Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 37.djvu/235

 the receiving of the diploma of a medical society, after examination, or the diploma of a medical college after attendance and examination, but each required the essential three years of study under a preceptor.

Thus the preceptor was the keystone of the medical educational system and it was through him that essentially all knowledge and training in the art of medicine was secured. Hence the quality of a medical education of an individual student depended in great degree upon the preceptor under whom he studied. The preceptor, not the school, introduced the student to medical study, since the standard requirement was that a student should have studied with a preceptor for at least a year before he might enter a medical school.

We need therefore in the case of Marcus Whitman to know something about his preceptor. In Rushville, New York, the town of Marcus Whitman's birth and of his residence from the age of eighteen to the age of twenty-three, there was a single village physician. He was Dr. Ira Bryant. Of his high qualities as a man, and his skill as a physician through thirty-five years of practice there is abundant record. It is probable, although not certain, that he never attended a medical college.

Dr. Ira Bryant was both as a man and a physician a favorable influence upon Marcus Whitman. When they came into the relation of preceptor and student Dr. Bryant was forty years of age and had been practicing about fifteen years. He had previously acted as preceptor for several students who had excellent medical careers, therefore he was experienced as a preceptor. We know that Dr. Ira Byrant was a great admirer of Dr. Benjamin Rush, and it was by Dr. Bryant's influence that shortly after the death of Dr. Rush, the town in which Dr. Bryant was practicing changed its name to Rushville in honor of that great patriot, physician, and teacher.

From such records as we have there is firm conviction that Marcus Whitman, entering upon the study of medicine, had as a preceptor a physician well above the average capability of that period. We may also be convinced that Dr. Bryant had in Marcus Whitman a student that was well above average. Educated in the excellent boys' school of Mr. Hallock, Marcus Whit-