the excellence of their organization, or the ability with which they are conducted, by similar establisk ments in any part of the world. In all our schools the principal branches of medical science are separated, and confined to distinct professorships, and a professor is appointed to give lectures on each. That division of the science which has obtained in most of the schools, and which seems the best calculated to facilitate instruction, is into Anatomy and Physiology-Surgery-the Theory and Practice of Physic-Materia MedicaChemistry-and Obstetrics. In some of the schools, a professorship of Medical Jurisprudence is added; but, generally, this branch is embraced in the Professorships of Materia Medica, Chemistry, and Obstetrics. A course of lectures is given annually, on each branch, continuing from three to five months. The course on Anatomy is illustrated by demonstrations on the recent subject, by the exhibition of models and drawings of the different parts of the body, by dried preparations, and specimens of morbid structure. The course on Surgery is accompanied by operations on the dead body; while Chemistry is illustrated in every step by experiments before the class. Private dissecting classes are established, which give the student an opportunity for a more minute examination of the parts displayed in the lecture room, and familiarize him with surgical operations by the habitual use of his own knife. Most of our schools have connected with them hospitals and infirmaries, which afford the professor an opportunity of enforcing his principles at the bed side, and open to the student ample means to become acquainted with practical medicine. Medical libraries, anatomical and mineralogical cabinets, are established for the benefit of the students; societies are formed for reading dissertations, and discussing medical subjects; and, in some of our schools, provision is made for awarding premiums for such essays as are found to possess superior merit.* All our schools have the power to confer medical degrees; but these honours are awarded to such students only as have made suitable proficiency in the science, and who, on strict examination, are found qualified to practise, and entitled to public confidence.† Although medical education in the United States has been steadily improving during the last half century, at no period of our history has its progress been so rapid as for a few years past; and at no period have its benefits been so extensively felt through the country, or the condition of our medical institutions been so flourishing, as at the present time. At the last session of our schools, and that which has † See Note H. * See Note G. but just closed, nearly two thousand young men, from the different parts of the United States, have attended medical lectures, and enjoyed all the advantages of a course of public instruction, which combines the talents and learning of more than eighty of the most eminent physicians and surgeons of the country.* In looking back on the history of our schools, while we mark, with high satisfaction, the accele rated progress of medical education in the present day, we cannot but notice, with peculiar interest, the fact, that notwithstanding new schools have been springing up in rapid succession, in different parts of the country, and drawing pupils around them, the older schools have been more flourishing than at any former period. One hundred and fifty-eight years of our history elapsed, after the first settlement of America, before a single medical school existed in the country. In the forty-seven years that followed, five medical schools were founded, and in the twelve succeeding years, which period completes our history, no less than twelve have been added to the number. Sixty years ago, when but one school existed in the country, only ten students enjoyed the benefit of medical lectures. Twelve years afterwards, when only five schools were established, not more than five hundred students attended lec • See Note I. tures; while the sixteen medical schools now existing, impart instruction to nearly two thousand pupils. A striking illustration of the increasing resources of our country, and of the growing taste for medical science. Although our medical schools constitute the principal means by which the science has been extended through the country, and brought to its present state, there is another class of institutions which have contributed essentially to its progress. I refer to those societies which have been formed for the regulation of the practice of physic, and the suppression of quackery. As early as the year 1781, an institution of this kind was incorporated by the Legislature of Massachusetts, by the name of the Massachusetts Medical Society, constituting thirty-one of the most eminent physicians of that Commonwealth, named in the charter, a body politic, with power to frame a code of by-laws, and regulate the practice of physic in the State. Also, to elect, from time to time, such physicians as should be deemed worthy of membership, and to expel such members as were found unworthy ; to point out a course of study requisite for a medical education, and to examine and license such candidates as should be found qualified to practise. Also, to establish subordinate societies in the different districts of the State. This society, originally com posed of thirty-one members, now embraces more than two hundred physicians; and there is scarcely a practitioner of the State, who has not been received into it, either by election or examination.* Similar societies have since been incorporated by the Legislatures of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New-York, NewJersey,† Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, besides one in the District of Columbia, constituted by an act of Con gress. We have, therefore, at this time, twenty State Medical Societies, most of which have subordinate branches in the different districts or counties; besides numerous other associations, instituted for similar purposes, in our principal towns and cities. These societies, formed as they have been by legis lative authority, and having at all times received the countenance and support of men of education and influence, though in some respects they are differently constituted, wherever they have been es. tablished, have promoted a spirit of harmony among the members of the profession, and at the same time excited a degree of emulation, and a spirit of medical inquiry, which have been highly beneficial; and, while they have given character and respectability to the practice of medicine, they have See Note K. † See Note E |