Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/22

 xii INTRODUCTION

helped in a way to make some of the memorizing easier. The most popular teachers were those who could render a "dry subject " interesting by wit and anecdote. Forensic ability came to be, as a rule, the chief requirement of the teacher. Thus, for instance, in 1847, when a new chair of anatomy was created at Harvard, so that there were two pro- fessorships, one for the academic department at Cambridge, and one for the medical school in Boston, the scientist, Jeffries Wyman, was given charge of the work at Cambridge, while the gifted speaker, Oliver "Wendell Holmes, was placed in charge at Boston.

The introduction of the German scientific attitude into the anatomical departments of our leading schools has served to revolutionize the study of anatomy. Careful dissection in these schools now constitutes the chief part of the work in gross human anatomy. The text-book serves as a guide-book to nature.

Those who have introduced the German scientific spirit into the ana- tomical departments of our medical schools are almost all still actively at work. They have much yet to accomplish, for it is to be trusted that anatomy in America may develop, not with the slavish adoption of German methods, but along original lines. Since the present cyclopedia is confined to the lives and labors of men no longer with us, I do not here attempt a description of the development of the newer aspects of anatomy in America, but shall give a brief summary of the work of those who intro- duced the English anatomy of the eighteenth century into America and of those who did the most to maintain its ideals.

Philadelphia was the seat of the origin and of the highest development in America of anatomy under British influence. Many men of sterling worth there taught anatomy with intelligent enthusiasm. Several among them had some of that love of science which distinguished the English teachers of those who introduced the subject into this country, although lack of a favorable environment prevented many important contributions. All were intense believers in the practical value of anatomy to medicine and for the most part had the power of stimulating their pupils. A large proportion of the leading teachers of anatomy in other parts of the country got their training in Philadelphia, but nowhere else was there so serious an attempt to maintain a scientific attitude to- ward the subject in the medical schools, nor for the most part, was the work in practical dissecting maintained at so high a level.

The first teacher of practical anatomy in this country, so far as we at present have any record,* was Thomas Calwalader, a Philadelphian, who had studied under William Cheselden in England, and who, in 1730 or

♦With one possible exception: In 1647 Apostle John Eliot wrote, "We never had but one anatomy in the country, which Mr. Giles Firmin did make and read upon very well." (Lee, In "A History of Columbia University," 1794-1904.)