Page:A History of the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania.djvu/111

 obligatory for a degree. For three successive years it modestly remained subordinate. In 1813 it assumed its legitimate footing, when attendance upon the lectures and an examination upon it became requisite for graduation.

The following is the Resolution on the Minutes of the Board of Trustees, Oct. 11, 1813: “Resolved, that hereafter the Professor of Midwifery shall be a member of the Medical Faculty, and that no person shall be admitted as a Candidate for the Degree of Doctor of Medicine in this University, unless he shall have regularly attended the lectures of said Professor for two years, provided, &c.” On this event, Dr. Hodge, in the Life of Dr. James, thus forcibly comments:—

“This triumph of Truth and humanity over ignorance and prejudice may be considered as complete. Obstetrics was confessedly equal to the other branches of medical science, and its practitioners and teachers were authoritatively pronounced on a par with Surgery and the Practice of Medicine. The battle had been fairly fought and won, and Dr. James, who contributed so much to the happy issue, received now the reward so eminently due to modest worth, superior talents and attainments united with persevering industry.”

At the time of his election in 1810, Dr. James had Dr. Chapman associated with him, which connection continued until the bestowal upon the Chair of its full dignity and privileges, when the latter gentleman assumed new functions in the School.

The mode of examination for Degrees, from the foundation of the Medical Department, had been to subject the student, in the first instance, to a private investigation of his qualifications by the Professors, and then, by public demonstration before the Trustees, to exhibit his fitness for the honor of the Doctorate. The latter process was technically termed “defending his Thesis.” The first ordeal was the most important. It in reality determined the fate of the applicant, as the Professors took care not to expose incompetent persons to the mortification of failure in the public exercises, and were, moreover, well informed by it of the preparation of the candidate for a second examination. At the examination of 1810, a modification of the first step in the proceedings was adopted,