Page:A descriptive catalogue of the Warren Anatomical Museum.djvu/11

 INTRODUCTION.

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Medical Department of Harvard University was in the year 1782. In 1808 Dr. John C. Warren was appointed Adjunct Professor of Anatomy and Surgery; and, when that chair was vacated, in the year 1815, by the death of his father, Dr. W. was appointed to fill his place. How and honorably to himself, and to the College, he  the duties of his office, and during a long period of years, is well known to the profession. The zeal with which he pursued his favorite studies, and with which he improved the opportunities that a very extensive professional practice afforded him, led to the collection of a great number of and other specimens ; and, on resigning his, in 1847, the greater part of this collection was presented to the College, and with it the sum of $6,000, for its and increase. In acknowledgment of so valuable a, the Corporation of the University voted that the Museum should be called by the name of its founder. Unfortunately, Dr. W.'s time was so fully occupied by his professional, that but little was left to him for those records, or even references, upon which the value of the pathological portion of a museum so much depends. Before the transfer, however, was made to the College, Dr. W. had a record made of the specimens, from his dictation; but it was, for the most part, and excepting a few references, a mere enumeration. The tendency to preserve interesting specimens is very strong in so devoted an anatomist and surgeon as Dr. W. always had been; and the consequence was, that he collected a large of what might essentially be called duplicates. specimens that resemble each other very closely are often preserved in reference to their clinical history; and the