Page:Biographical Notice Of The Late George McClellan.djvu/8

 adage that times change, and we change with them: "Tempora mutantur et nos mutamur cum illis."

Dr. McClellan thus lived to experience the proverbial misfortune of most pioneers and discoverers, who sow the seed of which others reap the harvest.

Mortified but not discomfited, by this adverse issue of his cherished plans, Dr. McClellan immediately conceived the project of a third medical school; and with characteristic buoyancy of spirit and determination of purpose, he went in person, accompanied by a single professional friend, to solicit a charter from the State Legislature. Corporate privileges were, in consequence, granted to an institution entitled, "The Medical Department of Pennsylvania College" at Gettysburg, and McClellan, with five associates, of whom the writer was one, commenced the initiatory course of lectures in Philadelphia, in November, 1839.

This institution had an auspicious beginning in a class of nearly one hundred pupils, between which number as a maximum, and eighty as a minimum, it continued under the direction of the same faculty for four consecutive years. Notwithstanding this seeming prosperity, it is due to Dr. McClellan's memory to state, that some injudicious pecuniary arrangements, entered into in the first instance, and in which he had no part, tended to embarrass the institution through the entire period to which we have alluded.

The sinister effect of these arrangements was soon felt by all concerned; and nothing but a mutual sense of honor sustained the faculty, in combined exertion, during four annual courses of lectures, the last of which terminated in the spring of 1843.

Soon after this date, the entire faculty resigned their professorships into the hands of the Trustees. The motive that influenced a part of these gentlemen in taking this step, may be inferred from the preceding statement; other members were influenced, at least in degree, by other considerations to which it is unnecessary here to advert. It may, perhaps, be safely asserted, that Dr. McClellan was the only member of the faculty who reluctantly