Bowdoin College, The Medical School of Maine

In 1820 an Act was passed by the legislature, establishing a Medical School, to be connected with Bowdoin College, and also making an annual grant of $1,000, during the pleasure of the legislature, for the promotion of the objects designed in its establishment. Doctor Nathan Smith, a member of several societies, both in this country and in Europe, founder of the Medical School of New Hampshire, and an eminent physician and surgeon, was appointed Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine. He also assumed the duties of instructor in anatomy and surgery. He was assisted in the latter branches by Doctor John D. Wells, who had just taken his medical degree at Cambridge. At the close of the first course of lectures, Doctor Wells was chosen to fill the Chair of Anatomy, and immediately sailed for Europe, where he spent nearly two years, preparing himself for the discharge of the duties of his office. After a short but brilliant career as a lecturer at this college, at the Berkshire Medical Institution, and at Baltimore, he died, and was succeeded in 1831 by Doctor Reuben D. Mussey.

In 1825 the Chair of Obstetrics was founded, and doctor James McKeen was appointed professor. Doctor McKeen prepared himself for the duties of his office by a preliminary study in the lying-in hospitals of Europe, and served acceptably until 1839, when he resigned, and was succeeded by Ebenezer Wells, M. D., as lecturer.

In 1846 the Chair of Materia Medica and Therapeutics was founded, and Doctor Charles A. Lee was chosen as lecturer, and in 1854 as professor. He resigned in 1859, and was succeeded by Doctor Israel T. Dana as lecturer and afterwards as professor in full. Doctor Thorndike resigned in 1861, and was succeeded by Doctor William C. Robinson.

In 1849 the Chair of Medical Jurisprudence was founded, and Hon-orable John S. Tenney was chosen as lecturer.

In 1857 the Chair of Anatomy was separated from that of Surgery and joined to that of Physiology, and Doctor David S. Conant was elected, at first as lecturer, and afterwards as professor. He was succeeded in 1863 by Doctor Corydon L. Ford. Edmund R. Peaslee, M. D., who had been chosen as Lecturer on Anatomy and Surgery in 1843, and as a professor in these branches in 1845, was in 1857 appointed Professor of Surgery.

From 1820 until his death in 1858, Professor Parker Cleveland gave an annual course of lectures on chemistry to the medical students.

This school, during the fifty-seven years of its existence, has graduated one thousand one hundred and seventy-four pupils, of whom seventy have been alumni of Bowdoin College. The last class numbered ninety members, and the present number of instructors is ten. The following is a list of the professors and lecturers not already mentioned:-

Of Chemistry, Professors Paul A. Chadbourne, Cyrus F. Brackett, and Henry Carmichael; of Theory and Practice, Henry H. Childs, Daniel Oliver, Professor John De La Mater, Pofessor William Sweetzer, William Perry, James McKeen, Israel T. Dana, Professor Alonzo B. Palmer, and Alfred Mitchell, Adjunct Professor; of Anatomy and Surgery, Jedediah Cobb, and Joseph Roby; of Anatomy and Physiology, Professors Thomas T. Sabine and Thomas Dwight; of Anatomy, Professors Thomas Dwight and Stephen H. Weeks; of Physiology, Professors Robert Amory and Burt G. Wilder; of Surgery, Professors Timothy Childs, David S. Conant, and William W. Green; Lecturers, Alpheus B. Crosby and Thomas T. Sabine; of Obstetrics, Benjamin F. Barker, Professor Amos Nourse, Theodore H. Jewett, Professors William C. Robinson, Edward W. Jenks, and Alfred Mitchell; of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, Professors Dana, William C. Robinson, George L. Goodale, and Frederic H. Gerrish; of Medical Jurisprudence, Cyrus F. Brackett, John Appleton, and Professor Charles W. Goddard.