History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 45

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 45

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The facilities for instruction were of the scantiest : one anatomical specimen ; only such clinical cases as were offered by the private patients of the professors ; merely elementary chemical apparatus. And yet, thanks to the skill and energy of Dr. Warren and his two coadjutors, the School, despite its barren begin- nings, slowly grew. Dr. Waterhouse deserves to he remembered not only for his lectures, but also for es- tablishing a Botanical Garden at Cambridge ; for pro- curing the first collection of minerals, and for intro- ducing the practice of vaccination into this country. The graduates during the first twenty years were few -sometimes only one or two a year. In 1806 Dr. John Collins Warren was appointed Assistant Pro- fessor of Anatomy and Surgery, under his father; three years later, Dr. John Gorham was appointed Adjunct Professor of Chemistry and Materia Medica. In the latter year Dr. J. C. Warren opened a room for the study of Practical Anatomy, at No. 49 Marl- borough Street, Boston, and in the Autumn of 1810 the first course of lectures to members of the Harvard Medical School was given at that place in Boston. Furthermore, in 1810, Dr James Jackson was ap- pointed Lecturer on Clinical Medicine ; he succeeded to Dr. Waterhouse's professorship in 1812, and gave his students clinical instruction by taking them with him on his visits to the patients at the almshouse.

In 1813 thirteen diplomas were conferred, and the need of a special building was so urgent that a grant therefor was obtained from the Legislature. In 1816 this building-a plain, two-story edifice with an attic -was opened in Mason Street, under the name of the "Massachusetts Medical College." In 1821 the Mass- achusetts General Hospital was opened in Allen Street, largely through the efforts of the Medical School pro- fessors who thus secured ample material for study. In 1815 Dr. J. C. Warren succeeded his father as Professor of Anatomy and Surgery, and Dr. Walter Channing was

appointed Professor of Obstetrics and Medical Juris- prudence. Dr. Warren held his position for thirty- two years, until his resignation, in 1847, holding the highest rank among the New England surgeons of his time, and contributing by his learning and enthusi- asm to the steady growth of the School, to which he bequeathed a valuable anatomical collection. In 1831 the Faculty of the Medical School, distinct from that of the College, was organized. Assistant professor- ships and lectureships had to be added from time to time to meet the increased demands, and in 1847 Dr. George C. Shattuck endowed a chair of Pathological Anatomy. The preceding year, the old building on Mason Street had been sold to the Boston Natural History Society, and a larger building was erected in North Grove Street, on land given for that purpose by Dr. George Parkman. The chemical laboratory, affording room for 138 students, occupied the basement of this new building; the physiological and micro- scopic laboratories were in the attic, and the other stories were devoted to rooms for lectures and demon- strations.

The standard of the School has been steadily raised. At first, as we have seen, a student was required to attend only one or two courses of a maximum dura- tion of four months during three years. Then, down to 1859, he was expected to attend two winter terms of four months, and to produce a certificate from some physician that he had studied under him dur- ing the rest of the required three years. In 1859 the Winter Course was supplemented by a Summer Course. During the next dozen years a better, but still an imperfect curriculum was adopted. The stu- dent was "expected to attend 'two courses of lec- tures,' taking tickets for all the branches, and being, of course, expected to attend daily five, six, or more lectures on as many different subjects, inasmuch as he had paid for them as being all of equal import- ance to him. In addition to this, he was expected to devote a considerable portion of his time to practical anatomy, if not to other special work in the labora- tories of different branches. It was a great feast of many courses to which the student was invited, but they were all set on at once, which was not the best arrangement either for mental appetite or digestion."1 In 1871, however, a reform was made, the essential provisions of which still obtain. "The whole aca- demic year is now devoted to medical instruction. It is divided into two terms, the first beginning in Sep- tember and ending in February ; the second, after a recess of a week, extending from February to the last part of June. Each of these terms is more than the equivalent of the former winter term. The most essential change of all is that the instruction is made progressive, the students being divided into three classes, taking up the different branches in their natural succession, and passing through the entire

1 Dr. O. W. Holmes, in The Harvard Book, i, 248.

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range of their medical studies in due order, in place of having the whole load of knowledge upset at once upon them. Practical instructions in the various laboratories have been either substituted for, or added to, the didactic lectures, and attendance upon them is expected of the student as much as on the lec- tures."1 Since 1877 those candidates for the Medi- cal School who have not already a Bachelor's degree, have been obliged to pass an entrance examination.

The stricter requirements, the more difficult course, aud the raising of the tuition fee to $200, prevented the membership of the School from increasing rap- idly. But the value of first-rate training in this pro- fession-which has made greater advances than any other during the past half-century-was gradually recognized, and the slow bnt healthy growth in mem- bership called for more room and greater facilities. In 1883 a new School building on the Back Bay, near Copley Square, was completed. In 1880 an extra year was added to the regular course, but students were not required to take it. Between 1881 and 1887, 487 degrees were conferred. In 1888 the Elective System was partially introduced, and the experiment proved successful. Summer courses, chiefly clinical in character, were also added, and have been largely attended. In that year the re- ceipts of the School were $78,791.57, and the ex- penditures $68,032.71.

THE LAW SCHOOL .- In 1815 a professorship of Law was endowed by a beqnest from Isaac Royall, its incumbent being required to give a course of lec- tures to the Seniors. In 1817 the University estab- lished a Law Department, the only professor being the Hon. Asahel Stearns. In 1829 Nathan Dane endowed another chair, which was filled by the Hon. Joseph Story, and, in 1832, the same benefactor gave a Hall, called by his name, to the University. Pre- vious to the erection of this, the Old Law School, the quarters of the School had been in what is now Col- lege Honse. In 1829-30 there were thirty-two stu- dents ; thirty years later there were 152. But the instruction was irregular and unsatisfactory, although among the instructors were men of ability. There was neither an entrance nor a final examination. The course, nominally of two years, really permitted the student to acquire no more than he could have acquired in one year's systematic study. This disor- derly condition lasted until 1870, when radical re- forms were introduced, through the co-operation of the new Dean, Professor C. C. Langdell. Residence during the Academic year was made obligatory ; di- plomas were conferred on only those candidates who had passed a satisfactory examination ; the tuition fee was raised from $100 to $150; but no entrance examination was yet required. In 1877 the standard of the School was again raised, by extending the course from two to three years, and in that year en-

trance examinations were established, the candidate being examined in Cæsar, Cicero, Vergil, and in Blackstone's Commentaries. Since that time the in- crease in the number of students who were also graduates of a college has been steady-an indication of the wider recognition of the advantages of a col- legiate education as a base for professional success. In 1883 a new building for the Law School was erected after the plans by H. H. Richardson, from a bequest by Edwin Austin. Three years later the alumni of the Law School formed an Association, which has contributed to the prosperity of that de- partment. The students have several law clubs, a mock court, etc., from which they derive much profit, outside of their regular work. The receipts of the School in 1889 were $45,714.15; the expenses were $38,851.27. At the present time (1890) there are 254 students. The Harvard Law Review, founded in 1887, is published by the School. The instruction consists of the following courses : First year .- Con- tracts (three lectures per week); Property (two) ; Torts (two); Civil Procedure and Common Law (one) ; Criminal Law and Procedure (one). Second year .- Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes (two); Contracts (two); Evidence (two); Jurisdic- tion and Procedure in Equity (two) ; Property (two); Sale of Personal Property (two); Trusts (two). Third year .- Agency (two); Constitutional Law (two); Jurisdiction and Procedure in Equity (two) ; Partnership and Corporation (two); Suretyship and Mortgages (two); Jurisdiction and Practice in United States Courts (one) ; Law of Persons (one); Conflict of Laws (one hour for half year); Points in Legal History (one hour for half year).

MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY .- This im- portant department of the University is the monument of the genius and zeal of one man-Louis Agassiz. Born at Motiers, Switzerland, in 1807, he came to this country to lecture in 1846. In the following year Abbott Lawrence founded the Scientific School, and the Professorship of Zoology was offered to Agassiz, who accepted it and entered on its duties in 1848. As the College possessed no collections of natural his- tory, Agassiz began to make them at his own expense, and a wooden building-now the Old Society Build- ing on Holmes Field, but first called Zoological Hall -was put up to shelter them. In 1852 friends of the College raised $12,000, and purchased the collection, to which Agassiz continued to add. In 1858 Francis C. Gray left $50,000 to the Corporation for the estab- lishment of a Museum of Comparative Zoology, and the Massachusetts Legislature, at the instance of the indefatigable naturalist, appropriated (1859) one hun- dred thousand dollars, payable from sales of lands in the Back Bay district, towards the erection of a snit- able museum. By private subscription $71,125 were also raised. The College ceded about five acres, and on June 17, 1859, the corner stone was laid. Agassiz's plan was for a building 364 feet long by 64

1 Dr. O. W. Holmes, in The Harrard Book, i, 248.

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feet wide, with two wings, each 205 feet in length and 64 in width. Two-fifths of the north wing were first completed, and sufficed for the then existing collec- tion. The War of the Rebellion checked both public and private munificence, except that, in 1863, the Legislature granted $10,000 for the publication of an " Illustrated Catalogue of the Museum," but speci-

mens were steadily accumulated. In 1865 Professor and Mrs. Agassiz and several assistants made an ex- pedition to Brazil at the expense of Nathaniel Thayer, and returned after more than a year, with very large and rare collections. More room being needed, the Legislature, in 1868, appropriated $75,000, further in- creased from private sources, and the north wing was completed (1871). In 1871 Agassiz was appointed Director of a Deep-Sea Exploring Expedition, fitted out by the United States Coast Survey Bureau, and in the small steamer, the " Hassler," he explored the West Indies, skirted the Eastern Coast of South America, rounded Cape Horn and ascended the Pa- cific Coast to San Francisco. The fruits of this ex- pedition were added to the collections at the Museum. In 1873 Mr. John Anderson, of New York, gave to the Trustees of the Museum the Island of Penikese, together with $50,000, to found a summer School of Natural History. On December 14, 1873, Agas-iz died. As a fitting memorial to the great naturalist a subscription fund was raised, amounting to $310,674, of which $50,000 was voted by the State, and $7594 was subscribed in small amounts by 87,000 school teachers and school children throughout the country. This fund was devoted to the maintenance of the Museum. In 1876 the institution was formally handed over to the University, but on the express condition that its Faculty should retain their privileges of indepen- dence. The Curator alone is appointed by the Har- vard Corporation. Alexander Agassiz has been the Curator since 1875, and it is owing chiefly to his per- sonal munificence and solicitude that the great edi- fice planned by his father has been brought almost to completion. The floor area of the natural history portion of the Museum is four acres, distributed as follows : Lecture-rooms, laboratories, general and special, and professors' room, 51,500 sq. ft .; exhibi- tion-rooms (open to the public) 49,432 sq. ft. ; storage- rooms, including work-rooms for specialists, 41,978 sq. ft. ; library and reading-room, 5300 sq. ft. ; pho- tographic-room, coal and boiler-room, packing-room and Curator's rooms, 4884 sq. ft. ; hall and stairs, partly available for specimens, 21,220 ft. For many years past the Museum authorities have published occa- sional Bulletins,

OTHER DEPARTMENTS .- Divinity School .-- For al- most the whole of the first two centuries iustruction in Divinity was a part of the regular academic course. In 1815, however, the proposal was made to found a separate school, which was organized in 1819. In 1826 Divinity Hall was built, through

the efforts of the Society for the Promotion of Theo- logical Education in Harvard University. Originally Unitarian in its teachings, the School declined after the first enthusiastic period of Unitarianism had been spent. In 1879 a subscription was opened to save the institution from collapsing, and the result was so satis_ factory that since that time the School has been able to resume its activity. The instruction is non-sectarian, extending over three years ; and students are at liberty to elect courses in other departments of the University. The tuition fee is only $50 a year, but President Eliot, iu his report for 1888-89, wisely recommended that it be raised to the level of that of the other Cambridge de- partments. "The Protestant ministry," he says, " will never be put on a thoroughly respectable footing in modern society until the friar or mendicant element is completely eliminated from it. There are no good reasons why Protestant students of theology should be taught fed and lodged gratuitously ; students of law, of medicine or of the liberal arts are not." The receipts of the Divinity School in 1889 were $27,938.85; the payments were $27,513.63. The students in 1890 number thirty-five.

The Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology was founded by George Peabody, of Lon- don, iu 1866, with a gift of $150,000, of which $60,000 were set aside for a building fund, and the remainder was devoted to the purchase of collec- tions and specimens. Jeffries Wyman was Curator of the Museum till 1874. The collections were stored in Boylston Hall till 1876, when, the building fund having accumulated to $100,000, a building was begun. A large addition was made to it in 1889. Besides acquiring collections by purchase and exchange, the officers of the Museum have con- ducted explorations in several parts of the American continent. The institution, although forming a part of the University, is under the direction of a Board of Trustees, originally appointed by Mr. Peabody, and renewed from time to time, when vacancies occurred, by themselves.

The Bussey Institution, a school of agriculture and horticulture, was founded by James Busscy, who died in 1861. Property in Jamaica Plain, valued at $413,- 000, was transferred to the University ; one-fourth of the income was, according to the terms of Mr. Bussey's will, applied to the Divinity School, and one-fourth to the Law School. In 1871 a building was erected ; sheds and green-houses soon followed. In 1870 James Arnold bequeathed $100,000 for the encouragement of agriculture and . horticulture, and with this sum nurseries were established in connec- tion with Bussey Institution, where a park, open to the public, has been laid out, the City of Boston co- operating with the Harvard Corporation for its main- tenance. In 1879 a professorship of agriculture was founded.

In 1882 the Faculty of the Veterinary School was

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organized ; the following year a hospital was built, and nine students attended. The course, covering three years, embraces instruction in anatomy, physiology, chemistry, botany, materia medica, therapeutics, the theory and practice of veterinary medicine, surgery and allied subjects. The School still lacks a proper endowment.

The Dental School, organized in 1867, confers diplo- mas upon students who have studied medicine or den- tistry three whole years, at least one continuous year of which must have been spent at the School. The instruction of the first year is identical with that of the Medical School; then follow courses in dentis- try. The fees for the first year are $200; for the sec- ond, $150, and for any subsequent year $50. In the present year (1890) the school has 35 members. The school was located at No. 50 Allen Street, Boston, from 1870 till 1883, when it removed to the old Medical School quarters in North Grove Street.

The Botanic Garden, founded in 1805, contains about seven and a half acres. Besides the professor's house, there are a herbarium (the best in the country), with library, laboratory and lecture-room, and a con- servatory. To the distinguished botanist, Asa Gray, who for many years was its head, this institution owes much of its success.

The Astronomical Observatory dates from 1839, and had its first home in the Dana House, under the direc- tion of William Cranch Bond. In 1843 a fund was raised with which part of the present observatory, was built iu 1846. Edward Bromfield Phillips bequeathed, in 1849, $100,000 for the maintenance of the institution, the purchase of books, instruments, etc. The west wing was added in 1851. A Bulletin of the observatory is published at intervals.

The Lawrence Scientific School was founded by a gift of $50,000 from Abbott Lawrence in 1847, to fur- nish instruction for students, who wished to present themselves as candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Science. Half of the donation was immediately ap- plied to the erection of a suitable building; the other half to the establishment of a professorship of Civil Engineering. Mr. Lawrence gave further assistance until his death, in 1855, when he bequeathed $50.000 for the general purposes of the school. In 1865 Sam- uel Hooper endowed a chair of geology, and John B. Barringer, in 1872, left about $35,000 to encourage the study of chemistry. But, with the large laboratories of Chemistry and Physics on the one hand, and the Museum of Comparative Zoology ou the other,-not. to mention the facilities afforded by the College for thestudy of the higher mathematics, -- the especial work possible for the Scientific School has become more and more restricted, and it seems probable that its separate existence will terminate by merging its courses with those of the College.

II. PROGRESS OF EDUCATION.

Having thus followed the corporate and material

growth of Harvard, let us now briefly review the course of education, and compare, so far as the records allow, the studies and methods which at different pe- riods were supposed to be necessary and sufficient to bestow a liberal culture upon the students. At the outset, since Harvard was pre-eminently a theological seminary, the studies were chiefly theological, and tended to the training of ministers for the Puritan Colony. According to the laws passed in President Dunster's time, the following was required of caudi- dates to the Freshman Class : " When any scholar is able to read Tully or such like classical Latin author extempore, and make and speak true Latin in verse and prose suo (ut aiunt) Marte, and decline perfectly the paradigms of nouns and verbs in the Greek tongue, then may he be admitted into the College, nor shall any claim admission before such qualification." The scholars read the Scriptures twice a day; they had to repeat, or epitomize the sermons preached on Sunday ; and were frequently examined as to their own relig- ious state. "The studies of the first year, " says Quincy, "were logic, physics, etymology, syntax aud practice on the principles of grammar. Those of the second year, ethics, politics, prosody and dialects, practice of poesy and Chaldee. Those of the third, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, exercises in style, composition, epitome, both in prose and verse, He- brew and Syriac. In every year and every week of the College course every class was practiced in the Bible and catechetical divinity ; also in history in the winter, and in the nature of plants in the summer. Rhetoric was taught by lectures in every year, and each student was required to declaim once a month."1 An- other rule, dating from Dunster's administration, was : "The scholars shall never use their mother tongue, except that in public exercises of oratory, or such like, they be called to make them in English." It is pre- sumable that the ordinary student acquired a fair knowledge of Latin, while those who were destined for the ministry learned a sufficiency of Greek and Hebrew. The teaching was conducted by the Presi- dent and two Tutors, who were occasionally assisted by a graduate candidate for a higher degree.

In 1650 the Overseers first ordered a visitation ; " Between the 10th of June," runs their vote, " and the Commencement, from nine o'clock to eleven in the forenoon, and from one to three in the afternoon of the second and third day of the week, all scholars of two years' standing shall sit iu the Hall to be ex- amined by all comers in the Latin, Greek and He- brew tongues, and in Rhetoric, Logic and Physics; and they that expect to proceed Bachelors that year to be examined of their sufficiency according to the laws of the College; and such as expect to proceed Master of Arts to exhibit their synopsis of acts re- quired by the laws of the College." The qualifica- tions for Bachelors were as follows: "Every scholar

1 Quincy, i, 101.

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

that, on proof, is found able to read the original of the Old and New Testament into the Latin tongue, and to resolve them logically, withal being of honest life and conversation, and at any public act hath the approbation of the Overseers and Masters of the Col- lege, may be invested with his first degree." The undergraduate course was originally three years ; in 1654 it was extended to four years. The candidate for Master of Arts was required to study an additional year or till such time as he "giveth up in writing a synopsis or summary of Logic, Natural and Moral Philosophy, Arithmetic, Geometry and Astronomy, and is ready to defend his theses or positions, withal skilled in the originals, as aforesaid, and still contin- ues honest and studious, at any public act, after trial, he shall be capable of the second degree."

This was the general nature of the College curric- ulum during the seventeenth century. In 1726 Tu- tors Flynt, Welsteed and Prince made the following report, which is interesting because it mentions not only the subjects studied, but also the text-boooks used :

"1. While the students are Freshman they com- monly recite the Grammars, and with them a recita- tion in Tully, Virgil and the Greek Testament, on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, in the morning and forenoon; on Friday morning Du- gard's or Farnaby's Rhetoric, and on Saturday morn- ing the Greek Catechism ; and towards the latter end of the year they dispute on Raum's Definitions, Mon- days and Tuesdays in the forenoon.

"2. The Sophomores recite Burgersdicius's Logic and a, manuscript called New Logic in the mornings and forenoons; and towards the latter end of the year, Heereboord's Meletemata, and dispute Mondays and Tuesdays in the forenoon, continuing also to re- cite the classic authors, with Logic and Natural Phil- osophy; on Saturday mornings they recite Wolle- bins' Divinity.

"3. The Junior Sophisters recite Heereboord's Meletemata, Mr. Morton's Physics, More's Ethics, Geography, Metaphysics, in the mornings and fore- noons; Wollebius on Saturday morning; and dispute Mondays and Tuesdays in the forenoon.

" 4. The Senior Sophisters, besides Arithmetic, re- cite Allsted's Geometry, Gassendus's Astronomy, in the morning; go over the Arts towards the latter end of the year, Ames's Medulla on Saturdays, and dispute once a week."

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 45

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1034

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034