Page:An Examination of Certain Charges - Alfred Stillé.djvu/8

 that a similar sentiment pervaded the class, circulated during the anatomical lecture, (not placarded on the board,) two notices calling a meeting of the class, for that afternoon, relative to Dr. Coxe. One of these notices passed from his own hands; the other, given in charge to a friend, was circulated in an opposite and remote portion of the lecture room. In the afternoon, and during the hour of the eloquent lecturer on 'the Institutes,' another call similar to those just named was passed around the class, which, in consequence, with few exceptions, remained in the room after the lecture had been concluded. The gentleman, already alluded to in the opening of this paragraph, stated the object of the meeting, and supported his views by argument; he was followed by several, some of whom agreed with, some opposed his declarations, and by others again who dissented entirely from any aspect of the case hitherto presented. From such a chaos of opinions, it could not be expected that order should arise. Yet every speaker was prepared to admit that much useful time had been lost in attending the lectures of Dr. Coxe, while no two persons appeared to coincide in any plan of curing an admitted evil. In the face of these facts, it is asserted that a secret plot was devised and matured, and that this was the occasion of attempting to place it in effective operation. We have in our hands the testimony of a surgeon in the army of the U. S., a graduate of the University, of many years standing, and who occasionally attended the lectures during the past winter. If a candid statement could be expected from any one, surely such an one were he. He says, "I was accidentally present at the first meeting of the class held Dec. 2nd "Any person of common sense, who had been present at that meeting, would have perceived at once that there was no settled arrangement among the class, much less, that they were urged on by the other professors, as has been slated in a late publication; for had it been so, they would have come there prepared for some definite action, the plan would have been matured and carried at that meeting. The whole of this affair appeared to my mind to be the spontaneous burst of indignation at the manner in which so much of the session had been lost." In this fluctuating condition of things, the attempt to erect any project upon a solid basis, of necessity, proved entirely nugatory, and with the hope that order might yet direct their counsels, the class after appointing a committee to request from the Dean the use of the anatomical room for the next meeting, adjourned till the following morning.

Here then was the first general action. The question naturally arises, how was it brought about? Those students who had during the preceding winter attended the lectures on Materia Medica, and many of whom had in the mean time reviewed that study, either by a summer