Page:Memoir of George McClellan MD.djvu/38

 to health by him, in the most gentlemanly manner presented him, with his expressions of gratitude, a most generous fee. “No! replied McClellan, I can't be fee'd for curing wounds received in the defence of my country.” A military gentleman had an only son congenitally crippled. A mutual friend urged the sending for McClellan. He successfully operated, and here also he refused pecuniary compensation. His admiration of the virtues and talents of the father induced McClellan to decline compensation for service to the son.

In addition to zeal and generosity, he possessed that rare and enviable gift of recollecting names and faces. Says one of his former pupils, in exemplification: “I first saw Doctor McClellan when he passed through our town to Harrisburg, to favour the law chartering Jefferson College. He called at my brother's office, in which I was a student, at a time when several medical students from other offices were present. He was introduced to us all, and all were named. He was there but a few minutes, picked up a newspaper, glanced over it, seemed to devour its contents in an instant, talked about it rapidly all the time he was reading it, said a few words about the College, and was off, leaving an impression in his favour which I'm sure has never been effaced. What is remarkable, one year after, three of us went to Philadelphia to attend the lectures, and the moment we entered Doctor McClellan's office, he recognized and named each one of us, although he had seen us only once before, a year back, and only a very short time.”

A teacher so qualified will attract pupils. To his office he added an anatomico-surgical room. And here he lectured night after night with all the ease and animation of a clinical teacher. Who cannot perceive here the legitimate germ of a medical school? Who and what could arrest its evolution, and who could give the