for  the
interest of learning and the benefit of the commu-
nity, uninfluenced  by local or state prejudices, is
calculated to inspire.  It is incorrectly stated, that
other applications  had been made to other colleges
to obtain the privileges and protection we received
from Rutgers College.
  In my last address I cursorily noticed the alliance
subsequently formed with  that respectable institu-
tion, and offered a prospective view of the  benefits
we anticipated from that connexion, and the friendly
and  liberal protection it afforded  us.  This con-
nexion with Rutgers College was consummated on
the 16th of October, 1826; consequently it was not
promulgated until  within  a few days of the com-
mencement of the  session which took place on the
first  Monday of the ensuing  November.  In the
mean time, many of our former pupils, from various
parts of the United States, and who had intended
to have  finished the studies they  had  begun in
New-York, not knowing the union we  had  formed,
and fearing they might otherwise be disappointed 
302
RUTGERS .MEDICAL COLLEGE
in obtaining their medical honours, had  gone to
Philadelphia.
  Yet, in that very season, notwithstanding the loss
we thus sustained by the change in the destination
of many of our former pupils,  and the short notice
that  had been published of the arrangement that
had been thus recently effected, we had the grati-
fication  to deliver  our lectures to much larger
classes than could have been  expected under the
embarrassments and opposition we had experienced
from our rival successors.
 But the angry agitation of the waters had not yet
subsided.   Although our  connexion with Rutgers
College struck terror and dismay into the ranks of
our opponents, still the reckless genius of mischief
was not yet exhausted of her resources.
  By the collegiate alliance  we  had formed, we
were created the medical faculty of that institution,
and duly received our commissions as professors.
We had, moreover, the usual powers of examining,
and recommending candidates for the doctorate;
and the degree of M.D. granted by the board of trus-
tees of Rutgers College, was universally considered
sufficient  to  invest its possessor with the fullest
powers of practising physic and surgery.   Scarcely
had  intelligence of this  state  of things  become
known,  than the malcontents again  rallied  their
forces.  Public notice was given, that a meeting of
the physicians and surgeons of the city and county
of New-York would be held at the hall of the Col-
lege of Physicians and Surgeons, in order to procure 
OF GENEVA COLLEGE.
303
an expression of opinion in relation to the powers
of Rutgers Medical College.
  The subject being one of great and general in-
terest to the medical faculty at large, as well as to
our  citizens, a  very numerous and respectable
meeting of the physicians and  surgeons was held
at the time and  place  appointed, the evening of
November 7th.
  The  objects of the  convention were  fully  ex-
plained by the then president of the State Medical
Society, at whose especial instigation it appeared
this meeting had been summoned, and, for the bet-
ter understanding of those present, the several laws
of the state, regulating  the practice of physic and
surgery, were read and examined by a member* of
the Medical Society of  the County of New-York.
After further discussion, involving the relationship
of Rutgers Medical College and the laws of New-
York, the sense of the meeting was taken, when it
was resolved, almost unanimously, to  decline all
further consideration of the subject proposed, and
to adjourn : the  only persons  manifesting a non-
concurrence with the general vote were, the indivi-
dual who had called the meeting and one other.—
An adjourned meeting of the County Medical  So-
ciety was afterwards held on the 22d day of January,
1827, to hear the report of the committee that had
been previously appointed to prepare instructions
* James M. Pendleton, M. T). 
304
RUTGERS MEDICAL FACULTY
for  the  delegate to the State Medical Society at
Albany.  There were twenty-seven members pre-
sent.  At this meeting the various sections of the
report were considered and passed.   After the re-
port was concluded, the president  of the  State
Medical Society (who, under any other circum-
stances than those accidentally derived from his
official station,  would not have demanded or have
received from me this notice,) moved that the fol-
lowing resolution  be added  to the instructions to
the delegate:  " Resolved, as the sense  of this
meeting, that it is expedient  to have  a law imme-
diately passed, providing, that no diploma to prac-
tise physic and surgery shall be a license to practise
the same in this state, unless approved by the me-
dical  society of this state;  and that no diploma
shall be a license to practise in  this  state, unless
such  diploma is also a license in the state from
which it emanates."
  The design of the mover was, if possible, to des-
troy the effects of the diploma of Rutgers College,
and could not be misunderstood.
  Considerable discussion took place on this reso-
lution—a large majority opposing it.  Finally,  to
put an end to the business, an  adjournment was
moved and carried.
  At  a meeting of the same society, held February
12th—present nineteen members—the preceding
resolution, which had virtually been  rejected, was
again brought forward, on the pretence that it had
been merely laid over at the former meeting.  The 
OF GENEVA COLLEGE.
305
resolution was now passed, and the secretary di-
rected to send a copy of the same to the comitia
minora of the State Medical Society in Albany and
to the regents!!
  To prove, incontrovertibly, that the adjournment
of the first meeting was actually a rejection of the
resolution, it  is only necessary to state, that it was
brought forward as one article of instruction to the
delegate, who, it was known, would proceed in a
few days to Albany; and, consequently, to adjourn
without passing it, was  equivalent to rejecting it:
and  further, the meeting of the  12th February, at
which the resolution was passed, was held after the
delegate had actually returned from Albany,  as at
that  very meeting he made his report to the socie-
ty !!  But to stamp these irregular proceedings with
still stronger marks of dishonour and  selfishness,
let it be recorded, and let it be  remembered, that
the small meeting, at  which this partial resolution
was  adopted, was countenanced by four, being a
majority of the professors  of the  Barclay-street
College, and sanctioned by their vote !!
   " Here, then, (as has been justly said,) nineteen
persons, who, without giving notice of the business
they intended to transact, meet, apparently pre-
pared (or packed) to  vote in favour of measures
which had been already rejected in a fuller meet-
ing, and which, it is fair to infer, would have  been
again rejected by the  candid  and disinterested
members of the profession, had they been apprised
of this intended agitation of  the question.   Pro- 
306
RUTGERS MEDICAL FACULTY
lessors and  trustees of a rival institution uniting.
if possible, to hunt down, by clamour and the pro-
curing of injurious legislative  enactments, men
who have never opposed to them any thing, except
the exercise of laudable industry in the discharge
of duties  connected with  a work of great public
utility."
  Let us for the present leave the medical disputa-
tions  of our own  city, and take a glance  at the
proceedings of the opposition assembled at Albany,
the field of their labours.  Many of the facts which
I state, are already sufficiently notorious, and I am
confirmed in others, by the written communication
of a respectable medical friend, whose official sta-
tion rendered him an actor  and witness in many of
these transactions.
  It will  have  been already understood, that the
delegate of  the Medical Society of the County of
New-York was about to proceed to Albany, to at-
tend the annual session of the State Medical Society.
The various conflicting views which had disturbed
the medical faculty so long, and more especially
those  which had agitated it during the past year,
could not but become, more or less, matters of dis-
cussion with the public at large.  But what is to
be inferred when we are informed, by the delegate
himself, that, upon his arrival at Albany, he found
the utmost degree of hostility existing against the
professors of the  Rutgers School!—and that the
members of the legislature with whom he conversed
 knew, most intimately, the particular intentions and 
OF GENEVA COLLEGE.
307
views of the State Medical Society !—" that the
minds  of the legislature were prepossessed,  even
before the object of the designing few came before
the society itself!!  Such are the Machiavelian arts
of our adversaries.
  The delegate had several important enactments
for the relief of the medical profession, to ask of
the legislature, now in session, through the medium
of the State Medical Society.  But I shall avail
myself of his own statement in the communication
with which  he has favoured me.  The message of
the president of the State Medical Society having
been read,  the  delegate observes, " it was, as a
matter of course, referred to a committee, to report
thereon.   This report was received: it recom-
mended a request  of the Medical Society, in con-
currence with the Regents  of the University, to be
preferred to the legislature.  I opposed the mea-
sure,  because I deemed it sinister,  to aim at a
particular school; that it  evinced  individual and
marked  hostility,  and  that  it did by no means
fairly represent the wishes or interests of the medi-
cal profession.   But all doubt soon vanished.  The
avowed object  was immediately declared by a re-
gent of the University, who attended in person, to
be, the annihilation of Rutgers Medical College ! !
I modestly urged, (says the delegate,) that the pro-
fessors  of  Rutgers  College had  never been my
particular intimates or friends; and that they cer-
tainly sustained a  high character for  learning and
talents  in imparting instruction, which had, year
  vol. in.              39 
308       RUTGERS MEDICAL FACULTY
after year, been admitted, and repeatedly, in pub-
lic documents, promulgated  by the regents them-
selves ; and that they had received the approbation
and support of the community at large, as was fully
evinced in the great school they had built up; that
these reasons were sufficient to deter us from de-
nouncing them.   In attempting to get the resolution
modified, and to obtain, at the same time, the ex-
emption of the medical profession from militia and
jury duty,  with which I had  been charged, I was
repelled by Dr. Wendell, who, affecting to be the
mouth-piece of the Regents, declared,  that they
had determined on a certain course, that they would
unite with the Medical Society,  but that nothing
else, he did not care how important, should be con-
nected with their prime intention, lest, perchance,
it might lessen the prospect  of obtaining the great
object,—the dispossessing and disqualifying all and
every adherent of professors  who had so long been
the just pride of New-York and of the Board of
Regents themselves."
   Such, gentlemen,  is a simple  narrative,  from a
disinterested eye-witness now in my hearing.  It is
painful  to observe the humiliation to which our
profession  was  thus reduced  in the  person  of
*******, who, in the duplex capacity of a member
of the State Medical Society and of the honourable
the Board of Regents,  lays  claim to the honour,
not of having engendered, but of having been,  at
least, the accoucheur  to a monster of legislation. 
OF GENEVA COLLEGE.
309
 and to which nothing but the  fabled creation of
 Virgil can approximate :
     " Monstrum horrendum informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum."

 But it was not to be expected, that the great body
 of practising physicians and surgeons in the city of
 New-York, who had already, at a general meeting
 of the  faculty held in November,  expressed  their
 full  determination  to join in no  measures adverse
 to the Rutgers Medical School, would remain pas-
 sive spectators of the recent proceedings of the
 County Medical Society, and of the equally hostile
 measures recommended to  the  legislature by the
 confederate forces  of the regents, by their organ
 Dr. Wendell, and the State Medical Society.
   Of the great mass of physicians and surgeons of
 this city, engaged in the active duties of their pro-
 fession, many had  been instructed by the Rutgers
 professors  in  the principles of their art, and were
 reaping the fruits of their well-directed studies in
 the countenance and ample patronage of the pub-
 lic. Others were in  habits of intimate acquaintance
 and consultation with them,  and appreciated their
 private  and professional merit; and all  who were
 disinterested had witnessed with laudable pride and
 satisfaction, the career of an institution, erected by
 those professors, which, from the humblest begin-
 nings, had arisen to a successful  competition with
 the first establishments  of  a similar nature in the
American confederacy.   Accordingly,  a conven-
tion of the physicians and surgeons at large, of 
310       RUTGERS MEDICAL FACULTY

this city, was called,  through the medium of the
public gazettes, for the purpose  of removing all
doubt as to the sense  of the medical profession  in
relation to the claims and  character of Rutgers
Medical  College.  The meeting was held on the
evening of the 23d of February,* at Washington
Hall.   It may^be declared, that a larger and *nore
respectable representation of the  members of the
healing art had never been assembled in this city.
At this large meeting Dr. Stearns officiated as pre-
sident.
  A protest, or remonstrance, against the prayer
of the petition of the  State  Medical Society, was
drawn up and signed, the measures  of the profes-
sors in instituting Rutgers College approved, and
the proposed law,  under the consideration of the
legislature, pronounced as  intended to secure a
monopoly to  certain individuals, and as including
principles which would be productive of unceasing
discord.
  I may be  permitted, without much trespass on
your patience, to read an extract or two from this
disinterested  and impartial  remonstrance  :  " We
are convinced," states the memorial, " that  medical
science, like every other, is best promoted by emu-
lation among its teachers, and freedom of choice
among its pupils; and that any  attempt  to give
legal preference to one set of teachers, and heap
legal disqualifications on another, is contrary to the
* See Appendix. 
OF GENEVA COLLEGE
311
free and equal principles of our constitution, no less
than detrimental to the improvement of the human
mind."
  " It may be convenient," continues  the remon-
strance, " for those who are interested, to prevent
competition, to put down rival institutions by force
of law; but we  should deem it more honourable
for them to endeavour to effect their wishes by force
of talent,  learning,  and industry;—in default  of
which, those who best serve the public ought to be
left free to receive its encouragement."  In the fur-
ther language of this document—" If this attack
be made by New-York, on the freedom of scientific
enterprise, unless a more national spirit prevail in
other states,  we must expect  retaliatory measures
from  every quarter, and an  American citizen  of
New-York may find himself reduced to the condi-
tion of an  alien in his native  land.  If we engage
in the unprofitable contest of  trying which shall do
to the other the most injury, the whole state must
suffer; the interests of the community will be sa-
crificed to the profit of a few individuals, who seek
to embarrass an independent  institution, that asks
nothing of the world  but the free  exercise of its
faculties, and such patronage as shall be bestowed
without compulsion."
  " It may not be amiss to remind your honourable
body, that  Rutgers Medical College has been esta-
blished by its professors, solely  at their individual
expense; and that they ask for no money—no pri-
vilege—no patronage;  but most  respectfully re- 
312        RUTGERS MEDICAL FACULTY

quest of your  honourable  body to  allow  them to
exercise their talents and industry, without being
oppressed  by  the  passage of laws, designed by
their enemies for no other puspose than their forci-
ble destruction."
  I forbear from any comments upon this general
and powerful expression of the sentiments of the
profession.  Suffice it  to add,  that the remon-
strance, subscribed by one hundred physicians, was
duly forwarded to the honourable the Legislature.
  It is not irrelative to the occasion here to ob-
serve, that upon the completion of the classes of
the two Medical Colleges it was found that a most
liberal patronage had been  extended to the new
institution, Rutgers College; although, as I have
already remarked,  scarcely more than two  weeks
public notice had been given of the official powers
with which it was intrusted.   Accordingly,  in the
annual report* of our College to the Hon. the Re-
gents of the University we stated, " the commence-
ment  and  progress of the school have been highly
auspicious, as the accompanying catalogue of stu-
dents will sufficiently demonstrate.  The classes
are composed of young men of great respectabi-
lity,  and  to their  exemplary deportment we can
cheerfully bear testimony."
  " It will afford us, at all times, a gratification to
exhibit this institution to a committee of your body,
- ^ .   • ■-------V      ■'" ---—---------—-:----_«___-      _______.
* See Appendix. 
OF GENEVA COLLEGE.          313
in conformity to the laws, or as individuals.  As we
cannot permit ourselves to doubt that the personal
efforts and  responsible advances caused  by the
erection of  this College,  as  well  as the sanction
under which we act, will be considered, by en-
lightened citizens, as creditable  to the  free institu-
tions of our country and the spirit of  our govern-
ment, we make this communication with frankness
to your honourable body, desiring for  our labours
such an  approval only as is due to unabated dili-
gence and well directed efforts in the promotion of
sound and useful science."
   It appeared from the official sources of informa-
tion, viz. the printed catalogues of the two schools,
that the  number of students matriculated at the
College of  Physicians and Surgeons  in Barclay-
street was  86 ;*  and the number of those of the
Rutgers Medical College as  follows—medical stu-
dents 142, students of the High School attending
the chemical class 11, total 153.  No  other  proof
need be  adduced of the success of the  Rutgers
professors than this fact.
   But this very success, which attended our efforts,
proved a source of still more vehement opposition.
The disheartening fact, that  with all the resources
of our  enemies, aided by the nominal and vaunted
advantage  of  being a legitimate state establish-
  * Not 90, as incorrectly stated in the Regents' Report to the Le-
gislature. 
314       RUTGERS MEDICAL FACULTY

ment—not forgetting  the  complimentary epistle,
written and published by a venerable Regent, cal-
culated  to  subserve  their doubtful cause—their
number  of pupils amounted to scarcely more than
half that of the new College ;  and even that incon-
siderable number embracing amateurs and persons
not engaged in the study of medicine, but occupied
in other pursuits and other professions:   this fact,
I observe, vexed  our  adversaries almost to mad-
ness. "HelpmeCassiusorIsink,"was now their cry.
The herculean arm of state power was now  called
upon with increased solicitude, in order to enable
them to  obtain that support which their own efforts
could not procure; and to put down, by force of
law, a set of men whose success was the reward
of their unassisted labours, and whose emolument
excited  the  cupidity of their rivals.  I  shall pass
over the indirect means, the  private  agents dele-
gated to Albany with the view to success in this
mischievous project   To a member from Cha-
tauque,  I believe, is due the high honour of having
introduced the restrictive and partial  bill into the
House of Assembly.  Under what particular head
the bill was classified, I know not.  It seems to have
been denominated, a Bill relative to the degree of
Doctor  of Medicine conferred by Colleges without
this State.   According to. the public report  of the
proceedings of the house, Mr. Foote explained its
objects: " Though general in its provisions,  he ad-
mitted,  it was intended to have a special bearing
upon the medical school in the city of New-York 
OF GENEVA COLLEGE.
315
connected with Rutgers College"!   It was affirmed
" that the new school in New-York, as a rival esta-
blishment,  was injurious to the College of Physi-
cians and Surgeons, and that the state was bound
to afford protection to its own institutions."
   Indeed the assertion had gone forth, that in this
establishment we were governed by a spirit of op-
position  or hostility to our fellow-labourers in the
same cause.   This is most solemnly disavowed
both by myself and my  colleagues.  On the  con-
trary, our adversaries have our best wishes for their
prosperity and success; and we hail the  day that
adds  another course  of instruction for the youth
preparing themselves for the practice of medicine.
   An argument was urged on the floor both of the
Senate and Assembly, that in  the  year 1816 the
then professors  in the College of Physicians and
Surgeons, in their memorial to the Legislature, had
earnestly contended that one medical school in the
city of New York  was sufficient to meet the de-
mands of society;  and that a second  was at  least
superfluous, if not injurious.  This was considered,
by our enemies, as  a most triumphant reply  to
those who contended for the protection of Rutgers
College.  The former at the same time urging, that
what was expedient and right in 1816 must be ex-
pedient and right in 1827!   By parity of reasoning,
if this position were correct in  1827 the increased
population, although more than double that of 1816,
does not demand  any increase in  the number of
physicians,  and  consequently no increase in the
  vol. in.             40 
316       RUTGERS MEDICAL FACULTY

number of medical schools to educate them!—01
to apply the same logic so much admired by those
members of the Senate and Assembly, who are so
opposed  to an increase of knowledge, it follows,
that because one place of religious worship twenty
years ago was deemed sufficient, that therefore no
more  can be necessary at this time!  I ask, for
what purpose has our Legislature trebled the num-
ber of public schools within some few years past ?
or, to ask a question more easily comprehended by
certain minds, why have market places and steam-
boats been multiplied so largely ?   And is it not a
fact,  too well  ascertained to require illustration,
that the  number of students  must necessarily in-
crease  with the demands of society and the facili-
ties of education afforded them ?
  Dr. Franklin, with his usual force and simplicity,
has exemplified this truth in the well-known story
of the  pigeon-houses, in a letter  addressed to his
reverend friend Whitfield, which I beg leave to re-
commend to the perusal of those gentlemen of the
Senate and Assembly who so facetiously endea-
voured to expose what, to their  understandings,
appeared the inconsistency of the former professors
of the College of Physicians and Surgeons.
  Again, if the reasoning of our opponents were
correct, and the means of education had remained
thus limited, certainly the late increase in the num-
ber of skilful  physicians recently established in
Chatauque and other remote counties of the state,
would probably not have taken place: in that event, 
              OF GENEVA COLLEGE.           317

Doctor  Foote and his  associate medical friends,
members of the committee,  who so successfully
united in the report of a bill to destroy this institu-
tion,  would have  probably remained at home at-
tending to the business of their profession.  But in
that case the state would have been deprived of
their important legislative services ;  yet, although
probably not  receiving from  practice what  they
pocket as legislators, they would, at least, have en-
joyed the consolation that they had been saving
the lives of their patients, who doubtless, in their
absence, must have sorely lamented the loss of that
professional erudition and skill for which they are
so much distinguished.
  After such conclusive arguments,  the bill was to
no purpose opposed by Dr. Barstow, Mr. Tracy, and
other gentlemen.  In the course of  legislative dis-
cussion, the bill reported was pronounced, by the
intrepid  Mr. Viele of the Senate, to be  exclusive,
injurious, and monopolising, and should be entitled
a bill for the encouragement  of ignorance, rather
than of talent and professional eminence.
  Mr. Peter R. Livingston, Mr. Crary, Mr. Carroll,
Mr. Birdseye,  and others, addressed the house in
behalf of the bill!   In fine, Mr. Foote's bill passed
by the majority of both houses !  The signature of
the Executive confirmed it as a law.
  We may now fancy the rejoicings of our oppo-
nents upon the passage  of this law; we  may now
imagine the heartfelt greetings of certain  members
of the State Medical Society; and of the nineteen 
318       RUTGERS MEDICAL FACULTY

members of the Medical Society of the County of
New-York, that composed the memorable meeting
of the 12th of February.  Their exultations are not
reduced to written records—there is, consequently,
some little room left for the indulgence of the ima-
gination.
  But of the opinion of the Hon. the Regents on
the subject,  and of  the estimation in which they
held this supposed conquest, we are not in the dark,
but possess precise information, furnished by them-
selves ;  for, in their  last annual report to the Legis-
lature,  published immediately after the enactment
of the  law, they have kindly expressed their prog-
nostics ! Remarking on the high destiny that awaits
the College of Physicians and Surgeons, they add,
in a tone of confidence and triumph: " To such a
result it cannot be considered as presumptuous to
look with confidence, especially since the act lately
passed by the Legislature, relative to  the degree of
doctor of medicine  conferred by Colleges  without
this state, has removed the last remaining obstacle
to its march to that eminence to which the state of
New-York, in consideration of her preeminent rank
among the other states, ought to elevate her public
institutions."
  Contrast with these sentiments and this language
the  liberal views, and the mild accents in which
they are  expressed, contained in the  following
extracts  from the  Discourse pronounced by the
venerable divine who  presides over  Rutgers Col-
lege, and which was delivered at  the public com- 
OF GENEVA COLLEGE.
319
 mencement  held  in New-Brunswick in July last.
 Speaking of the union that had been formed be-
 tween that institution and its present medical faculty,
 he observes, " This connexion we cannot but con-
 sider as an event favourable to the general interests
 of science, and one which, for that reason, should
 by no means have subjected us to either obloquy or
 reproach.  When the proposition was made to re-
 ceive that distinguished institution under our care,
 we had no thought either of promoting or protract-
 ing any differences that might exist between it and
 its sister institution; nor  did we think of any thing
 like disrespect or  opposition to the constituted au-
 thorities of the state of New-York.  Of  either of
 these positions we are incapable.  Our views were
 simple, easily  defined, and based  on the general
 interests of literature.   We do believe, that the re-
 public of letters throughout the world, and especially
 in these United States, is one;  that literature as to
 its interests,  and especially in this republic, will ad-
 mit of no geographical limits: that  our country, as
 such, has a literary character to form, and to, sus-
 tain ;  and that, in this respect, we  constitute but
 one great family.
   " We knew, indeed, of  differences between the
 medical institutions of our sister state, but had no
 reason to suppose  that they would be continued for
 ever.   We did believe, that the  existence of two
 eminent schools in one city, like that of New-York,
 would attract youth from every part of the country,
produce emulation in  the instructors, lower the 
320        RUTGERS MEDICAL COLLEGE

terms of instruction, afford increased facilities of
education to indigent  genius, and  be every way
fraught with advantage to the state in general and
to the highly favoured city in particular,  in which
they were located.  If causes existed which might
induce the Regents of the University, or the Legis-
lature of the state of New-York, in any wise to sus-
pend their accustomed liberality of views or policy
in this case, as they were almost wholly unknown
to us, they could hardly have been anticipated. Our
acts were passed after as  careful an inquiry as cir-
cumstances would permit; and in acting, as  the
result of that inquiry, if apprehension existed in the
minds of any, it was entirely dismissed.   We owe,
perhaps, this  explanation to  ourselves, as well as
others, and hope  that all who are concerned in this
matter will receive it with that frankness and sim-
plicity with which it is given."
   I must here be permitted to make a single re-
mark,  relative to  the powers possessed by the
Board of Regents.  By an act of the Legislature of
1784, a body of  men,  under the name and title of
Regents of the University of the state of New-York,
were created and vested with the power of  super-
intending the general interests of literature  and
science throughout the state :  afterwards, in 1791,
by an amendment, an additional power was granted
to the same body,  of  instituting  medical colleges
and other seminaries  of learning.   I cannot but
consider this authority, both in name and in fact, as
(a remnant of our colonial government) altogether 
OF GENEVA COLLEGE.
321
inconsistent with the general character of our in-
stitutions.  I leave it to gentlemen of another pro-
fession to say how far it is competent for the Legis-
lature of the state entrusted with their interests by
the people,  the paramount authority,  to transfer
them to another tribunal.  I shall confine myself to
the practical operation of  this act of delegation.
It is not to be denied that,  in many instances, the
power of this body has been wisely and beneficially
exercised; but I beg leave thus publicly to enter
my protest against repeated acts of their authority
and instances of improper  and unjust interference.
I allude, in an especial manner, to some recent or-
ders in which this body of  men have attempted to
wrest from  the late professors of  the College of
Physicians and Surgeons the  fees  accruing  from
their lectures, and to which they were entitled by a
previous ordinance of  the  same Board;  an act of
arbitrary power, which the Legislature itself has
never yet assumed, and which is equally contrary
to the law of the land and the spirit of the constitu-
tion.   Let me not be misunderstood.   With many
of the gentlemen composing that Board, I am in
habits of private intercourse and friendship, and for
them cherish personally the highest respect and
regard.  The evils of which I complain  mainly
arise from a defect in their system of organization.
It is scarcely possible  that a body of men, so con-
vened, should be otherwise than under local influ-
ence ; and the knowledge they possess in the affairs
they affect to  control,  must be gained chiefly from 
322        RUTGERS MEDICAL FACULTY

the interested who make a pilgrimage to the capi-
tol with partial  statements  and selfish views.  I
cannot but regret that  our late State  Convention
had not seen fit formally to abolish this Board with
the Council of Appointment, as equally dangerous
in principle, and  only  less pernicious in fact, be-
cause more limited in power; or, at least, that their
functions  should  be restricted to the duties origi-
nally assigned them, that of exercising a general
supervising power over the schools, academies, and
colleges throughout the state, and as an organ of
communication between  those institutions and the
Legislature;  but  possessing  no  control whatever
over their internal government.  In this opinion I
am not alone, but confirmed in its correctness by
the highest legal authorities of this state, who, after
the most matured investigation, have decided " that
any law authorising the creation of incorporations
in a manner different from that prescribed in the
constitution, is repugnant to its provisions, and that
the act conferring that power on the Regents is,
therefore, repugnant to the spirit of the constitu-
tion."
  But to proceed.   I believe it will be conceded by
all who hear me, that it is the duty of the represen-
tatives of a state or country to legislate for the in-
terest and happiness of the community they repre-
sent,  and not for the benefit of the few: that it  is
their duty to frame laws, not directed  to the local
interests and views of  a party, but for the general
good—for the prosperity  of the state.  Assuming 
OF GENEVA COLLEGE.
323
this as a principle, does it not follow, that a depar-
ture from this paramount rule of conduct in any
legislative assembly, implies not only inattention to
the obligations of their duty, but a total disregard
of the solemn engagements they enter into as mem-
bers of such legislative body ?
 What then can be said of the Legislature of this
commonwealth, when we  refer to the law passed
so exclusively for the injury, and indeed the avowed
destruction  of  an institution  dedicated to the pro-
motion of medical science; and, may it not be added
without the  charge of arrogance or vanity, devoted
to the interests of humanity and the benefit of the
community ?  A law restricting all the benefits of
a monopoly to  the  two  schools of  Barclay-street
and Fairfield—the two state schools, as by a mis-
nomer they  have been emphatically denominated;
for, Columbia, Union, and other colleges  in this
state, possess similar chartered powers of confer-
ring the doctorate with those that are represented
to be more  immediately under the government of
the Regents.
  When too it is recollected, that this institution,
possessing advantages in its construction which will
bear a comparison with any other in this country,
or even in Europe, has been  erected at great ex-
pense—not by funds derived from the public purse,
but from the pockets of the professors themselves,
who have embarked the  earnings of their profes-
sional labour in this enterprise,  will it be believed
that a legislative body could  be found in any en-
  VOL. III.             41 
324       RUTGERS MEDICAL FACULTY

lio-htened country, in  any land where science, or
virtue, or  independence,  is cherished, that could
pass an act imposing the  shackles contained in the
offensive and degrading  law to which I have re-
ferred ? And moreover, will it be believed, that the
great and magnanimous state of New-York, accus-
tomed to regard with approbation and favour every
scientific and literary design;  accustomed, too, to
be regarded  as the  great exemplar  in the Union,
not only for the protection  but for the munificent
patronage and  endowments she has hitherto be-
stowed upon her colleges  and scientific institutions;
professing, too, to cherish learning, to expend her
wealth  in the establishment of common schools,
and in promoting  the education of her youth :—I
ask, can it be believed, that she has passed an act
for the express  purpose of destroying an institution
whose only aim and object are, to assist the youthful
mind in its preparation for a profession that involves
the most arduous and momentous duties of social
life ?  That a law should be passed for the purpose
of impairing the public  confidence in men, some
of whom have for thirty years past been public
teachers of medicine in this city and state;  men
who have repeatedly received  appointments from
the  hands of the Regents of the University and the
unqualified  approbation  of that  Board  for  their
fidelity and ability; and  moreover, who have been
the  instructors of most of the  very gentlemen se-
lected  as their successors: is certainly an occur- 
OF GENEVA COLLEGE
325
rence that must be ever memorable in the medical
annals of this state.
   It will not be credited, that the sovereign power
of an enlightened land can be thus exercised; for,
it certainly will not be alleged, that we have arrived
at that extent of improvement in knowledge,  pro-
fessional or otherwise, that calls for a legislative
act to repress the aids and facilities which are em-
ployed to promote it.  I again ask,  is it possible
that men, selected as the guardians  of literature,
the members of an enlightened Senate and Assem-
bly,  can so far forget their high prerogatives  and
duties as to pass an act calculated to retard the
progress of the liberal arts  and sciences, and to
discourage the enterprise that cultivates them?
   Are we prepared for this degradation of our le-
gislative authority, to see it employed, not in build-
ing up, but in razing to the earth an institution that
has been erected to  elevate the character of the
state by the education of its youth ?
   " Can such things be—and not excite our special
wonder ?"   I must be permitted to add, that while
this law holds its place among the statutes of  this
commonwealth, I not only feel my professional cha-
racter humbled and dishonoured, but blush to call
New-York my native statg.
   As an eminent legal character and a disinterest-
ed friend of this College remarks, "Although I have
no professional interest in the concerns of  the
' healing art,' I cannot pretend to be wholly indiffe-
rent to the conduct of our worthy representatives at 
326        RUTGERS MEDICAL FACULTY

Albany on the subject.   Some of these gentlemen
have arrived, it seems, at the alarming point of re-
solving to make war upon the new medical college
recently established in this city.  By what road of
deduction they have been led to such a result, from
what  inconceivable premises  their  enlightened
minds have passed to a conclusion apparently so
absurd,  is  perhaps a question of  more difficulty
than importance.   The reasons  by which  Mr.
Foote has endeavoured, in his  report, to vindicate
their project, will scarcely afford an explanation of
the problem.
  " The government of this state  has been long
accustomed to regard every species of scientific or
literary  design with approbation and favour.   It
has been the proverbial boast of  our local pride,
that education, and all its tributary means, enjoy
among us,  not only toleration and  protection,  but
a sure, generous, munificent patronage.   And  are
we now prepared to see this honourable badge of
state distinction flung away, and the power of our
legislative authority employed, not  to build up, but
rather  to pull down the walls of  science ?   Is it
possible that men,  entrusted with  the public cha-
racter, can feel themselves at liberty to retard, in a
single instance, the progress of the liberal arts, and
breathe discouragement and blight  upon the enter-
prise that cultivate  them ?
  " The Rutgers College is not, I believe, accused
of being any thing but what its name imports.   It
meddles not, like some other  institutions  that de- 
OF GENEVA COLLEGE.
327
pend on foreign auspices, with the grosser interests
or passions of our citizens.  It  tempts no man's
cupidity:  it deceives no man's confidence;  it en-
tails no imaginable mischief upon the community.
Its only aim is, to direct and assist the progress of
youthful minds in their preparation for some of the
most responsible and  momentous offices  of life.
The influence it is  calculated to  exert, is good,
without any mixture of evil.   Where then lies the
cause of  offence ?  Why should any of the lights
of useful  learning be extinguished ?   Who will
brave the ridicule of pretending that the helps and
facilities of education  are becoming so redundant
as to call  for a repressing hand ?  Is it fit, is it con-
sistent with what is most respectable in the history
of our legislation ?  Would it be worthy of a great
and magnanimous state, or can it be said to com-
port with the  enlightened civility of the age we live
in, that the sovereign power of the land should be
induced to unite  in  giving  countenance  to the
private jealousy and mercenary hostility that has
been excited against a harmless, a meritorious  in-
stitution ?"
   Here we are led to ask, are the persons so engaged
in teaching, and intended  to  be proscribed by the
arm of the law, not qualified for the duties they
have undertaken to perform ?
   The Regents of the University say otherwise, and
that too after the most severe scrutiny.  That very
body (who have been induced to recommend to our
lawgivers the passage of  the  act adverted to—the 
328
RUTGERS MEDICAL FACULTY
act that  has been approved by our Assembly, by
our Senate, and not deemed unconstitutional or in-
expedient by our Executive)  has, upon various oc-
casions, pronounced them competent and faithful
in the performance of their duties as Professors in
the University.  What says the annual report, made
by the Regents of the University to the Legislature
in 1825 ?  It is thus expressed: " In the College of
Physicians and Surgeons in the city of New-York,
the same number of professors still conduct the in-
struction afforded in  that institution, that superin-
tended its interests at the time the Regents made
their last annual report. The learning and sedulous
zeal with which the professors endeavour to incul-
cate the 4 mysteries of the healing art,' has spread
the fame of this seminary throughout the distant
parts of our Union.   And already there can be enu-
merated among the pupils, the votaries of science,
collected  not  only from  the most remote of our
sister states, but foreigners, who have afforded this
flattering preference to the reputation of an insti-
tution  founded and encouraged by the liberality of
the Legislature.   There  were one hundred and
ninety-five  students who  matriculated during  the
last session, out of which number fifty have been
recommended to the Regents, upon examination,
as  meriting the degrees of doctor of  medicine,
which were accordingly conferred."
   A similar expression of the  approbation of  the
Regents,  and their testimony to the qualifications
of the  professors,  was  conveyed in  the vote of 
              OF GENEVA COLLEGE.          329

thanks which passed that Board upon receiving and
accepting our resignation:
  " Resolved, that the vote of thanks of the Regents
be presented to the Professors, for the faithful and
able manner in which they have filled their respec-
tive chairs as instructors and lecturers in the said
College."
  The great number of students that resorted to
the College of Physicians and  Surgeons,  during
several years preceding  the  resignation  of the
professors, and that during the dissentions which
existed between the professors  and trustees, affords
incontestable  evidence of the  fidelity and success
with which their professorial duties had been dis-
charged.
  The great number of pupils, too, who composed
the first medical class of Rutgers College during
the last  winter,  a class collected after the  16th
of October, the day when  the connexion with  Rut-
gers College was consummated at New-Brunswick,
and  the fact then  for the first  time  publicly an-
nounced that we should possess the power of con-
ferring degrees, also evinces the avidity with which
the  medical students rallied  around  their  old
teachers, and the confidence  they placed in the
practical  lessons they had already received from
them.
  Among other arguments urged against the ad-
mission of a diploma from the  state of New-Jersey
to the privileges of that conferred in this state, as
a license to practise medicine,  is, that  in New-Jer- 
330
RUTGERS MEDICAL FACULTY
sey itself it is not received as a license.  The fact
is, that in that state no diploma from Edinburgh or
Pennsylvania is a license to practise, for hitherto
New-Jersey has had no medical school, and there-
fore it has not been thought necessary to provide a
law in favour of other states.  But the moment the
Brunswick school formed  a medical faculty,  the
State Medical Society of New-Jersey united with
the trustees of Rutgers College,  in soliciting from
the Legislature a law constituting the medical di-
plomas of respectable colleges, including their own,
to be a passport to practise, without subjecting the
possessors to another  examination.   But the me-
morial was introduced at so advanced a period of
the session,  that the Legislature  had not sufficient
time to deliberate and act upon it; they otherwise
would probably have passed such a law similar to
the present law of this state, which allows the pos-
sessor of a diploma from whatever country or col-
lege obtained, whether at home or abroad, (with
the exception  of the act recently passed,) to enjoy
all the privileges attached to the  license, or to a di-
ploma obtained in this city or state.
   It was also urged by our opponents, that we are
a self-created  faculty, and under no  control what*
ever; but that we confer degrees at our own free
will and pleasure; intimating thereby, that we have
no board  of regents or of trustees to  exercise such
controlling power.  It is true, we had not exhibited
to  them the nature or extent of the commissions
we had received from the respectable body  of trus- 
OF GENEVA COLLEGE.
331
tees presiding over  the  parent  college in New-
Jersey, or the statutes by which we as professors
were to be governed. This allegation was scarcely
to have been looked for from gentlemen who had
themselves filled the station, and had exercised and
abused the  powers of trustees in the College of
Physicians and Surgeons when most of the present
faculty of Rutgers Medical College were professors
in that institution.  When, too, these facts are re-
membered which have been stated, admitted, and
even promulgated by the Regents, and which re-
main to  this day uncontradicted; that candidates
for degrees, who had been unanimously rejected by
the professors  as  unqualified, were  admitted by
those very trustees as competent and deserving the
confidence of the community!  Nay, further, that
no instance  had ever occurred in which such ap-
peal has  been made from the  decision of the pro-
fessors to the trustees, that the pupil has not been
admitted! That from the foundation of the College
to the day of our departure from it, not a single case
had occurred where the professors had refused,
upon examination, to recommend a candidate, that
the trustees, notwithstanding such refusal, had not
recommended him to the Regents for the highest
honours  of the medical profession, and the pro-
fessors, in  consequence  of his admission by the
Regents, compelled  to annex their names to his
diploma, at the same time that they conscientiously
  vol. in.             42 
332        RUTGERS MEDICAL FACULTY

believed and had pronounced him to be undeserv-
ing the honour and privileges thereby granted ! !*
  I ask,  after the experience  we had  so recently
suffered, and the degradation we had witnessed of
the College of Physicians and Surgeons, by the effect
of this little brief authority vested in such interested
board of trustees, can the want of such controlling
power as was in these cases  exercised, be com-
plained of as an objection to  the  organization of
our school ?
  "Yes,"  says  Col. Troup, the chairman  of the
committee  appointed by the Regents to investigate
this subject, " there was shown to your committee
a particular instance, wherein a pupil who had been
five years in the office of a professor, and had like-
wise regularly  attended  the public lectures, was
deemed by the  professors decidedly unqualified for
a degree;  and  yet that very pupil was afterwards
recommended by the board of trustees for a degree,
and he obtained it" !  Where, I ask, was the con-
trolling power in this case ?
  " In the University,"  say our consistent  oppo-
nents,  " the  state has provided sufficient  guards
against the abuse  of graduation.  Over Rutgers
College it has no control"!
  I again ask, where were the ' state guards' upon
the occasions I have referred to, that permitted the
unqualified to receive the honours of the profession,
* See Discourse, &c. 
OF GENEVA COLLEGE.
333
 pronouncing them competent to all the duties at-
 tached to the practice of physic and surgery, when
 too they had. been  unanimously rejected by their
 teachers and professors ?  I ask, in the same ten-
 der language employed by the disinterested  late
 President of the State Medical Society, who has
 not "yet been rewarded  with  the moveables of
 Hereford,"  as he certainly expected to have been
 for his support  of the  College of  Physicians and
 Surgeons and his  unceasing hostility to Rutgers
 College—how was  " the power in  this case exer-
 cised over the lives and fortunes of every individual
 in the community, who, by disease or accident, may
 be in a situation to claim the services of a skilful
 physician or surgeon ?"
   It could scarcely,  for a moment, have been be-"
 lieved, that  with all the influence  exerted out of
 doors, the members  of our Legislature could have
 been prevailed upon  to pass the law proposed, and
 avowedly intended  to  operate  exclusively to  the
 injury of Rutgers College,  as acknowledged and
 declared by a member of the State Medical So-
 ciety, acting in the colossal capacity of regent of
 the University and member of the  State Medical
 Society,  and by Mr. Foote of Chatauque on the
 floor of the Assembly.   A law so fatal to all enter-
 prise  and liberal exertion—a law so partial in its
 operation, which will   admit  all diplomas  from
 abroad and at home, and from every other state in
the Union, and refuse those from its  nearest neigh-
bour, New-Jersey!—a law, too, so immediately op- 
334
RUTGERS MEDICAL FACULTY
posed to the pecuniary interests of this city and the
reputation of the state, by driving away the pupils
of medicine to other schools in other states.
  Was it to have been believed, that  the Legisla-
ture could have paid so ill a compliment to their own
physicians, whom they well know,  whom the Re-
gents have approved for their talents, their success,
and their fidelity, by making them  aliens in their
native  city.and  state?—by, indeed, withdrawing
from them the common privileges which they ex-
tend to the stranger whom they do not know?
  That a body of men, habituated to the duties of
instruction, asking no aid but the voluntary patron-
age of the student, should,  by an act of legislation,
be  debarred from the exercise of their talents, in
order to secure  a monopoly to another institution.
was little to be expected in  a civilized  age or
country.
   Science, like religion, should have no restraints
imposed upon it; but the pupil seeking  for know-
ledge, like him in search of religious truth, should
be allowed,  agreeably to the spirit and indeed the
letter  of our most excellent constitution, to enter
that temple  where he can best obtain the objects
of  his pursuit, and bend the knee to that Divinity
whom  his understanding  voluntarily  approves.—
State  colleges, like state churches, are  altogether
opposed to the liberal spirit that republicanism in-
culcates.
   Fathers of the state—representatives of the peo-
ple—legislators of a great, populous, and wealthy 
OF GENEVA COLLEGE.
335
community—professing yourselves to be the friends
of literature—making appropriations  for the pro-
motion of science—from whom every  thing that is
great, magnanimous,  and of universal  (not partial)'
interest,  might justly have been expected,—I ask,
has the law which you have so recently passed, in
compliance with the petition of the State Medical
Society and of the Medical Society of the County of
New-York,  for the purpose of securing a monopoly
to some of  the colleges of this state  and  heaping
disqualifications upon another, been framed under
that strong  sense of duty that attaches to the re-
sponsible station you hold, and which is rendered
still more solemn by the sanctity of an oath ?  My
respect for  the Board  of Regents of the University,
the guardians  of literature, prevents me from mak-
ing a single comment upon the inconsistency which
they also have manifested by at first  approving of
the conduct of-the late professors of the College of
Physicians and Surgeons, and acknowledging their
services in raising that institution to the high rank
it had attained by their exertions; and afterwards
yielding to the importunities of the State Medical
Society, by uniting with that body in a prayer to
the Legislature to pass the law, calculated  to im-
pair the usefulness and to counteract  the exertions
of those very professors in the continuance of their
endeavours still further to advance the interests of
their profession.
   With these truths upon our minds, and without
intending to be disrespectful to the constituted au- 
336
RUTGERS MEDICAL FACULTY
thorities of the state, may we not predict, that the
day is not distant when a wise and liberal Legisla-
ture will remove those impediments to the progress
of knowledge,  throw open the temple of science,
cherish a fair and honourable  competition among
its votaries, and banish  from the statute book a
law that would disgrace the days of the greatest
barbarism and ignorance ?
  When also, it is considered, that the whole ad-
vantages to be derived  from such  school,  both in
honour and profit, will be received by this city and
state, it will be a still greater anomaly, that a wise
Legislature should  create laws to exclude  such
benefits.
  We cherish institutions holding communication
with other states where the profits are of  a pecu-
niary nature;  but where knowledge, or the interests
of humanity are to be promoted, we create barriers
against  their  introduction.  We are constructing
canals, to bring the produce of Pennsylvania and
New-Jersey to our borders, but we create obstruc-
tions to the progress of knowledge!  As my able
and  learned colleague  has well observed, we may
with equal propriety " expect laws to be created to
exclude the light of the  sun."
  The constitution of  our country protects  every
form of religious worship; the spirit of the same
constitution is no less favourable to the  diffusion of
knowledge, and permits us to worship in any tem-
ple of science that may  be erected for that purpose:
but, agreeably to the late law of the state of New- 
OF GENEVA COLLEGE.
337
York, we are permitted to have no other teachers
in the  art of healing, than those provided by the
Regents of the University, whether tried or " un-
tried," competent or incompetent, experienced  or
inexperienced, whether  they are engaged in the
practice of  the  profession or occupied in  other
pursuits!
   If such law be permitted to retain  its place  in
our statutes, the city of New-York, the London of
the western  hemisphere,  may satisfy  herself with
remaining a market-place  for wares and merchan-
dise, and, sacrificing the advantages of her central
position in the Union, and the facilities she derives
from her intercourse with every  part of the world,
must be reduced to the degradation of sending to
other states for the education of her youth destined
to the science of medicine.  Should this illiberal
law> urged too in its passage by men claiming to
be members of a liberal profession, be  not repealed,
 may  we not immediately expect retaliatory laws
 from every state in the  Union ?  The  consequence
 will be, that those who go from New-York to settle
 elsewhere will,  in many instances, be excluded as
 deficient in  education,  and  the disgrace  reflected
 upon  our colleges, which, during the continuance
 of such  monopoly, and  without competition,  will
 necessarily degenerate  into institutions unworthy of
 the state that protects them.  Competition alone,
 for money is not wanted for this purpose, will secure
 to the state an abundance of medical schools as in
 the great cities of Europe; talents will be rewarded, 
338       RUTGERS MEDICAL COLLEGE

and science  be promoted,  by such  rivalship:—
whereas, all the wealth in the coffers of the state
will not convert a blockhead into a man of science,
or furnish brains where they do not exist.
  While the law was under discussion in the Legis-
lature, another engine was brought into operation
to secure the number of votes necessary to accom-
plish the  purposes  in view.  To  this  end it was
stated, that a violent attack had been made upon
the Western Medical School, which was calculated
to injure its reputation, and thereby to diminish its
utility and interests.  It was moreover represented
that the professors in that institution had been per-
sonally referred to,  and that thereby they had sus-
tained great injury in their pecuniary interests and
character.
  By a recurrence to the last circular published by the
Medical School of  Fairfield, containing the num-
ber and names of the pupils composing their last
class, amounting to 144, and stated by one of the
professors to be made up of students not only from
this state, but from Canada and various parts of the
United States, from Maine to Georgia; the same
professor, too, pronouncing it the  most flourishing
school in the state;  or, in the language of the ex-
president of  the State Medical Society, " the only
green spot on which his recollections can rest with'
satisfaction," we shall find, that certainly thus far
they have sustained no loss.
  This tale  was  most  industriously  propagated
among the western members, and a spirit of hos- 
OF GENEVA COLLEGE.
339
 tility excited that readily effected the purposes this
 clamour was intended to produce.   Nor had they
 any difficulty in finding in the House of Assembly
 and in the Senate too, as will appear by reference
 to the minutes, members favourable to their views,
 in promoting the  passage of the law that had been
 framed by the combined powers, the professors of
 the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the City
 of'New-York, and of the Western District, the
 County and State Medical Society, and the Regents
 of the University!
   What are the facts upon this subject ?  It is well
 known  that in my public discourses I have taken
 occasion, in my  observations upon the medical
 schools of this state,  to  animadvert upon the sys-
 tem of education pursued, and the manner in which
 it was conducted; to call the attention of my hearers
 to the  Western  College of  Physicians and Sur-
 geons, and to point out what appeared to be errors
 in the original organization  of  that school that
 called for reformation from the hands of their pa-
 trons, the Regents of the University.
   With the purest and most disinterested views to
 the improvement of the profession, and to the ad-
 vancement of medical  learning in the state of New-
 York, 1 objected  to the system of education pur-
 sued  in that institution,  and reiterated the same
 opinions,  as they  had been fully and publicly ex-
 pressed  by the late Dr. Samuel Bard, and by my
 able  colleague professor  Macneven, as well as by
myself, upon former occasions; and earnestly sug-
  vol. m.             43 
340
RUTGERS MEDICAL FACULTY
gested the necessity of a change  in the plan of
instruction, and in the mode of examining candi-
dates for  degrees;  at  the same  time earnestly
objecting to such degrees being conferred by the
Regents under such limited system of  education.
But  I verily disclaim  having  uttered a syllable to
the disparagement of either of the professors of
that seminary; for I solemnly aver, that I indulge
not the least feeling of hostility to either of them,
or to the establishment to which they are attached.
On the contrary, as far as they were known to me,
and one of them had been my private pupil, I had
always entertained for them sentiments  of respect.
I therefore could not be supposed for a  moment to
have been influenced by the  unworthy motives of
personal hostility in the observations I  had made.
   Nevertheless,  the  most unfavourable construc-
tion was put upon my several publications; and, on
account of certain statements and expressions con-
tained in my last anniversary discourse, a libel suit
has  been  commenced by one of the professors of
that institution, and to  my surprise, by my former
private pupil, Dr. Theodric  Romeyn  Beck,  who
afterwards, in one of the public prints,  stated, that
other remarks of mine and other circumstances of
a personal nature (than  those which had been pub-
lished in  the  discourse  referred to) had induced
him to commence and  to persist in the prosecu-
tion!  It  afterwards  appeared in  the  declaration
Vhich was then demanded on my  part, and filed,
by obtaining an order of the court for that purpose. 
OF GENEVA COLLEGE.
341
that a reference was had (instead of some private
injury done him as intimated in his communication
to the public) to a letter addressed to one of the
Regents, in which I had more particularly pressed
upon the attention of that  Board the necessity of
the reform I had referred to in the plan of educa-
tion pursued  in that western  school.  This very
communication, instead of furnishing an additional
ground for commencing the prosecution, should of
itself have been sufficient  to absolve me from the
malevolent motives with which I had been charged,
and to have prevented the  measures taken by Dr.
Beck, inasmuch as it showed still more manifestly,
that my  views had  not been  those of personal
hostility towards him or his colleagues, but were
directed to a reform in the system of instruction
pursued in the  Fairfield school;  the defects  of
which were the exclusive object of my animadver-
sions, and which were only to be corrected by the
Board of Regents, to whose attention any remarks,
that the professors have deemed offensive, had been
more particularly addressed.
  While I regret the errors into which the profes-
sors of the Western college, through a misappre-
hension of my views, have fallen, and the hasty and
inconsiderate publication in which, in a moment of
resentment and passion, they had precipitately uni-
ted, and  which  they had not the magnanimity or
candour to recall, even after the public disavowal
on my part of personal hostility to them or either
of them. I now still persist in claiming the rights I 
342       RUTGERS MEDICAL FACULTY

have exercised, in pointing out the injurious conse-
quences to the  community,  both  of the limited
system of education pursued in the Fairfield school
and the manner in which it was conducted.  Thus
far, believing that every public institution  is  ame-
nable to public criticism and  responsible to public
opinion, have I proceeded, but no further.
  In the Discourse, which has proved, as I antici-
pated, unpalatable and  unpopular  in the  western
district of our state, and a source of great annoy-
ance to the envious and the interested, I set out with
the axiom, that  a great medical school can only
exist in a great and populous city; or, as my learned
colleague expressed it, " that the solid basis of a
medical education  can only be laid amidst the
hospitals and dispensaries, the countless accidents,
the numberless  distempers of  the multitudinous
city;" or, to use the language of the late venerable
president  of the College  of  Physicians and Sur-
geons, Dr. Bard, whose  opinions, the result of pa-
tient observation and long experience, can never be
heard but with profound respect, " a good medical
education," says he, " although it may be  com-
menced, can never be properly  finished in the
country";  adding, " that  the practice of sending
young men at least to finish their medical educa-
tion at New-York, or  other large cities, will do
more in one  season  than  many years spent in the
country." He then concludes with the remark very
much disregarded by the Regents of the University,
" that it would be a less evil that those who will not 
OF GENEVA COLLEGL
343
or cannot afford the expense of time and money to
obtain those advantages, should turn their thoughts
to some other profession, than that the health and
lives of our fellow-citizens should be committed to
the care of such as are confessedly unqualified for
so delicate and important a task."
  Having presented  to my auditory these  self-evi-
dent truths, I next proceeded, admitting the com-
petency of the professors of the Western college, to
point out the defects in  the system of education
and the manner of conducting it in that institution,
arising out of the errors committed in its first or-
ganization, and the hurried and imperfect manner
in which the  professors  are compelled to convey
their instruction; and added, that complaints had
actually been made against the Regents  for con-
ferring degrees upon pupils whose education had
been thus limited.  I next adverted to the  rotation
in which the lectures were necessarily delivered by
the professors, some of whom reside at a distance
from the place where the college is located, and
one of them occupied in pursuits totally foreign
from those of the medical profession, referring to
Theod. R. Beck, the principal of a literary acade-
my in Albany, who at the same time, I am informed,
is now altogether out of the practice of  the pro-
fession to which he had been educated, yet takes
upon himself the responsible duties of instructing
youth not only in the institutes but the practice of
medicine at  Fairfield, in the county of Herkimer,
about 80 miles distant from his place of residence!' 
344        RUTGERS MEDICAL FACULTY

  It was next stated, that the different professors,
five in number, thus situated, in rotation proceeded
to Fairfield to deliver their courses of lectures, each
devoting about a month to tuition in his particular
branch; the whole  combined amounting to a six-
teen  weeks course, as  the professors  themselves
express it  in their  circular of 1822, and which is
defended by professor Beck, and by  one of his col-
leagues, as preferable to the  four months'  course
upon each particular branch, as is  the custom in
the colleges in Philadelphia, Boston,  Baltimore,
Charleston, and New-York.   I then observed, as a
matter of surprise,  that a degree should be con-
ferred  by the  Regents of the University upon the
student who shall be recommended by the  profes-
sors  as qualified  to receive  it, after passing two
winters in  attendance upon  these  courses of in-
struction ! but who had never seen the inside of an
hospital, nor have witnessed the surgical cases and
accidents to be met with only in a great and popu-
lous city.   Under the influence of what I deemed a
just pride,  with regard  to the character  of  our
country and the medical schools of our state in
particular,  and with the view of obtaining a reform
from the proper authorities, I felt it my duty, in an
historical discourse upon  medical  education,  as
conducted  in the state of New-York, to communi-
cate to the public  such incongruities.   This con-
stitutes the supposed libel of which I  have been
considered guilty—this is the head and front of my
offending.  But I am happy to have it in my power 
OF GENEVA COLLEGE.
345
 to  declare, that to any of the professors in that
 college, either as  it regards their private or their
 public character, I  have upon no occasion  what-
 ever made the slightest allusion, arid that I utterly
 disclaim, as already stated in a public communica-
 tion on this  subject, any unfriendly,  much less
 malevolent intentions, either to the institution itself
 or to its professors : and with regard to the  other
 defects in the western medical college, that also
 call for reform from the Regents of the University,
 either  as it regards the order of teaching, or the
 manner  of conducting  the examination of their
 candidates for degrees,  I have yet to learn that I
 have done injustice to  that school, or misrepre-
 sented it—with two exceptions, that, instead of one
professor lecturing at a time, as  I represented it
 agreeably to information I  had received from their
 pupils and indeed as stated in their own circular of
 1822, they now, as observed by one of the profes-
 sors, have, during the first weeks of their session.
 two at the same time!—and that, at the pupils' ex-
 amination for degrees, another  recent regulation
 made by the Regents, not  known to me when my
 discourse was delivered, nor stated in their circu-
 lars, makes it necessary that three of the professors
 shall be present to ascertain the competency of the
 candidate; still thereby admitting that it is not
 indispensably required that all shall be present  at
such examination, which is the  custom  at  everv
other college in Europe or in this country. 
346       RUTGERS MEDICAL FACULTY

  By these admissions of  one of the professoi>
themselves, it will readily be perceived, how far my
animadversions have  been  essentially correct or
otherwise.
  " Forming an estimate of the feelings of others
from my own, such public acknowledgments should
have been considered satisfactory.  But I proceeded
still further, and have requested,  through the me-
dium of one of my counsel, to be furnished with the
evidence of any other errors or misstatements I may
have committed from misinformation,  assuring the
plaintiff that, without the  least  reference to the
legal investigation now pending,  but as due to my
own honour and character,  as well as to the  party
affected by such statements if erroneous, it would
give me  as much pleasure  to correct and retract
any error or misstatement I may have committed,
and to make amends for any injury I may have done
by such statements, as I had felt it a duty to expose
those evils or defects which  call for a reform.  With
this request, thus made,  all compliance has been
declined on the  part of the  plaintiff.  This is all
that an  honourable mind  can tender; more than
this an honourable mind will not expect or exact.
To the impartial jury, therefore, I cheerfully submit
the subject of this ungrateful suit."
  Had the Western college  been considered and
denominated by the appropriate appellation of  a
Medical Academy, furnishing a systematic course
of instruction, as  preparatory to the  more extensive
practical courses delivered in the medical colleges 
OF GENEVA COLLEGE.
347
 of a populous city, and a law passed that no diploma
 conferring the degree of the  medical doctorate,
 shall be granted until the candidate, in addition to
 the instruction he may have received at the aca-
 demy, shall also have attended one course of lec-
 tures delivered in the city, where the pupil shall
 have enjoyed the opportunities of attendance upon
 the numerous and varied diseases of an hospital.
 and of witnessing the surgical accidents and opera-
 tions incident to such dense population, no possible
 objection could have been made to such initiatory
 system of instruction.  On the contrary, we ear-
 nestly recommend as highly useful such preparatory
 plan of education: and further, as an evidence that
 these observations are not the dictate of jealousy
 or hostility toward a western school, it would afford
 us the  highest gratification to see  such medical
 institutions or academies multiplied in every county
 of the  state, where competent men can  be found
 qualified for the duties of instruction.
  This would be calling things by their right names;
 for what other appellation can be given than medi-
 cal academies to  all such institutions for medical
 instruction, that, in the retirement of a village, want
 the sources of practical  knowledge,  which is only
 to be obtained in the hospitals, alms-houses, and
 infirmaries of a great commercial city ?  Here, and
 here  alone, can the  medical student witness the
 various characters of febrile and  other acute dis-
 eases, and the treatment which they severally de-
mand ;  in the commercial metropolis are only  to be
  vol. iit.              II 
348
RITGERS MEDICAL COLLEGE
witnessed the numerous accidents that require the
skill of the experienced surgeon; in the hospitals
of Philadelphia, of New-York, Boston, Baltimore,
Charleston, &c.  the student witnesses, in a single
month, a greater variety of cases, both  in medicine
and surgery, than he will see in years in the inland
town or the country village.  If, therefore, medical
instruction were left to regulate itself, unrestrained
by the monopolies created by legislative acts,  and
these  at times unconstitutional, at least contrary to
the spirit of our constitution, the pupil would soon
ascertain the best sources of medical education,
and resort to the school for the completion of his
studies where the best talents and the  most ample
means of information are supplied.
  In that case he would pass a year or two in pre-
paratory study at some village school, but would
receive the last  finish at the  practical sources of
knowledge, alone to be obtained in our  commercial
cities : he would not,  without such means of prac-
tical knowledge, go forth to prescribe for a danger-
ous fever which he  had  never before  seen, nor
perhaps his instructor, who may be otherwise oc-
cupied than in the practice of physic; nor would
he  venture to perform one of the more  important
operations in surgery, when perhaps he has not had
the practical opportunity to  distinguish the  vein
from an artery, or a nerve  from a blood vessel; nor
indeed  should  he even receive the minor honour,
the license to enter upon  the  practice of his  pro-
fession, until he exhibits  the evidence that he has 
OF GENEVA COLLEGE.
349
obtained the advantages referred to; much  less
should the regents of our university, or the trustees
of colleges, continue to confer the doctorate, the
highest professional honour, upon youth thus defi-
cient.  But the day is fast approaching when such
facilities, in obtaining degrees, will  be  no longer
tolerated, but be done away by the repeal of all the
present legislative acts  relating to medical educa-
tion, and the profession  placed upon  the same
footing with  that of law or divinity, allowing the
various colleges,  that may be formed, to  regulate
themselves, unrestrained by the monopolies created
by the caprice, the political intrigues, or the party
spirit, which at present control,  and, in many in-
stances, exercise  an undue influence over the mem-
bers of a legislative body.
  Competition, with its attendant benefits, would
then, as in all other pursuits, be unrestrained, sci-
ence promoted, and its practical application to the
relief and removal of the numerous ills that flesh is
heir to, be the happy result.
  I hope, gentlemen, I have  not exhausted your
patience,  or drawn too largely on the kind atten-
tion you have given me.  If I have  exceeded the
usual limits—if my details have in any wise wearied
you, an apology must be found in the nature and
importance of the subject, and the principles I have
discussed.   When  we have received an injury, it is
natural we should complain; and feeling ourselves
aggrieved at a tribunal  from which we had a right
to expect justice. I have not feared to exhibit a full 
350
RUTGERS MEDICAL FACULTY
and candid exposition of the obstacles we have
encountered and  of the present condition of this
institution.  But to  hasten to a conclusion.
  While the graduate of Rutgers College, according
to the law recently passed disqualifying its medical
diploma as  a license to practise in this state, enjoys
the full benefit of that testimonial of his learning and
abilities in almost every other part of the Union, in
the state of New-York, where he received his educa-
tion, and of which perhaps he is a native, he must
obtain a license from a county or from the state me-
dical society before  he can be admitted to practise!
In other words,  a  license  derived from a county
society is now, by the state of New-York, virtually
declared to be superior to the doctorate !  and an
examination  by men who have enjoyed  for years,
not only the highest honours and the highest station
in the profession which the Regents of the Univer-
sity could bestow, is now made of no avail, and the
graduate who has passed that ordeal, is compelled
to submit to  another examination, by men, too, not
one of whom, in  all probability, has received a de-
gree,  who are not in the habit of teaching, and
consequently are less qualified either as examiners
or as judges of medical attainments  !!
   But, gentlemen,  I am happy to inform you, that
although the Legislature may pass enactments for
the benefit of particular institutions, and to the in-
jury of others, they cannot prevent the pupil in this
land of liberty from receiving instruction where his
preference lies;  nor  is the professor  in Rutgers 
OF GENEVA COLLEGE.
351
College prevented from imparting it to those who
may wish to receive it.   Many pupils, too, we have
the satisfaction to know,  had resolved, under the
conviction of the advantages they had hitherto re-
ceived under Uiis roof, to adhere to their former
instructors  for the completion of their education;
and knowing that they would be thereby prepared
to meet any other  impartial  tribunal, either in this
state or elsewhere, they had resolved to return to
Rutgers College, where they had received the ele-
ments of their professional instruction. But happily
we have not been compelled thus to test their at-
tachment.  The peculiar situation of this school—
the oppression that has been exercised by its envi-
ous rivals—the restraints that have been imposed—
the intrigues that  have been resorted to—and the
persevering efforts of a few who have the capacity
to do mischief, but from their native malignity of
temper and character,  will never be known as the
instruments of good to their fellow-men, or to the
profession of which they are nominal  members,—
have all occasioned Rutgers College to be regarded
by this community with  no common interest and
feeling.  I  am proud to add, and to tender to you
my congratulations upon the event, that the liberal
and enlightened trustees of Geneva College in this
state,  perceiving the embarrassments that were
created by the recent law, constituting the climax
of the persecution we have endured,  have kindly
extended to us their protection ;  and, by adopting
us as the medical faculty of that institution, have 
352
RUTGERS MEDICAL FACULTY
enabled us to renew our professional labours in
such manner as not to infringe, but to conform both
to the permanent statutes of the state and to the
terms and conditions recently enacted by the  Le-
gislature ; while we trust that our labours will con-
tinue to be zealously directed to the benefit of  the
science we profess,  and to the  instruction of the
youth who are desirous to acquire its  precepts un-
der our tuition and direction.
  It is no less gratifying for me to observe, that the
trustees of Rutgers College, actuated by the same
liberal feelings which have  prompted  the trustees
of Geneva College, and without the least disposi-
tion to transgress the geographical  limits or terri-
torial boundaries that the state of New-York  has
thought proper to prescribe, cheerfully acquiesce in
the measures that have been pursued on our part,
in soliciting the new connexion we have  consum-
mated.
   To conclude, the former professors of the  old
college, in conjunction with their able coadjutors,
again present themselves to you as teachers of me-
dicine.   While the opposition and trials they have
recently gone through, have augmented  their  zeal
to discharge that duty which, according to Lord
Bacon, every man owes to his profession, their ex-
perience, it is hoped, enables them to  do justice
to their vocation.   Notwithstanding the unceasing
efforts to destroy us, we continue the same united
body—we still aim at the same  great design,  the
cultivation and extension of sound and safe medical 
             OF GENEVA COLLEGE.           353

knowledge.  We have, indeed, changed the autho-
rity under which we act, but in the change we have
only assumed a position  which,  as it regards this
state, is rendered more  eligible  and  more  com-
manding.  We continue to worship in the  same
temple, and to  render our humble offerings at the
same shrine.
  As we have shown throughout, by an  indepen-
dent course of  conduct, that we are not distrustful
of  our  own resources,  so  are we willing to  abide
the result of an honourable competition.
•' Palmam, qui meruit, ferat," 
 
APPENDIX.
                        Page  310.


Pursuant to a public [notice, a large and  respectable meeting of
  the Medical  Profession of the city of New-York, was held at
   Washington-Hall on Friday  evening,  February 23d, 1827,
  when Dr. John Stearns was called  to the  chair,  and Dr.
  F. G. King, appointed secretary.

  The meeting being called to  order, Dr. J. Pendleton briefly
stated  the objects for which the meeting was  convened,  and
moved that a Committee be appointed to draft and report to this
meeting certain  resolutions expressive  of their sentiments.
Whereupon, Drs. Pendleton, Osbom, and McClean were appoint-
ed on that committee, and  withdrew to agree on a Report.
  During  the absence  of the Committee, a Memorial to the
Legislature, expressing  disapprobation of the act recommended
by the  State Medical Society, was read and signed by the prac-
titioners present.
  The Committee then having agreed upon a Report,  returned
previous to the offering of it to the meeting.
  Dr.  Osbom, of the Committee, stated, that as a delegate of
the county to  the State  Medical Society, he had  endeavoured
to resist this  obnoxious measure,  stating the obvious bearing
of the  question, and its ill  effects, but in vain—as a Regent of
                           45 
356
APPENDIX.
 the University, and also a  Member  of the  State  Medical
 Society, openly admitted that it did and was intended to ex-
 pressly bear upon Rutgers College.
   Dr. Pendleton, as Chairman of the  Committee, presented
 the following

                         REPORT.

   The State  Medical Society, at their last session, having re-
 commended to the Legislature the passage of an act, whereby
 the diploma granted by Rutgers  Medical College  cannot  be
 admitted as  a license to practise  physic and surgery in this
 state ; disapproving  as we do, in the most unqualified manner,
 of the passage of such an act, we are compelled thus publicly
 to state our reasons.
   The Professors who fill  the chair in Rutgers Medical Col-
 lege, with one exception, have been long residents of our city,
 and they  all of them enjoy the confidence of their fellow-citi-
 zens in the practice of their profession.  They are the same
 gentlemen formerly  selected by the Regents of  the University
 of  our State, to discharge  the   important  trust  of  Public
 Teachers ;  and the Regents have borne testimony to the fidelity
 with which that trust was executed, in the vote of thanks which
 passed at the time, when the resignation of the  Professors was
 tendered.
  We look with no little anxiety on the passage of this law, as
 we entertain  a well grounded apprehension of its injurious
 effects upon the profession at large ; it will remove from those
 who teach the greatest stimulus to  a faithful  discharge of their
 duties, relying as they will for success, rather upon legislative
 privileges, than upon superiority of talent and industry.  It is
 in medicine as in every other science, its interests are best pro-
 moted, and the public most  advantageously served, where  a
liberal competition prevails.   To the student of  medicine, it is
an important privilege to be permitted to seek for information
where it can be most beneficially  procured.   Trusting, there-
fore  in the wisdom of those  who  preside over the interests of
this great state, that  they will not by the exercise of their con- 
APPENDIX.
357
stitutional power, deprive the medical profession of the benefits
of a free and open competition among its  public teachers, by
granting a monopoly which, of all others, must  be the most
odious—a monopoly in teaching.

  Resolved, That as the sense of this meeting, the profession is
fully protected against the intrusion of improper practitioners,
by the present law of the state, which requires that every prac-
titioner from a foreign state shall enroll his diploma in the office
of the clerk of the county, and produce  certificates of having
studied medicine and  surgery according to the laws  of this
state, before he can become a legal practitioner himself.
  Resolved, That this meeting highly disapprove  of the act
recommended by the State Medical Society, as calculated to
operate injuriously upon the profession, and pray that the Le-
gislature may reject the same.

                            JOHN STEARNS, Chairman.
  F» G. King, Secretary.

  The foregoing Resolutions and Preamble were, on motion,
separately acted upon and unanimously adopted.

  On motion, Resolved, That they be signed  by the Chairman
and Secretary and published in the daily prints.
  On motion, Resolved,  That a copy of the same be sent to the
City Delegation, at Albany.

                            JOHN STEARNS,  Chairman
F> G. Kim, Secretary. 
358
APPENDIX.
At a Meeting of the  Students of Rutgers Medical College  in
  the city of New-York, held on the 23d instant, it was unani.
  mously resolved, that a committee be appointed to draft cer-
  tain resolutions, expressive of the surprise of the medical class
  of said institution at a petition which  has  recently been pre-
  sented to the Legislature of New- York, by the State Medical
  Society;  and that  Messrs.  Lucas, Bedford,  and Ellit  con-
  stitute such committees.

  Resolved, That we  deem it, in all respects, unbecoming the
character of American citizens, and friends to the advancement
of knowledge, to attempt to  employ legislative power for the
purpose  of oppressing a scientific  institution, which owes  its
establishment to individual enterprise, is conducted with great
ability, and promises  so much good to the medical profession,
and  to the community at large.
  Resolved, That we  regret  exceedingly that so unworthy a
suggestion should have emanated  from a body of men, who
ought to be cultivators of medical science, ever ready to encou-
rage literary enterprise, and who,  on all occasions, should be
active in opposing any measures which are calculatedto obstruct
the free dissemination of knowledge.
  Resolved, That we  conceive it as an intrusion upon our rights
as citizens of these United States, to  be deprived of the liberty of
choosing teachers, most capable of giving us all necessary in-
struction, and of imparting the fruits of their experience and
observation.
  Resolved, That it is in perfect accordance with the principles
of our Constitution, that talent should be subjected to no other
obstacles than those which result from  a  fair and honourable
competition.
                             HENRY PERKINS, Chairman.
  Adrian A. Kiss am, Secretary. 
APPENDIX.
359
                        Page 312.

First Annual  Report of Rutgers  Medical College.   To the
  Honourable  the Regents of the  University in the State of
  New- York :


Gentlemen,

       As the act relative to the University, section 3, " autho-
rises the Regents to visit and inspect all the colleges, acade-
mies, and schools which are or may be established in this state,"
it may be presumed to be an  implied duty on the part of such
scientific and literary institutions, to report themselves to your
honourable body.  On this account, as well as from a conside-
ration  of the  connexion which long subsisted between the
greater number of the undersigned and  the  Regents of the
University, we beg leave respectfully to acquaint you with the
establishment and progress of the  Rutgers Medical College in
the city of New-York.
  On  the circumstances which led to  the  foundation of this
institution we deem it unnecessary now  to expatiate.  Suffice
it to say, that a persuasion on our  part, that we might be able,
from the long experience we have had in the respective branches
of our profession, and the confidence which a generous public
has hitherto reposed in us, to embody our efforts to the benefit
of medical science,  has been a leading  inducement in this en-
terprise.  We  have, at our sole expense, erected an edifice,
which in its adaptation to the purposes of medical instruction,
is  not surpassed by any within our knowledge, and which in
its external appearance will be regarded as an ornament to the
city.
   The commencement and  progress of the school have  been
highly auspicious, as the accompanying catalogue of students
will sufficiently demonstrate.  The classes are composed of
young men of great  respectability, and to  their exemplary de- 
360
APPENDIX.
portment we can cheerfully bear testimony.   This first meeting
has been honoured by the attendance of one hundred and fifty
three gentlemen ;  of which number one hundred and thirty are
medical students, twelve doctors in medicine, and eleven mem-
bers of the High  School, attending  the  chemical  lectures
only.
  It will afford us  at all times a gratification to exhibit this in-
stitution to a committee of your body, in conformity to the laws,
or as individuals.  As  we cannot  permit ourselves  to doubt
that  the  personal  efforts and responsible advances caused by
the erection of this college, as well as the sanction under which
we act, will be considered by  enlightened citizens as creditable
to the free institutions  of our country and  the  spirit  of our
government, we make  this  communication with frankness to
your honourable body, desiring for our labours such an  appro-
val  only as is due to unabated  diligence and well  directed
efforts in the promotion of sound and useful science. All which
is respectfully submitted.

                   [Signed)
           DAVID HOSACK, M. D.
                  Professor of the Institutes and Practice of Physic  and Clinical
                             Medicine.
           WILLIAM  J. MACNEVEN, M. D.
                  Prtofessor of Therapeutics and Materia Medica.
           VALENTINE MOTT, M. D.
                   Professor of Surgery.
           JOHN W.  FRANCIS, M. D.
                  Professor of Obstetrics and Forensic Medicine.
           JOHN D. GODMAN, M. D.
                  Professor of Anatomy and Physiology.
           JOHN GRISCOM, LL.D.
                  Professor of Chemistry.
New York, Feb. 9,1827. 
FURTHER DOCUMENTS.
   The ensuing documents are annexed for the purpose of more
 fully setting forth the several grounds upon which repeated ap-
 plications have been made to the Honourable the Legislature
 of the state New-York, for an independent act of incorporation
 of Rutgers Medical College Faculty,  under  the  title of Man-
 hattan College.  These documents might be increased by others
 of a like nature, containing principles  equally cogent and legi-
 timate.   Of the result of the application made to the legislature
 during the session commencing in January 1829,1 need scarce-
 ly remark.  The able  and enlightened support which the bill
 received from the senate, who, by a large majority, gave it their
 sanction, is an event in  the annals of legislation fruitful in
 grateful anticipations, and  must  add  to the  poignancy of the
 regret experienced upon the failure  of  the bill in the assembly.
 In the senate the petition of the faculty was most ably sustained,
 and out of twenty-eight members, received I believe the votes
 of twenty-three.  Among the most prominent friends  of the
 bill who  sustained its value,  urged its necessity,  and  recom-
 mended its passage by the soundest arguments, were the Hon-
 Stephen  Allen,  Gen.  Bogardus, Mr.  Maynard,  Mr. Living.
 ston and Mr. Veile.   The interesting report on the subject was
 drawn  up by the last named gentleman.—It deserves to be fur-
ther stated, that it was admitted on the floor of the house that
the powers derived by the Rutgers Faculty from  Geneva Col-
lege and held by them were, in  all the immunities granted to 
362
APPENDIX.
 graduates of the school, equal in  efficacy to the degrees con-
 ferred by any other institutions in the state.  On this point all
 doubt had already been removed by the judicial opinion  of the
 highest legal authorities.*
   It deserves further to be stated, that the right of incorporat-
 ing colleges, which has  been so long exercised by the regents
 of the university, seems to be more judiciously determined by
 the Revised Statutes to belong to  the legislature, and the pas-
 sage  of the act  for the incorporation of Manhattan College
 was in part sustained  by this view of the powers which have
 heretofore  been  assumed solely  by  the regents.  This mea-
 sure therefore of the senate  may be cited as an  act equally
 commanding our attention both from its novelty and its import-
 ance, and as one to which the future advocates of liberal and
 unshackled competition may refer to  with satisfaction.  With-
 out in  any wise censuring  the  motives and  actions  of the
 regents, it need only be observed,  that the narrow policy of re-
 striction and monopoly is, in the opinion of the enlightened, the
 most hazardous of all expedients for the cultivation  and diffu-
sion of Science.   In the fair field of  diligence and  enterprise
the Rutgers Faculty fear  no competition.    The   institution
has hitherto  flourished ;  and when released from the  fetters
which an injudicious and unjust interference has imposed, we
 cannot  doubt that it  will  rival  in numbers and  importance
 any similar establishment in our country, as it at present fears
 no comparison on  all the great requisites—the abilities  and
 fidelity of its professors, and  the various facilities it affords  to
its pupils.
Thomas Addis Emmet, Josiah 0. Hoffman, and John C Spencer, Esqre. 
                  TO THE HONOURABLE THE
   LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE  OF  NEW-YORK
             IN SENATE AND ASSEMBLY CONVENED ;
                   THE PETITION OF
David Hosack, William James  Macneven, Valentine Mott, John
               W. Francis, and John Griscom,
       HUMBLY SIIEWETH,
   That the before  named  individuals, having united  together
for the purpose of teaching the principles of medicine by public
lectures, did, in the year 1826, cause to be erected in the city
Of New-York a building expressly adapted for such use, at their
own private cost, and upon which  they have, up to the present
time, expended the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars.
   That as  it is essential,  in  consequence of  the tenor of our
laws, to the existence of an institution of this kind, that it should
have the power of conferring the degree of Doctor of Medicine,
and as the.  Legislature of New-York was not then in session,
and would not be until long after the period for obtaining a class
would have passed, a connection was formed between the under-
signed and  Rutgers College.
   Under this arrangement the first  course of  lectures was de-
livered by the undersigned to  a class of one hundred and thirty
students,, chiefly citizens of New-York, and also before varioua
individuals,  members of the medical profession,  all of whom
have borne testimony to the faithfulness with  which the duties
of the undersigned were performed, and the excellence of the
accommodations offered for the use of those engaged in medical
studies.
   In consequence of the act passed by the Legislature in 1827,
against the  degrees granted by Rutgers College, to individuals
recommended for such degrees by the  undersigned, the same
reasons which caused them to seek  a connexion with Rutgers
College induced them to apply for  protection  to a respectable
College within this state. Geneva College acceded to the request,
                            46 
:1M
APPENDIX
and they tbndly hoped that they should now be lett to take suci
standing as might be impartially awarded to their deserts.
  Notwithstanding the doubt and difficulties caused by person*
interested to oppose their efforts, the class of medical students
attending during the  session of 1827-8, Was one  hundred and
twenty-eight, principally  citizens  of New-York.  There is A
still increased number the present term, amounting to one hun-
dred and thirty-seven.
  The undersigned have  seen with unfeigned regret,  that,  in
the revised laws, the Legislature  passed  an act apparently de-
signed to deprive them of  the privilege of labouring for  the
public good at their  own expense, and with no other means of
success than their most strenuous exertions to render themselves
useful and acceptable to the public.  Convinced that your hon-
ourable body feel highly interested in the diffusion of  sound
and useful knowledge, and satisfied of  your willingness to ren-
der justice and protect the rights of the humblest citizen, they
venture  to call  your attention to a few circumstances having
immediate bearing upon their case.
  The principles of the government under which they have the
blessing to live, are  such as to secure to every citizen the privi-
lege of exercising his talents  and  industry in  any honourable
and useful  calling so long as he neither directly or indirectly
interferes with  the  rights of others.   Experience has clearly
proved that the exercise of  this invaluable privilege has univer-
sally  tended to elevate the character, and augment the resources
of the country which protects it.
  The medical profession derives its excellence from the united
labours and experience of all those who are devoted to its cul-
tivation.   Those who are most experienced  and most learned,
have  it most in their power to benefit students.  If the right of
teaching be exclusively given to a few, either by direct  enact-
ment, or by throwing disqualifications upon others;  if those
who have expended their best days,  and a  considerable por-
tion of their earnings in search of professional knowledge, are 
APPENDIX.
365
to be excluded by law from competition and  emulation, from
aspiring to the honours and rewards in  the free gift of the pro-
fession, whence  is the improvement and advancement of the
profession to be expected ?
   The instances occurring recently in neighbouring states, are
immediately in point.  When the Jefferson College in Philadel-
phia petitioned for a charter, the University of Pennsylvania
and its friends were exceedingly alarmed, and set forth various
manifestos, showing, by very plausible arguments, that it would
be highly dangerous to the profession, and injurious to the ge-
neral public, to grant the  request of the petitioners.  But this
charter was granted, and the two schools have since flourished
in the same city, without the least injurious  collision—the  pla-
ces of emulation, emnliifcpnt, and honour, were doubled  to men
of Jtalent, and the interests of the  citizens, the University and
the students of medicine,  have been extensively and obviously
benefited.  The  University of Pennsylvania  immediately in-
creased her  accommodations—appointed additional  and able
teaehers without adding to the expenses of the students, and in
every particular augmented the energy of her administration.
   The classes have annually increased since the establishment
of the second school—the  new College has been respectably
attended also, and none  of the  evils so much deprecated in
theory have ever occurred.
   Nearly the  same remarks are  applicable to what  has taken
place in Maryland.  A new College has been established in
Baltimore, where  the flourishing  University of Maryland is
situate. But this has not led to special or oppressive enactments.
The University of Maryland is proud to rely on her own merits
for support—and the new College exhibits an equal willingness
to rise or fall on the same ground.
   Competition or emulation between scientific institutions tends
more to the immediate  promotion of the public good, than ri-
valry between institutions of any other character.  Its  imme-
diatr influence is to render all those engaged more industrious 
366
APPENDIX.
in seeking after knowledge, and more zealous to make it accep-
table to others.   Every improvement  on one side leads to a
desire  to equal or excel on the other, and the results of these
mutual efforts are at once rendered  productively useful to the
public.
   The sources of wealth to teachers of medicine, and under the
government of these states—the only legitimate claim to public
favour and preference,  are the superiority of talent  they are
able to display, and the paramount advantages they are able to
offer to such as require medical education.  No better proof of
the certainty with which such a claim receives its due return  is
required,  than in the case of the University of Pennsylvania.
In that state there are no laws regulating the  practice of medi-
cine—the University confers a degree, which  is  merely an
honour that involves no  privilege at home  or  abroad.  Yet
solely on her high and well maintained reputation—exclusively
on the  individual merits of her respective  professors—she col-
lects annually a large tribute of wealth from all the states in
the union—but, still better, she sheds over the  vast region of
our country  an increasing  halo of glory, by  the multitudes of
accomplished pupils she annually sends forth.
   They might now venture to state that experience has already
shown, that two schools in the city of New-York are both useful
and necessary.  A similar spirit of emulation to that manifested
elsewhere has been already exhibited—efforts to excel are made
on each side, and medical students, having it  in their  power to
compare teachers of the same branches with  each other, learn
how to appreciate the best, and where  to look for the greatest
advantages.   The utmost  harmony has prevailed between pro-
fessors and students, the classes have exhibited their satisfaction
at the increase of opportunities, and the profession have express.
ed their approbation of the results  of the competition.   The
aggregate number of medical students  collected in the city of
New.York, is greater this time than on any former session.
   Your honourable body has heretofore been addressed by those 
APPENDIX.
367
who have stated that but one or two schools of medicine were
required in this state.  This view, entirely erroneous,  derives
its origin from narrow and selfish policy ; as if a medical school
of proper celebrity was expected  to derive its  support from a
single state,  But  the  schools of London,  Paris,  Edinburgh,
Berlin, and Philadelphia, are centres of afflux to all the rest of
the civilized world : and  in proportion to the degree of talent
and excellence displayed will be the honour and remuneration,
though  there were five hundred instead of two schools.—The
sole motive of those who oppose the free exercise of talent, and
who ask for exclusive privilege, is tq prevent the lessening of
profits by the decline  in price which must result from competi-
tion.  But who is it that is to fear such reduction ?  Certainly
not those who feel persuaded that the  attractions they have to
offer will, by the increase of numbers, compensate  for  the  re-
duction  of  individual fees.   Is it the representatives of a repub-
lican people who are  to grant monopolies, as if the diffusion of
useful knowledge would be too  general ?   Is it in America that
the public  authorities shall say, that  the exertions of A, B, C
or D, shall be forbidden,  in order that E, F, and G, may have
larger fees, and be saved  from  the labour of competition with
scientific rivals ?  Is it in  New-York, where the death-blow was
given to one of the most plausible monopolies that ever existed,
that the light of science is to be restricted to tuv institutions ?—
Reduced to its  actual condition, such  is the state of this case.
Almost all medical institutions (except those  of New-York, at
present) depend for their success upon the merits of the teachers
belonging to them.   If this state passes laws for the purpose of
withholding others from teaching, the effect is to  deprive stu.
dents, those interested, from seeking to act for their own great-
est good, by choosing the institution in which they may be best
served, and is conferring  a monopoly as unjust  and as  hateful,
as it would be for this state to declare where we should purchase
our  goods—where we  should  send our children  to school—
what church we should  go to, or any  other  evil of similar
character. 
;m
APPENDIX.
  What is it that the undersigned ask of your honourable body (
It is to be freed from oppression ; it is to be allowed the. exercise
of their talents to serve the public, if that  public be willing to
employ them.  They ask most respectfully for themselves what
is the unalienable right of all, and of which they have  not  the
least wish to prevent all others from being possessed.
  They solicit your honourable body to  give  them  a  charter
which will place them in a condition in which they cannot have
success unless they have merit.
  Finally, they most respectfully entreat your honourable body
to regard this their petition with a single view to the public good.
—As the law intends no more than that the public shall be pro-
tected from injury, they solicit the Legislature, in its wisdom, to
make qualification the  sole test of the  fitness to practise,—in-
stead of the question, to what individuals or in what institutions
candidates have paid their fees.
  Your petitioners beg leave to be distinctly understood as ask-
ing no money from the Legislature, and no exclusive privilege,
but simply requesting your honourable body to constitute them,
their associates and successors, a body corporate, by the name
of Manhattan  College,  with power of conferring degrees of
equal validity with those of any  other Medical College in the
state, or elsewhere, of filling vacancies, making their  own by.
laws, of holding  real and personal  estate to  the value of one
hundred thousand dollars, and of making such other regulations
as may be found requisite for the ends of their association.
  And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.

                       DAVID HOSACK, M. D.
                      WILLIAM  J. MACNEVEN,  M.  D
                       VALENTINE MOTT, M. D.
                      JOHN W. FRANCIS, M. D?
                      JOHN GRISCOM, LL. J).
N:sw-Yobk, Jan. 8, 1829. 
                 J.O THE HONOUKABLE THE

  LEGISLATURE  OF THE  STATE OF NEW-YORK.

             IN SENATE AND ASSEMBLY CONVENED.


  Your Petitioners, Students of Medicine and Surgery in  the
Rutgers Medical Faculty,  Geneva College,  beg leave most
respectfully to represent: That  having assembled from various
parts of the union, at considerable expense, for the purpose of
availing themselves of the  many facilities which the city of
New-York presents for the acquisition of medical education,
they feel themselves amply remunerated for the sacrifice by
the  advancement they are enabled to make, in that most useful
and important science  to which they intend to devote the la-
bours of their lives.   They beg leave to lay  before your Ho-
nourable Body, the reasons which  induce them to unite in the
application for an independent  charter by the professors, with
that modesty which becomes their years, and  that diffidence
which is appropriate  to their inexperience.  The confidence of
their fellow-citizens in the abilities  of the  professors, is mani-
fested in their wide and responsible practice.  Theirs is not
the knowledge  acquired from  books alone, and  which  are
equally open to all; but theirs is the living science acquired at
the bed-side of the sick. All are in the manhood of life, both
in body and in mind.  No one labours under the imbecility of
youth,  or the infirmity of years.  All are administering to their
fellow-citizens the fruits of their ample  experience, desirous
only that they may instruct the rising youth of the country in
those lessons of wisdom and knowledge which it has cost them
the  labours of their lives to  acquire.
  Moreover, these gentlemen are happily known to our coun-
trymen at large by their skill in their profession, and by other
undeniable evidences.   When under your more immediate di- 
370
APPENDIX;
rection, your good sense and sagacity appreciated their merits
and  saw  the institution  flourishing  in their hands:  but since
that period, they have added to their number a gentleman from
Europe, whose attainments in his department bid fair to exceed
all that has before been done  among us.  For more than four-
teen  years resident  among the splendid  hospitals of Dublin,
London, Edinburgh, and Paris, he has been in possession of all
the advantages which Europe can furnish to the anatomist, and
has fully availed himself of them.  But it is due to that gentle-
man  to  state, that nature has largely endowed him with her
choicest gifts, and that his eloquent lips enable him to impart to
his auditors  his rich ahd  ample stores of knowledge.  He has
left the land  of his fathers to promote  and to extend the sciences
among us ;  and  if the Institution is permitted to act with the
approbation  of the state authorities, the noble science of anatomy,
and the kindred  branches of medicine, will be enabled to take
deep and  lasting root among us.
   It deserves to be noted in favour of fhis  application to your
Honourable Body, that  the  professors of  this  College, when
connected with another institution which they raised from the
most  humble beginnings to a commanding eminence of use-
fulness, never prostituted the  honours of the profession on the
unworthy.  A diploma  under  their   hands was  not merely a
title to practice, but  a passport to the highest stations in the
army and navy of our country.  We  have indubitable authority
for the  fact, that  no graduate from the  New-York Medical
School, while they were  its teachers, was ever found incompe-
tent when put to the trial.
   Numerous and important are the facilities of medical educa-
tion in  the  city of New-York.  Its  noble  Hospital, in which
are exhibited almost every disease which is  described  in the
able lectures of the  teacher of the practice  of physic, and in
which have  been  performed most of the  great  operations in
surgery by the eminent professor of  that branch; its numerous
infirmaries for the alleviation of pain and the correction of de- 
                         APPENDIX.                   371

formity, are among the charities which ennoble this metropolis,
and render it the best theatre of medical science.  All these
charities have, at times, received the countenance and bounty
of the public ; and shall their application to  the advancement
of the profession, the only remuneration which  the public can
receive, except the gratification of the benevolent feelings, be
refused to an institution which must ever refer  to the cases
there exhibited for the illustration of the lessons of its teachers ?
The conveniences and accommodations of the edifice  in which
the lectures are delivered, are  acknowledged by all to be
greater than those of any medical college in the country.   Its
contiguity to the New-York Hospital, marks the  good sense
and judgment of its founders.  Thrice has it  been honoured
by a visitation from the members of  your Honourable Body, re-
presentatives of the  City of  New-York, and  an  unanimous
opinion been pronounced in its favour.  The numerous libra-
ries of this capital are, besides, accessible on the most moderate
compensation.   Its  open intercourse with every part of the
globe, enables it to receive the latest intelligence  in science
and  literature, and confers  on it advantages which no other
city  in the union enjoys.   Nor is it a  circumstance to be
omitted, that we are here enabled to see the accumulation of
wealth, the varieties of manner  and customs which this parti-
coloured  metropolis exhibits of every nation and cojuntry on
the earth.
  Satisfied  that the  public opinion coincides with their own,
and recommended to the faculty of  this school  by those whose
means of judging are ample, and whose minds are uncommitted
and  impartial, they wish only to declare, that they have not
been  disappointed in the high character of the  institution, and
beg permission  to make known  their wish  that  its means of
usefulness may be continued, both to them and their successors.
But  ever since  their connection with the institution, various
rumours of the invalidity of the diplomas granted by its faculty,
have  operated on their fears,  and  have deterred many from
                            47 
372                     APPENDIX.
 enjoying its privileges whose unbiassed judgment would have
 determined in its favour.   As guardians of the  public  weal
 they look up to  you for a remedy for these evils, and request
 that they may be permitted to prefer that course of instruction
 and those instructors who exhibit the strongest titles to their
 confidence.
   So  far, we trust, we have  proved ourselves not unworthy of
 the advantages we enjoy.  No instance of indecorum or im-
 propriety has  yet  occurred  within  our  walls.  We are only
 anxious that when we shall have  completed our studies and
 return to our homes, the  diplomas which we have received  as
 the evidence of our  laborious exertion, may not be  discre-
 dited by those to whom our fathers have consigned the welfare
 of the state.   We too, in our  turn, expect to take charge  of
 the lives and health of our fellow-beings.  Do not, we beseech
 you, nip these prospects in the bud.  The hard earnings of our
 parents have been deeply taxed to enable us thus far to prose-
 cute our studies.   Do not attempt to lessen in our esteem those
 bright examples in the profession whom  it shall be the pride  of
 our after  lives successfully to emulate.   Many of you, as re-
 presentatives of the  state,  come  from  parts of the  country
 where the  unskilful  and uneducated  reap no  inconsiderable
 rewards ; some of you may have suffered from your mistaken
 confidence  in their capacity.  Give us, who at least have done
 all we could to  entitle ourselves to public  favour, an equal
 chance with  them, and we do not  fear that the act of your
 Honourable Body, which  shall grant  a  charter to  the distin-
 guished teachers who have submitted their pretensions to your
 wisdom, will be hailed by your constituents as the evidence  of
your sagacious discernment of their interests, and your watch-
ful guardianship of their welfare.   We  are  about to enter on
the career of active life.   Under  Providence, we trust that at
the great day of account we shall  be enabled  to say, that in
return  for the bounties of his goodness, we exercised the hum-
ble measure of our talents in protecting the lives of our fellow- 
APPENDIX.
373
mortals from the infirmities of their nature, alleviated the bed
of sickness  and  sorrow;  and  by the best services we could
render to helpless and  afflicted humanity, approved ourselves
acceptable in his  sight.

    ROBERT W. WELLS, Hunterdon, New-Jersey, Chairman.
    ROBERT S.  GIBBS, St. Johns, Florida, Secretary.

  Signed  also by one  hundred and  thirteen of the  students
attending the classes of their respective professors at that time.
     New-York, Jan. 10. 1829.
            TO THE HONOURABLE

THE REGENTS  OF THE UNIVERSITY

         OF THE STATE OF NEW-YORK.*
  Your Memorialists respectfully represent, that as guardians
of the public education of the state, they approach your Hon-
ourable Body with  that  respect  which  is  due  to a tribunal
invested with  such high  and important interests.  Believing
that those interests will be  promoted by the  application  they
now make, they hasten to lay before  your Honourable Body
the considerations which have influenced them, and which they
submit, with all due deference, to  your enlightened judgments.
  Devoted for many years to the duties of instruction,  they
are desirous that the  talents they possess may be exercised
for  the benefit of the community.  The  success of their la-
  * This memorial was presented at a meeting of the Regents held in the
senate chamber Albany, in March 1829, and after being read by the Secre-
tary, to the Board, on motion of Mr. Young, the memorialists had leave to
withdraw this memorial.   This was the only measure adopted in the caso
hy those impartial patrons of general science, the Hon. the Regents. 
374
APPENDIX.
bours and their efforts  in  raising a small  and inconsiderable1
medical school into rivalship with the oldest university in the
union, and  to  triumphant  superiority over every other until
internal dissensions compelled them to  resign  their trust, are
known to your  Honourable Body.   It is not intended to excite
the angry feelings  in which  they originated, and which, they
trast,  are now extinguished for  ever.   Suffice it to  say, that
believing they  could not do justice to themselves  under the
control exercised over them by the Trustees, they surrendered
their  trusts  into the hands of your Honourable  Body, and
united themselves with a most respectable  literary  institution
in our sister state of New-Jersey.   At that time, neither your
Honourable  Body nor the  Legislative Councils of the state
were in session, nor were  they to be convened  until after the
time when  the  lectures in the  College were  to  commence.
Finding that this measure  did not  meet the sanction of the
authorities of the state, they were subsequently constituted the
Medical Faculty of Geneva College.  But satisfied that under
an independent Charter they could act with  more convenience
and utility, they now present their claims before your Honour-
able Body, confident that  you will  see  in  their proposition a
design to add  to the literary and  scientific character of the
state,  and a  willingness to be controlled by such regulations as
may be in harmony with its general system of public  instruc-
tion.
  They have erected, at a great expense, a large and commo-
dious  edifice in a central  and commanding part of the city,
and adjacent to the  public hospital.   Students from every part
of the union repair  to their institution ;  and it is with emotions
of satisfaction  they have  ascertained, that for the  three last
terms, during which their  establishment has  existed, a consi-
derably greater number of Medical Students have assembled
in the city than were ever before  collected together in that
place.  Indeed, they cannot doubt  that there  is room for two
institutions, and that a friendly emulation would contribute to the 
APPENDIX.
375
 interest of each.  This is the case with our sister cities of Phi-
 ladelphia and Baltimore, where two Medical schools in each
 city flourish, with great advantage to the profession, and with
 adequate remuneration  to  the  teachers.  The population of
 New-York is more than twice that of Baltimore, and is much
 superior to that of Philadelphia.  In London and  Paris, the
 great schools for medicine and  surgery are the hospitals, and
 in each city its  teachers  of medicine are probably more than
 a hundred.
   They trust they need no  more than allude to the importance
 and utility of  the  medical art.  This noble profession, which,
 to its successful prosecution requires the incessant exertion of
 the highest faculties of the  mind, has been  too long suffered
 to linger in neglect;  and while the Legislative Councils of the
 state have been studiously attentive to  provide the  means of
 instruction  to every class of citizens, the  study of medicine,
 which requires  numerous facilities  and expensive  apparatus,
 has  been  left  comparatively unpatronized  and unprotected.
 During our revolutionary struggle, it was said by one* whose
 means of judging and whose ability to decide were  equally
 acknowledged, that more lives had been lost by the  ignorance
 of the medical  staff,  than by the sword of the enemy.  How
 many lives have been since lost, we have no means of ascer-
 taining ; but all must admit, that one of the  highest  and most
 benign duties of legislation consists  in protecting the lives of
 our citizens.  Of  a people so intelligent and so liberal in every
 public enterprise,  we trust it never will be said, that they were
 prodigal of their blood and treasure to protect  their liberties
 from violation, and in infancy and unused to arms, measured
 their swords with giants in strength and veterans in arms, that
they surpassed all other nations  in the magnitude of their do-
nations to educate their  children, and were even jealous to a
fault of the guardianship of those to  whom the wisdom of their
* Dr. Rush. 
376
APPENDIX.
legislation consigned  even for a transient period, a portion of
their power; but by a fatuity and folly which the meanest of
nations  have  avoided, and which  almost counteracted  their
wisdom in the cabinet and their valour in the field, they  com-
mitted their health and lives to any whose ignorant presumption
ventured on the task.  But we do not think  so  meanly of our
countrymen.   Their attention need only be directed  to this
object to procure the proper remedy.   And we trust that  your
Honourable Body, charged  by the  law of the land with  this
high trust, will not turn a deaf ear to an  application which we
venture to predict will furnish a corrective to the evil.   We ask
not a cent  from the public  treasury;  but believing that the
emoluments from  the students and the benign effects of our
instruction will prove  an  adequate reward, we  solicit that we
may be permitted to  exercise our  abilities  under the public
sanction and  authority.  Already we have been  at no small
expense of time and labour and finance ; we ask that  it  may
not be in vain, and that the student who shall prefer the system
and  course of instruction which  we offer, may not have the
doors of instruction debarred from his access.
  To you who  are  conversant with the numerous advantages
for the prosecution of Anatomy in  the hospitals of Paris  and
London, it will  not  be deemed extraordinary that on the va-
cancy in Rutgers Medical College, occasioned by the resigna-
of Dr. Godman, the eyes of the other professors were directed
to some member of  the profession  whose good fortune  it  had
been to enjoy them in his education.  Than Dr. Bushe, no
surgeon in London  had directed  his studies with  a more dis-
tinct view to anatomical improvement;  and his high reputation
is proof both of the opportunities he enjoyed, and of the vigour
and success of his application.  It is no exaggerated praise to
assert, that anatomy is now first  taught  in this country  as it
ought to be—not merely descriptive, but pathological and  phy-
siological.  The recent improvements in this extensive science,
amounting  almost to a revolution  in its foundations, are  now 
APPENDIX.                     277
first developed to the studious youth of this metropolis.  Here-
after, we trust, that Americans  enjoying the advantages  of
Europe, will become no less eminent in anatomy than in other
branches of knowledge.
   In 1784, your Honourable Body originated;  and by an act of
the Legislature of 1789, and by  other subsequent  acts, your
jurisdiction was greatly extended, and your  supervising power
is now felt in every part of the state.  The enlarged  and liberal
donations of the Legislature are honourable to our people, who
will doubtless reap the  advantages of this munificence  in the
education of their children.  But  in the present instance, your
Honourable Body is not called  upon to make  any claim upon
the funds of the state, but to grant to a body of men the license
of your  approbation, whom your Honourable Body selected
from among  the  most  eminent of the profession,  and whose
competency has the sanction of your testimony in its favour.
   Although the undersigned have raised this institution by their
own individual expense and efforts, they would willingly submit
to the visitorial power  of your Honourable Body,  in common
with the other literary corporations of the  state.
                  DAVID  HOSACK, M.D.
                         Professor of the Institutes and Practice of Physic
                                 and Clinical Medicine.
                  WILLIAM J.  MACNEVEN, M.D.
                        Professor of Therapeutics and Materia Medica.
                  VALENTINE  MOTT, M.D.
                        Professor of Surgery.
                  JOHN W. FRANCIS, M.D.
                        Professor of Obstetrics and Foiensic Medicine.
I fully concur in the foregoing statement,
                                 JOHN GRISCOM, LL. D:
                                   Professor of Chemistry.
New-York, Jan. 1829. 
378
APPENDIX.
Memorial of upwards of one hundred Physicians and Surgeons
  of the  City of New- York, praying for the incorporation of
  Manhattan College.

TO THE HONOURABLE THE LEGISLATURE OF THE  STATE OP
   NEW-YORK, IN SENATE AND ASSEMBLY CONVENED.

IT IS RESPECTFULLY REPRESENTED :
    That the  undersigned  Physicians  and  Surgeons, highly
approving of the  erection of at least  a  second  College for
teaching  Medicine  and Surgery in New-York, as a measure
that would greatly redound to the increase  of exertion and the
desire of excelling among teachers, and the reduction of ex-
pense to  students, do respectfully, but  most  earnestly recom-
mend to  your Honourable  Body to  grant the prayer of the
petition for  chartering Manhattan College,  with  like powers
and privileges as are in any wise granted or appertaining to
any other Medical  College in this state.  And your petitioners
will ever pray.
     New-York, February 2d, 1828.
  These various representations in behalf of the establishment
of another Medical School in the city of New-York, were not
without their proper effects in the legislative councils of the
State, and .a distinguished member of the Senate, the Hon. Mr.
Veile, made the following Report thereon.

                                    In Senate, March 25, 1839.
   Report of the Committee on Literature, relative to the Incor-
             poration of the Manhattan College.
   The committee on literature, to which was referred the seve-
ral petitions of the Rutgers' medical faculty, and of the students 
APPENDIX.
379
of medicine and surgery attending their instruction, in the city
of New-York, praying that the professors composing that facul-
ty, and their  associates, may be incorporated  by the name of
Manhattan College, with the power of conferring the literary
degrees usual to medical science :

       Report :
  That in their  opinion, it would  seem, upon the first view of
the subject, there could be no doubt of the propriety of granting
the prayer of the petition.  To encourage the dissemination of
useful knowledge, by aiding in the erection and organization of
every kind of school for  public instruction, has long been en-
grafted on the  policy of the state.  The facilities derived to
these objects from an act of incorporation, have uniformly been
granted to all who sought them, and in many honorable instan-
ces, while the pecuniary resources of the state permitted, liberal
endowments  have been  made  for the support  of literary and
scientific  institutions.   The  wisdom and  correctness of this
policy, it is presumed, will not be questioned, though errors may
sometimes have been committed in adapting the means to  the
end proposed.
  The committee, however, are aware, that in respect to the
present application,  a difference of opinion exists, not in rela-
tion to the general purposes and views of the applicants, the
advancement of science, and particularly those branches more
intimately connected with the study and practice of the healing
art, but in relation to the question, whether those purposes and
views will be promoted by adopting the mode which is desired 1
To this question the committee have  given serious attention;
and as it  is considered of great importance, they deem it pro-
per to submit their views of it to the Senate, somewhat  more
at large.
   The opinion has been entertained, and by men, too, whose
character and information entitle them to some deference, that
for the purpose of procuring higher attainment and more diver-
                             48 
380
\PPENDIX.
sifted qualification in the different  branches of science,  the
business of teaching should be confined to a limited number,
and to this end it has  been deemed sound policy not only to
confine the patronage of government to particular institutions,
but to throw disqualifications and embarrassment upon the. ex-
ertions of others, perhaps of equal or superior merit and skill,
and thus producing, in effect,  a sort of monopoly of learning.
This opinion has been more especially applied to the school of
medicine in the city of New-York.  With respect to the pecu-
niary aid which it may be in the power and becomes  the duty of
government to bestow upon  the literary institutions under its
control, when its  means  are limited, there can be no doubt of
the correctness of that policy which appropriates those means
in such manner as to make them effectual to the object, instead
of distributing them so generally that they become valueless in
a too extensive diffusion.
   But it may well be questioned whether it is sound policy,  and
more especially whether it is consistent with the true principles
of our government, to throw either upon the business of teach-
ing, or upon the acquirement of knowledge, any other shackles
or disqualifications than such necessary regulations as are  cal.
culated to impose equal study and duties upon those who seek
the attainment and require equal proficiency, from  those who
aspire to the privileges and rewards  of science.
   It should  be borne in mind, that a monopoly of learning or
knowledge cannot be created  by legislative enactment.   The
fostering care  with which the arm  of power confers and  sus-
tains exclusive privileges in science,  neither stimulates the exer-
tions, increases the capacity, or elevates the views or character
of those who may enjoy  them.   A  monopoly of the business
of teaching may  indeed be effected; but should it even be con-
ceded that this would produce  higher attainments in literature
in the few, it can never effect a more general diffusion of know-
ledge throughout the public mind, or be productive of so much
general benefit.   The latter should  be the great object of legis- 
APPENDIX.
381
lative interference, though a constantly increasing elevation of
the standard of that knowledge ought also to be regarded with
interest.   The most obvious effect of this monopoly is to quench
the spirit of emulation, which, existing among scientific men,
as well as between scientific institutions, is productive of vast
benefits to the public at large.   The immediate  influence of
that spirit " is to render all those engaged more industrious in
seeking after knowledge, and  more zealous to make it accept*
able to others.  Every improvement on one side leads to a de*
sire to equal or excel on the  other, and the  results  of these
mutual efforts are  at once  rendered productively useful to the
public," by a wider, extended, and more general diffusion of
their benefits.
   Besides, this, general diffusion of scientific knowledge has
another, and  perhaps no less important effect.   It sends  back
to its  own sources, beneficial  and material aids* to  further de-
velopment and still higher advances.  It excites, while it fur-
nishes greater means of gratifying, a desire for still deeper re-
search,  and  a far wider range in the truths of science.   Its
operations is like that of the reflections of light and heat  com-
mingling with their own causes, and rendering the one  more
glaring, and the other more intense.
   These  views are strongly corroborated by  the  history of
learning and useful knowledge, in every nation and period of
the world.  It was by the aid of  such causes that  our own
country, in her advancement  in science and every useful im-
provement, has been enabled,  in the short period of fifty years,
to accomplish the work of centuries in the old world.
   And  if these views be  correct, can  it be pretended that  a
monopoly of the business of instruction, which excludes the aid
of such important auxiliaries,  and tends  to extinguish the very
life spring of  scientific improvement, is to  be productive of
higher  attainment in all  or any  of the branches of science,
even among  those who enjoy the advantages of monopoly
itself? 
382
APPENDIX.
  With respect to the necessity or expediency of permitting an
additional medical school in the city of New-York, as distinct
from the views already expressed, the committee would refer
to the  example of some  of our  sister states ;  in the principle
cities of which, additional schools have  been established by
law, notwithstanding the previous existence of public schools,
highly distinguished for learning and usefulness.  The medical
school  in Philadelphia, under control of the University ofPenn-
sylvania, had long been advantageously known to the world of
science; her teachers had gathered  honor to the American
name, and their pupils had borne the evidence of their learning
and capacity for instruction to every part of our country, yet
did  the legislature of  that state  authorize one of its western
colleges to establish an additional medical faculty in Philadel-
phia.   The wisdom of the policy has  been sufficiently proved
by the  result and usefulness of the experiment.
  And  it can scarcely be doubted, that the greater population
of New-York, and her enlarged means of drawing support to a
literary institution of this character, from all parts of the Union
as well as the West India islands, will justify a similar proce-
dure.
  The  character of the applicants is too well known to need
commendation or  remark.  Every friend to medical  science
must regret  the necessity, if  such necessity exists, that their
talents and acquirements for instruction  should be lost to so-
ciety.   The committee are not  aware of any such necessity
arising  either from justice or policy.  With a zeal  and public
spirit that have been condemned  by some, but which the com-
mittee  think commendable; and  influenced,  undoubtedly, by
an anxiety to reap the just reward of long 'study and labour,
by the   exercise of their  talents  in a useful  and  honourable
avocation, they have, at their own great private expense, erect-
ed and fitted up a building with superior  accommodations and
apparatus for instruction.   That instruction has  been pursued
for three terms, under various auspices,  with  credit to them- 
APPENDIX.
383
selves, and as there is reason to believe, with great advantage
to those who have attended upon it during that period.
  The measure prayed for by the petitioners, is highly approv-
ed by a large body of the most distinguished and efficient phy-
sicians  and surgeons in the city of New-York; and as the
committee entertain the opinion that it will tend to  promote the
interest of a science deeply and intimately connected with the
comfort and happiness of  society,  they have  instructed  their
chairman to introduce a bill in accordance with the  prayer of
the petition.  It is proper, however, to state, that one of the
members of the committee has not concurred  in the views ex-
pressed in this report.
                                    J. L. VIELE, Ch'n.
  I have already alluded  to  the generous  support which the
bill for incorporating  the  Rutgers Medical Faculty received
from the honourable the Senate.  Nothing but the lateness of
the session defeated it in  the  lower house.  It came  before
them on the last day of their proceedings, and a constitutional
majority of members to  pass acts of incorporation was not
present when the  final  passage of  the  law was called up.
But while these circumstances are calculated to encourage the
friends of science, that in  this  happy country exclusive  privi-
leges and monopolies are not the principles of legislation ; and
that in these enlightened times, free education is  cherished
and sustained without restrictions by the real patrons of know-
ledge ; nevertheless, opposition  did manifest itself on the part
of several members  of  the  assembly.   These  unfortunately
adopted the views of the Regents of the University of limiting
the number of places of education, in order the more  effect-
ively to sustain an odious monopoly, which though feeble and
of acknowledged inferiority, had received large gratuities from
the state, and had expended these bounties in fruitless effort* 
384
APPENDIX.
at competition.  That  such was the fact is apparent; and that
the motives of opposition were suggested by the Regents them-
selves, presumed to  be the  impartial advocates and supporters
of science.   Hence  they expressed in their  last  annual report
to. the Legislature their decided disapprobation of the  project
for erecting  in  New-York  an additional school of medicine.
These selfish and contracted views on  account of the high
source whence they proceeded, were not without their bane-
ful effects.
  The Rutgers  medical faculty  thus  defeated, first, by what
have been denominated revised statutes ;  and next  by the loss
of their act of incorporation in the Legislature, continued their
existence as a medical faculty of Geneva College in this state.
It was thought by their professors  that although  by a selfish
project New-Jersey was converted  into a foreign country, and
treated with  less ceremony than if it were really so ; that  as
the idea that knowledge was of no particular country ; and that
we were united states,  were views which the  contracted policy
of certain  individuals  of the Legislature could  not compre-
hend, nevertheless it was yet to be demonstrated that a similar
course of policy would be  pursued against  an  incorporated
institution of  our own state, and that Geneva  College, whose
chartered rights embraced  a  system of university instruction,
would become the object of legislative anathema, and  its me.
dical  faculty be abrogated by statutory provision.  The Rutgers
faculty having become regularly constituted  by the board  of
Trustees of Geneva  College, an integrant part of that  institu-
tion, it of necessity became possessed of all the rights of other
incorporated colleges in the state.  That this is not an indivi.
dual ipse dixit, or advanced  without the sanction of the highest
legal  authority,  I shall here insert the  opinion of eminent
counsellors which had been given on the subject after the fullest
inquiry'and investigation. 
APPENDIX.
385
                                      New-York, Nov. 3,1827.
  " We have deliberately examined the charter of Geneva Col-
lege and the act relating to the  different colleges in this  state,
and have no hesitation in saying, that diplomas granted by Ge-
neva College to those who shall study medicine with Rutgers
Medical Faculty of that college, are  good, effectual, and valid
to every purpose for which a medical  degree  is legally requi-
site, and equally so as that of any medical college in this state."
                           THOMAS ADDIS EMMET,
                           JOSIAH OGDEN HOFFMAN.

  The opinions of Chancellor Kent and the Hon. Mr. Spencer,
one of the revisors of  the laws, and a Trustee  of  Geneva
College, are also  in concurrence with that  expressed  by Mr.
Hoffman  and the late Mr. Emmet.  I here give at length  the
opinion of Chancellor Kent.
  " I have perused the opinion  given on the 3d instant by Mr.
Emmet and Mr. Hoffman, in which  they say,  ' that Diplomas
granted by Geneva College, to  those who  should study medi-
cine in Rutgers  Medical Faculty of that  College, are  good,
effectual, and valid to every purpose  for which a medical de-
gree is legally requisite, and equally so as that  of any Medical
College in the state.'
  " I entirely concur with those gentlemen in that opinion, and
I will  add as explanatory of my own, that Geneva  College
consists of a  Faculty of Physic,  as  well  as  of a Faculty of
Arts,  and they have  provided  for conferring the Degree of
Doctor of Medicine in  that college.   Such an ordinance ex-
isted in Columbia College  as early as 1794,  and as  Geneva
College has been incorporated by  the Regents of the  Univer-
sity, it is entitled to the rights  and privileges  enjoyed by Co-
lumbia College under the statute of  the 13th April, 1787, ch.
&}.  By that  act  the Charter  of Columbia College  granted 
386
APPENDIX.
before the American war was confirmed, and by that Charter
the Governors (now Trustees) of the College, were authorized
to grant any degree usually granted by  any University  or
College in England.
   " I have  no doubt, therefore, that the Trustees of Geneva
College are competent to confer Medical Degrees  upon stu-
dents in the medical branch of that  college, and  that such
degrees will be as valid and effectual, and confer as much right
and  privileges as Medical Degrees conferred  by any other
college.  I am further of the opinion that such Medical Diplo-
mas conferring the  Degree of Doctor of Medicine, if granted
according to the  directions of the Act of April 13th,  1819, ch.
237, sect. 2d. will confer upon the possessor, all  the medical
rights and  privileges, which  such a degree would  confer  if
granted by any Medical College, Society, or Institution in this
state.  It appears to me  that this is the true and reasonable
construction of the  various statute provisions which have been
passed  upon the subject, when  they are compared  together,
and it  is a  conclusion which the  cause of science, and  the
honour  and credit due to the established literary institutions of
our state equally dictate."
                                        JAMES KENT.
    New-York, JVb». 8, 1827.
  The real cause however of the system of persecution waged
against the Rutgers Medical Faculty, whether as connected with
the state of New-Jersey, or as a Faculty of Geneva College in the
state  of New-York,  or  as an  independent institution  under
chartered  rights, as the  Manhattan  College, is to be found in
the dread lest  by an honourable rivalry with the College of
Physicians and  Surgeons,  this latter  institution  should find
itself unable  to compete with men who were already accus-
tomed to the duties of teaching, and  who by their talents would 
APPENDIX.

be able  to  erect a  school  which would  successfully subvert
their own.
  Before I conclude these cursory remarks, I shall take some
notice of the communication from  the  Regents of the Univer-
sity, transmitting the annual report of the college of Physicians
and  Surgeons to the Legislature.   This document was pre-
sented to the Senate and Assembly on the 25th of March 1829.
The Regents earnestly call the attention of the Legislature to
the situation of  the  Barclay-street College, and the report of
the college presses that institution-before the  house  for further
pecuniary support.  Inasmuch as the several misrepresentations
of these documents will be  clearly understood by the reader
who examines the  remonstrance which the  Rutgers  faculty
made on this  occasion, I shall venture to insert their  expose
here.  Nothing  but  the  most  unblushing effrontery and the
dread of entire prostration could have  hardened the opposition
to deeds of such perversity.
                                      In Senate, April 4, 1829.
To the Honourable the Legislature of the State of New- York, in
                Senate and Assembly convened.

  Remonstrance against  the communication from the Regents
of the University, transmitting the annual report of the College
of Physicians and Surgeons in the city of New-York :
  The undersigned, though exceedingly  reluctant  to obtrude
themselves upon the time and  attention of the  legislature, yet
having been brought before its view already, in the report of
the College of Physicians  and Surgeons of the city of New-
York, communicated by the Regents  on the 25th of March,
inst.,  in a  way intended to prejudice the application of the
undersigned for a charter, now pending  before your honoura-
ble body, and to do them other injury, most  humbly solicit of
your justice to investigate the accusation preferred, that it may
not affect them in your good opinion, if they shall be innocent,
                             49 
388
APPENDIX.
nor avail their enemies against them, when  it is  proved to be
groundless.
   It is alleged in the aforesaid  report, that the edifice erected
by the undersigned, for teaching medical and physical science,
was built by funds derived from the College  of Physicians and
Surgeons.   Here an assertion is made : we  join issue with the
reporters on its truth, and challenge them to the  proof.  This
is the only way that the truth or falsehood of the charge can
be established.  They further allege, as professors we received
nearly the whole advantage of the pecuniary aid  heretofore
given by the state to the said college.   Let  them  produce  the
accounts ;  the Regents have them all  under the seal of the
corporation, and if the reporters advance  nothing incorrectly,
they will have an easy triumph.
   In the mean time, we beg leave  to direct your attention to
the  report of the  committee  consisting  of Lieut.  Governor
Tallmadge, Mr. Van Rensselaer and Mr. Marcy,  appointed by
the Regents to visit the College of Physicians and  Surgeons
in the city of New-York, and which report is dated October
the l^th, 1825, and recorded in the journals of your Honoura-
ble Body.  This  committee  investigated  the concerns of the
college, and the conduct of the professors and trustees, during
several days, very much at large.  It called upon the  adver-
saries of the  professors to bring forward their  charges  and
proofs;  but when thus  pressed, those  persons, and they are
partly still the same who cast the recent  calumnious aspersions,
declined being accusers, and confessed they had no complaints
to prefer ; and further, the  said committee of the Regents de-
clare, they are happy to find there  was  no suggestion or pre-
tence of any misapplication or abuse of the  funds and finances
of the institution, on  the  part of  the professors:  vide p. 11
and 12 of the Report, under the head finances.
  When the undersigned resolved  to  apply  to the legislature
for a charter, they were not unaware that their claim would be
opposed by their neighbour in Barclay-street; but they did 
APrFNDIX.
389
little expect the extravagant imputation of their having carried
off the  funds of the College of Physicians  and  Surgeons, to
build therewith the  College in Duane-street; and still less that
it would find a sort  of indirect countenance from any one who
had access to the financial reports  made so frequently to the
Board of Regents.   As  well  might we say that our lawyers
were maintained at the  public expense, because  the  court-
houses in which they conducted their business,  were erected
out of the monies of the people.
   But it seems that the want of success  complained of by the
great medical institution of this state, is to be attributed to the
fact that another medical college exists in the city.   So it un-
doubtedly is, and so it is very likely to  continue.—Formerly
there were three medical colleges  in the city,  and that one
was seen to triumph in which there  was most talent and learn-
ing.  Thus it ever  will be where free competition is allowed ;
mediocrity will  be  distanced  in the race.   And is it for the
public good or advancement of science that trammels be put
upon the speedy, in order to  secure the  rewards of swiftness
to the slow ?  The  same professors who succeeded heretofore,
still  keep the tenor  of their accustomed lead ; but  their  rivals
ask, and we deeply regret that the Regents should favour the
demand ;  our rivals ask that our college be  oppressed in order
that theirs may succeed.  Only give us  money, say they, and
the exclusive right of  qualifying physicians, and our benches
will be filled.  We  say, grant us but  a charter, and we will
build up the great medical institution of the state without cost-
ing the state one cent.  Our proofs have been given for nearly
twenty years.
   We ask no money, no monopoly, no patronage ;  we are con-
tent to rely for reputation on  our talents  and science, and for
reward upon our services.  We do not  desire to shut up any
other college, in order that students may have  no school but
ours to frequent.   We do not seek  to infringe their  liberty for
our  profit, nor drag them by compulsion where they would not 
3D0
APPENDIX.
 go of choice.   For the honour of our state, for the honour of
 science, for the age of light in which we live, let it not go forth
 to the world, that in New-York was found a body so powerful
 and so injudicious, as to influence the legislature against a thriv.
 ing healthy institution of science, for  the  sake of forcing  into
 existence a favourite institution, that exhibited no  commanding
 vigour of its own.   If, as some contend, one medical institution
 only should be fostered,  is not that one to  be preferred which
 has  already encompassed  itself with public  confidence  and
 feme,  rather than this other, which clings to the befitting stay
 of feebleness,  monopoly ?  Which is  more  properly the great
medical institution of the state, the one that towers above the
forest, or that which dwindles in its shade ?  It was the answer
of Napoleon to a similar application  in favour of a monopoly
and peculiar privileges in science, that he would  preserve at
least the republic of letters.
  Your  remonstrants  humbly intreat that your  Honourable
Body will take the premises into consideration, and grant such
redress in the  same, as to your wisdom shall seem  meet.
                  DAVID HOSACK, M.D.
                           Professor of the Institutes and Practice of Physie
                                   and Clinical Medicine.
                  WILLIAM  J.  MACNEVEN, M.D.
                           Professor of Therapeutics and Materia Medica.
                  VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.D.
                           Professor of Surgery.
                  JOHN W. FRANCIS, M.D.
                           Professor of Obstetrics and ForoflsicTVIedicin*.
 New-York, March 31, 1829.
  It is a fact  no less gratifying to the pride of my colleagues,
than honourable to the feelings which  the  profession  at  large
cherished for the zeal and abilities directed in their behalf, that
in the number of students as well as in that of the graduates of
the Rutgers Medical  College during the four successive years
of their instruction, they surpassed  those of the state  Medical 
APPENDIX.
391
 School notwithstanding its  immunities  and  extraordinary pri-
 vileges.   Persecuted  by  medical  laws, revised  statutes, and
 enactments of county medical societies, the  youth  and gradu-
 ates of the Rutgers school still honoured their  Alma Mater,
 and manifested their satisfaction with the courses of instruction
 offered, although aware of the difficulties thrown in their way
 in the subsequent exercise of the practice of the profession.
   An application for a writ of quo warranto was the next mea-
 sure  adopted by our opponents.   Upon this writ it was decided
 by the Supreme Court of  the state, in August term  1830, con-
 trary to the high legal opinions already set  forth, that the Char-
 ter rights of Geneva College did not authorize them  to estab-
 lish a medical faculty without the limits of their  location.   In
 consequence of this  decision, the  dissolution of the Rutgers
Medical Faculty took place, whereupon the following  address
was published.*
   * I extract with pleasure these spirited observations of a  Kentucky editor
 on the dissolution of the Rutgers  Faculty.   The writer is unknown to me.
 Others of a like character might be given from different papers in the Union.
   " The United States cannot boast of men more eminent in medical erudi-
 tion, and more distinguished for successful efforts to spread the light of the
 science of healing, than these gifted individuals.  It reflects deep disgrace
 on the legislative wisdom of New-York, that such a foul monopoly, such a
 persecuting censorship of knowledge, should be erected in that populous
 city.  Pennsylvania manifested more  magnanimity. She chartered a new
 medical institution in the city of Philadelphia, several years ago, although
 the old school was, beyond all competition in the United States, elevated in
 public opinion.  Fair and honourable emulation is the  soul of intellectual,
 as well as mercantile and  mechanical efforts.—Monopoly is the fosterer of
mental indolence, the  parent of antiquated error, and the subverter of the
 spirit of our institutions.  It has been well said, that ' the worst avarice is
 that of sense,' so the worst monopoly is that of knowledge.  Such a mono-
 poly raises a barrier to the free exercise of intellectual gifts, weighs down
the pinions of genius in its flights of honourable fame, quenches the spark
of hope which glows in the bosom of the young aspirant after distinction,
and makes opinion tread on the long beaten  and deeply worn path of phi-
losophical error.'* 
392
APPENDIX.
Circular Address  of the Medical Faculty of Geneva College,
                        New- York.
                           City of New-York, November 1, 1830.
  The undersigned, late Professors in the Rutgers Medical
Faculty of Geneva College, New-York, in answer to numerous
inquiries, both epistolary and verbal, announce, that they have
resolved to suspend, for the present, the exercise of their col-
legiate duties as professors  in the different  departments of
medical science.  Unwilling to contravene the laws of the
state, or  the  decisions of its  courts, which have recently de-
clared that Geneva College does  not  possess  the  power of
establishing a Medical Faculty in  the city of New-York, they
address themselves to the unbiassed and uninfluenced opinions
of their countrymen.   Most of their board have, for more than
twenty years, others for a longer period, devoted their time and
talents to the improvement of youth in the noble and  important
science of medicine ; they trust with uniform and unequivocal
approbation ; with necessary and  consequent  improvement of
the profession, and  benefit to the cause of humanity.  A me-
dical institution had been reared by their hands from the hum-
blest  beginning  into successful rivalship with the oldest  and
most prosperous university  in the country ;  but when hy years
of vigorous diligence, and well-directed exertions, their situa-
tion excited the cupidity of those to  whom, unfortunately, its go-
vernment was confided, they relinquished their situations after
the highest authorities in the state had  not only acquitted them
of all censure, but had passed a distinct vote of approbation in
their favour.
  On abandoning their seats, they founded and erected on their
own individual responsibility, a  New College ;  desirous of con-
tinuing their efforts in a cause in which they had been so  suc-
cessful ; and from this institution they  have for several years
past sent forth numerous well-educated youth, who had repaired 
APPENDIX.
393
hither from different and remote sections of the Union.  Let
it suffice, that more than two thousand pupils have  been edu-
cated under their care and direction during  their entire colle-
giate labours.  But the authorities of the state, which, whether
right or wrong, they are bound to obey, having seen proper to
deny their protection, in order  to  sustain a monopoly, and to
prevent by legislative enactment, that competition so necessary
to the free development of  talent, they now withdraw from the
task of official and  public  instruction;  wishing to  those who
come after them all the success they may merit, unimpeded by
those envious arts which may interfere with their usefulness.
To all who have honoured their exertions with their patronage
or  approbation, they make their most  grateful acknowledg-
ments for the generous countenance they have  received.  To
those ingenuous youth, wherever situated, who have done them
the honour to attend  to their instruction, (many of them now
among the most distinguished in the  profession,) they wish every
success, and they hope that ere long an opportunity may pre-
sent  by which they may be enabled, under  legal sanction, to
exhibit to the public  renewed claims to their confidence  and
approbation.
               DAVID HOSACK, M.D.
                 President of the Medical Faculty, and Professor of the Institutei
                       and Practice of Physic and Clinical Medicine,
               VALENTINE MOTT, M.D.
                        Professor of Surgery.
               JOHN W. FRANCIS, M.D.
                        Professor of Obstetrics and Forensic Medicine.
  1 have thus endeavoured to arrange the occurrences which
for many years  past  have marked the  progress  of medical
aftairs in this state and city.   I am not confident that many at
the present time will take special interest in the history.  But
the materials here preserved will not be lost to those who shall
at a future day enter into a more  severe and  minute examina- 
394
ArrENDix.
tion of the rights and privileges of chartered institutions, and
the laws of New-York  regulating the -practice of physic and
surgery.  That  some of these  details will prove valuable to
the future members of the profession, there can be no doubt.
The profession in London have  long  ago acknowledged their
obligations to the labours of Gideon Harvey, by his publication
of the " Conclave of Physicians," and the impartial record of
our own trials will in like manner  be  occasionally looked into
by the friends of sound learning and professional honour.