USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Brunswick > General catalogue of Bowdoin College and the Medical School of Maine, 1794-1894 > Part 9
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Gen. Chamberlain's administration was marked by substantial additions to the college funds.1 Besides the alumni fund, just men- tioned, in which generous gifts from many not alumni were included, Mr. Henry Winkley of Philadelphia liberally endowed the Latin professorship, and Mrs. Valeria Stone of Malden, Mass., gave fifty thousand dollars for the establishment of the Stone professor- ship of mental and moral philosophy. Since its endowment, this chair has been occupied by Professor George T. Ladd, now of Yale University, Professor Gabriel Campbell, now of Dartmouth College, Rev. Dr. Samuel G. Brown, the late president of Ham- ilton College, and President Hyde, the present incumbent. Pres-
· 1 Their total, as given in the annual reports to the Commissioner of Education, amounted to two hundred thousand dollars.
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ident Chamberlain suffered much during the later years of his administration from the wound which he had received in the war and which occasionally forbade personal attention to the duties of his office. Extended commercial enterprises, furthermore, in which he had gradually become interested, were making urgent demands upon his time and energies. These circumstances led to his resign- ing the presidency in 1883. The Boards, however, persuaded him to continue for two years, as lecturer, the instruction in polit- ical economy, constitutional and international law, which had been a popular and prominent feature of the course. Since that time his residence has been in New York City, where he is now president of the Institute of Arts.
CHAPTER IX.
PRESIDENT HYDE'S ADMINISTRATION.
Professor Packard's death-The college jury-Professor Chapman as dean of the faculty-President Hyde-Mission of the small college-Sar- gent Gymnasium-The curriculum-The observatory-The library- Benefactions-The Garcelon bequest-Renovation of Maine Hall-The Walker Art Building-The Searles Science Building.
The interval of two years that followed President Chamber- lain's resignation was marked by the sudden death of the acting president, Professor Alpheus S. Packard, which occurred imme- diately after the Commencement of 1884. He had spent sixty-five years in uninterrupted service of the college. He had known personally nearly every graduate of the institution. From them, as from the poet who voiced the sentiment, he had won
" Honor and reverence and the good repute That follows faithful service as its fruit."
His departure removed the living link between the Bowdoin of the past and the present.
The transition from early methods of college discipline was emphasized, in 1883, in the adoption by the faculty and students of a scheme of government, devised by Professor Charles H. Smith, now of Yale University, which places in the hands of a college jury the right to decide, in cases of public disorder among the students, both as to the guilty parties and the penalty that shall be inflicted on them.1 This jury is made up of representa- tives of each class and of each local chapter of an intercollegiate fraternity, and is presided over by its foreman. The President of the college attends, however, its regular meetings, brings matters to its attention, and gives advice when desired. He also retains the right to administer private advice and warning, without refer- ence to the jury.
1 The details of this system are printed in "Articles of agreement between the faculty and students of Bowdoin College for the administration of justice in the college.
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THE MARY F. S. SEARLES SCIENCE BUILDING.
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The maintenance of college discipline under this system rested largely upon Prof. Henry L. Chapman, who had been appointed by the Boards dean of the faculty, and who performed this as well as most of the other duties of the executive office for two years. The precedents established at the outset have made this form of self-government an unobtrusive but, it is believed, an efficient means of leading the student body to realize the unity of interests between the teachers and the taught and the obligation resting upon the latter to maintain good order.
At the Commencement of 1885 the Boards unanimously chose Rev. William De Witt Hyde president of the college and Stone professor of mental and moral philosophy. President Hyde was graduated with high honors at Harvard in 1879, at once entered upon the study of theology at Union Theological Seminary, and completed the course at Andover. After giving an additional year to the study of philosophy at Cambridge and at Andover, he held, until his call to Bowdoin, the pastorate of the Congrega- tional church in Paterson, N. J.
President Hyde is a firm believer in the important mission of the small college. Stated in his own words' it is this :
" For combining sound scholarship with solid character ; for making men both intellectually and spiritually free; for uniting the pursuit of truth with reverence for duty, the small college, open to the worthy graduates of every good high school, presenting a course sufficiently rigid to give symmetrical development, and sufficiently elastic to encourage individuality along congenial lines, taught by professors who are men first and scholars afterward, governed by kindly personal influence, and secluded from too frequent contact with social distrac- tions, has a mission which no change of educational conditions can take away, and a policy which no sentiment of vanity or jealousy should be permitted to turn aside."
The first year of this administration was marked by the com- pletion of the Sargent Gymnasium. This was erected at a cost of twelve thousand dollars, of which one-half was contributed by alumni and the balance taken from the general funds of the insti- tution. It was fully equipped with approved gymnastic apparatus
1 Educational Review, y. 2, p. 320, November, 1891.
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at the expense of Dr. Dudley A. Sargent, of the Class of 1875, for several years instructor in physical culture here, and now director of the Hemenway Gymnasium at Harvard. The facilities thus secured have resulted in the development of the required gymnastic work of the previous administration into a definite system of physical culture, which is a recognized part of the curriculum, has its influence in deciding college honors, and requires the entire attention of one member of the faculty.1
The changes in the curriculum, during this administration, have been gradual but noteworthy in their entirety. Required French and German have been moved forward into the first two ycars, and provision made for the continuance of the study of these languages in the following years. Natural science has been introduced into Sophomore year. New courses in history, English literature and political economy have been planned. General courses in cach department are followed or supplemented by special courses of such a character that mental training as well as useful knowledge may be gained from every study, and not alone from those formally classed as disciplinary. As a result, the larger part of the course is nominally elective. Practically the under-graduate, while enabled to gratify his natural tastes and inclinations, is not allowed to select his studies at hap-hazard or for frivolous reasons. The restraint of special requirements for special courses, and the interference of hours of recitation compel all to choose and pursue courses from both the literary and the scientific side of the curriculum.
By a generous gift from Mr. John J. Taylor, of Fairbury, Ill., supplemented by contributions from several alumni, a sub- stantial astronomical observatory was erected south-east of the chapel during the academic year 1890-1. Though the smallest of the college buildings, it is fully equipped and well adapted for purposes of instruction.
The college library is the largest collection of books in the state, yet it has suffered severely in the past from the poverty of the institution. For eighty years the average annual expen-
1 An account of this system will be found in The Forum, vol. 11, p. 446, June, 1891.
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diture for books was less than two hundred dollars. These accessions, however, were selected with care by the presidents in earlier years, subsequently by the successive professors of modern languages who acted as librarian during the greater portion of this period. In 1863, when the collection numbered fifteen thousand volumes, an admirably prepared catalogue was published by the librarian, Rev. William P. Tucker. It is still in use as the basis of the card catalogue now employed. By a succession of gifts, of which the Bowdoin library was the most noteworthy, and by consolida- tion with the society libraries, the collection came, in 1883, to hold the tenth place in size among the college libraries of the country. While it has since lost its relative standing in this respect, by the rapid growth of recent rivals, it has made great advance in general usefulness to the student body through the more liberal policy the Boards have been able to pursue. The annual expend- iture for books and periodicals is more than two thousand dollars. The ammal accessions are two thousand volumes. Its administra- tion requires and receives the entire time and attention of a librarian and an assistant librarian. Electric light has been intro- duced into Banister Hall; the reference portions are open ten hours each day ; and the recent changes in methods of instruction have caused them to become working rooms for a large part of the student body. Through the generosity of John L. Sibley, A.M., Rev. Elias Bond, D.D., Henry J. Furber, Esq., and Mrs. John C. Dodge, book funds now amounting to $18,500 have been established during the last fifteen years.
In the numerous and notable gifts for educational purposes that have characterized the last two decades, Bowdoin has not been forgotten. Besides the two elaborate and expensive struct- ures to be mentioned shortly, the college has received during this administration two hundred thousand dollars in money. One- half of this, the bequest of Daniel B. Fayerweather, of New York City, whom American colleges will long hold in grateful remembrance, is kept as a general fund, and one-half of the remainder was devoted by the donors to scholarship funds.
On New Year's day, 1892, the generous purposes of the late Mrs. Catherine M. Garcelon, of Oakland, California, were made
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known to the President. In her own right and in accordance with the wishes of her brother, whose wealth she had inherited, she conveyed to trustees during her lifetime, a large amount of property to be gradually converted into interest-bearing securities for the further endowment of Bowdoin College, and for the estah- lishment of a hospital in the city of Oakland. The amount the college is expected to realize ultimately is $400,000, the income of one-half of which is by the terms of the bequest to be applied to the use of the Medical School. The bequest is now being contested on technical grounds.
To supply the conveniences which modern times have made so common as to seem necessary, Maine Hall was entirely renovated in 1892, at an expense of ten thousand dollars. The same year two houses were built near the campus for the use of college professors. The house which was first purchased for the occupancy of President Harris and afterwards sold, has again become the property of the college and the residence of the president.
The art collections have been a unique feature in the equip- ment of Bowdoin which has long distinguished it among the colleges, if not among the universities, of the country. By the generosity of the Misses Walker of Waltham, Mass., this promi- nenee will be continued through the beautiful structure erected for the proper exhibition of these collections and for the general promotion of art. This building, designed by Messrs. MeKim, Mead and White of New York City, was erected by the donors as a memorial of their uncle, Theophilus Wheeler Walker, a promi- nent merchant of Boston. His interest in the institution was manifested during the administration of his cousin, President Woods, in providing accommodation for the paintings in the former Sophia Walker Gallery. The two illustrations give some concep- tion of the manner in which his representatives, since his death, have carried out his later thought, and have given to the state as well as the college an edifice likely to be as enduring as the classic structures its architecture calls to mind. The building was dedi- cated June 7th, 1894.1
1 The character of the decoration and the recent additions to the contents of the building is indicated by the following extract from the last report of the
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The rapid change during the last few years in the methods of instruction in the natural sciences, rendered the accommodations in Adams Hall, though excellent when it was erected, meagre and insufficient now. The important place which chemistry, physics and biology had won for themselves in the curriculum made a new structure for the use of these three departments a necessity. By the liberality of Mr. Edward F. Searles this need was met almost as soon as stated. The Mary F. S. Searles Scientific Laboratory, named in memory of the wife of the donor, will be ready for occupancy in the fall of 1894. It is a brick building with stone trimmings, designed in the Elizabethan style of architecture by Mr. Henry Vanghan, of Boston. The extreme length is 172 feet, and the depth from front to rear of wings 107 feet. It is three stories in height with a well-lighted basement. The three departments have separate entrances and stairways, the chemical and physical occupying the northern and southern wings respectively, and the biological, the third floor. Upon the comple- tion of the building each will have ample room and every facility in apparatus and material equipment for the instruction of larger classes than have yet entered college.
Curator of the Art Collections. "The educational use of the building and its contents has been held in mind constantly by the donors, who have supplemented the munificent gift of the structure by the donation of works of art of uni- formly great value and of wide range as to variety. These objects include about forty choice specimens of ancient glass and pottery, dating from the seventlı century B. C. onward; a marble portrait bust ascribed to the late Roman period; a set of Saracen armor, six pieces, eleventh century; various mediæval and modern weapons; Flemish tapestry; modern oil paintings, chiefly of the French schools, represented by Corot, Daubigny, Millet, Troyon, and others. American art is represented by works in oil, water-color, or pastel of J. Fox- croft Cole, F. Hopkinson Smith, Winslow Homer, J. Appleton Brown. A bronze bas-relief portrait of Mr. Theophilus Wheeler Walker, which has been set in the western wall of the Walker gallery, is the work of the sculptor, Daniel C. French. The beautiful large bronze lantern of the Sculpture Hall is a copy of one in the Château de Blois. The smaller wrought-iron lantern of the loggia is of old Italian workmanship. Bronze copies by De Angelis of Naples of the classical statues of Demosthenes and Sophocles have been erected in the niches on the front of the building, and on either side of the entrance copies in stone of the lions of the Loggia dei Lanzi. If the wall paintings of the Sculpture Hall by Elihu Vedder, John La Farge, Kenyon Cox, and Abbott Thayer are included with the above- mentioned American works, and those in the Bowdoin collection and among the college portraits, it will be seen that the college deserves a high rank among institutions possessing valuable specimens of our national art."
CHAPTER X.
THE MEDICAL SCHOOL OF MAINE.
Establishment-State aid-Dr. Nathan Smith-Proposed hospital- Dr. John D. Wells-Medical professors-Adams Hall-Seavey Anatomi- cal Cabinet-Changes in the curriculum-Proposed removal to Portland- Bequest of Mrs. Garcelon.
Immediately upon his acceptance of the presidency of Bow- doin College, President Allen wrote to Dr. Nathan Smith, the founder of the Dartmouth Medical School, then professor of the theory and practice of medicine at Yale, with regard to the improvement of medical instruction in the state to which he was soon to remove. His correspondent said in reply : "I think after what experience I have had, we could form a medical school that would, in point of real utility, equal any in the country. In a new state like Maine, where neither habit nor parties have laid their ruthless hands on the public institutions, and where the minds of men are free from their poisoning influence, everything is to be hoped for. Such a field would be very inviting to me ; and such a place I take Maine to be. For though they have heretofore been divided into parties, I am disposed to think, that now they have become a state and are left to themselves, party spirit will in a great measure subside, and they will be ambitious to promote the honor and the welfare of the state."
This hope of aid from the state was realized. The first legislature of Maine, to its honor and to the material increase of the health and happiness of the people, established, June 27, 1820, the Medical School of Maine, to be under the control of the Trustees and Overseers of Bowdoin College ; granted fifteen hundred dollars for procuring necessary books, plates, preparations and other apparatus ; and authorized the annual payment of one thousand dollars for general expenses until otherwise ordered. The first series of lectures was given in the spring of 1821 by Dr.
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Smith, assisted by Dr. John Doane Wells, who, at first as assistant, but soon as a full professor, conducted the courses in anatomy and surgery, and by Professor Cleaveland, who had charge of the chemistry for nearly forty years, and for an equal period was the devoted and efficient secretary of the school. Twenty-one young men were in attendance. The next year there were forty-nine, and subsequent classes to the present time have averaged nearly eighty.
Temporary quarters, as it was then supposed, were provided for the school in Massachusetts Hall. Time moved on but the school did not. The building came to be spoken of as the Medical College. Possibly the conservatism of the secretary was responsible in part for this inaction. The accommodations, narrow and insufficient as they were, had served several of the largest and most talented classes to which he had lectured. He saw no insuperable objections to remaining. The principal reason, however, lay in the changed relations of the college and the commonwealth. The fostering hand of the state which, it was believed, would continue to support the institution, abandoned it at an early age. Subsequent legislatures did not maintain the reputation of the first. The need of a general hospital, both for the insane and for surgical cases requiring especial skill, early became manifest to the Medical Faculty and to the leading physicians of the state. The desirableness of connecting this with the medical school was even more clear. The legislators, though providing an act of incorporation for such a hospital in 1826, after the persistent efforts of Professor Cleaveland and Hon. Robert P. Dunlap, of the Class of 1815, repeatedly refused to endow it or make any grant sufficient to warrant an attempt to open it, and depend upon private benevolence for its maintenance. Not only were these attempts to secure a hospital at Brunswick unsuccessful, but the annual grant itself was discontinued in 1834. How efficient this had been in establishing the character and increasing the efficiency of medical instruction, is shown by the circumstance that the school possessed, at this time, the finest library and apparatus of any in New England, though four others surpassed it in age.
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Dr. Smith's connection with the school was severed in 1825, when his duties in New Haven had become such as to forbid his absence. His successors in the chair of the theory and practice of medicine have been, almost without exception, gentlemen who have had extended experience as lecturers in other medical schools in this country. Dr. William Sweetser and the present incumbent, Dr. Israel Thorndike Dana, may from their length of service, extending over a score of years, be claimed as belonging especially to the Maine Medical School. The early death, in 1830, of Dr. John Doane Wells, was a severe blow to the school in which he had taken the deepest interest. The expenditure of a great portion of the legislative grant of $1,500 was made by him during an extended residence abroad, and to his skill as a surgeon and brilliancy as a lecturer much of the success the school attained in its first decade was due. Of his successors in the chair of anatomy and surgery, only Dr. Edmund R. Peaslee exceeded him in length of service. In 1857 the chair was divided and instruction in physiology was added to the duties of Dr. David S. Conant, the new professor of anatomy. Of subsequent professors of surgery, Dr. William W. Greene and Dr. Stephen H. Weeks have each held the chair upwards of a decade. In 1825 the chair of obstet- rics was established, and Dr. James McKeen, of Topsham, the youngest son of the first president of the college, filled it for fourteen years. His successors have been Dr. Ebenezer Wells, Dr. Fordyce Barker, Dr. Amos Nourse, Dr. Theodore H. Jewett, Dr. William C. Robinson, Dr. Edward W. Jenks, and the present incumbent, Dr. Alfred Mitchell. At the time of offering instruc- tion in this subject, the fees were increased from forty-five to fifty dollars. These, as well as the length of the course, three months, remained practically unchanged for thirty years.
An important addition to the course was made in 1846, by the establishment of the chair of materia medica and therapeutics. No sketch, however short, can omit mention of the service in this branch of the curriculum of Dr. Charles A. Lee, Dr. Fred- eric H. Gerrish, and Dr. Charles O. Hunt. Three years later a formal course of lectures on medical jurisprudence was first given. With two exceptions, the subsequent annual courses on this subject
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have been given by Hon. John Searle Tenney, Hon. Charles W. Goddard, and Hon. Lucilius A. Emery. These and other changes required, in 1856, the lengthening of the term to four months.
A most important event in the history of the school was the erection, in 1860-61, of a building especially adapted for its use. The inconveniences suffered in the cramped quarters in Massa- chusetts Hall had begun seriously to threaten the prosperity of the institution. Its friends, therefore, petitioned the legislature, in 1858, for aid in erecting a home of its own. The petition failed. The following year it was renewed, and one-half a town- ship of wild land was granted for this purpose. Unfortunately, however, its opponents succeeded in attaching a proviso to the effect that the "legislature may make any necessary regulation for the admission and graduation of students." This provision, which looked towards a future change of attitude towards homoeopathic and eclectic schools of medicine, was extremely distasteful to the Maine Medical Association. That body finally informed the Trustees that if the grant were accepted on these terms it would refuse graduates of the Medical School admittance to its men- bership. Happily, by the united efforts of the college and the association, the obnoxious proviso was repealed in 1861. By the $5,500 obtained from this source, to which an equal amount was added from the college funds, and a generous gift from Seth Adams, Esq., of Boston, the Trustees were enabled to build and equip Adams Hall, according to designs furnished by the secre- tary of the medical faculty, Professor Paul A. Chadbourne. It was first occupied in 1862. Through the gift of one thousand dollars from Dr. Calvin Seavey of Bangor, important additions were made at this time to the anatomical cabinet of the school. By the zeal and interest of the present incumbent of the chair of anatomy, frequent accessions have been made during the last decade to the collection, until the facilities for study in this department are unusually complete.
In 1872 a separate chair was established for instruction in physiology. It has been held in succession by Dr. Robert Amory, Professor Burt Green Wilder, Dr. Henry H. Hunt, and Dr. Charles D. Smith .. The last named is also lecturer on public 8
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hygiene, which has been a part of the curriculum since 1875. The introduction of laboratory courses in chemistry,-a subject which has always been in charge of a member of the academic Faculty,-and a general readjustment of the curriculum, led to an extension of the term to twenty weeks in 1886, and an increase in the tuition charge, which is now eighty-three dollars, with a graduation fee of twenty-five dollars. Reference only can be made to the endeavor, in this decade, to raise the standard of medical instruction by requiring an entrance examination from those who are not graduates of the higher educational institu- tions, and in the present decade by requiring attendance upon three full courses of medical lectures.
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