Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/31

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ANATOMY xxi

Dr. James Lloyd, who had followed the lectures of Cheselden, Sharpe, William Hunter and others. John Warren was also well acquainted with the leading men in Philadelphia, who had been trained in Great Britain.

Outside of the institutions mentioned the demand for good lectures on anatomy, produced several men, who acquired wide reputation. Of these the foremost was Corydon L. Ford, who was professor of anatomy at the University of Michigan from 1854 to 1894. During the greater part of this period, Ford's reputation as a teacher led to his being engaged as professor of anatomy at other institutions, as well as at the University of Michigan. The short sessions which marked the medical curriculum until recent years, and which did not coincide in different schools, ren- dered this possible. Ford gave lectures at Castleton until 1861, then at the Berkshire Medical College and at Bowdoin College, and finally from 18G8 to 1886 at the Long Island College Hospital. Among the earlier teachers, John Doane Wells, Reuben D. Mussey, and Nathan Smith stand out with prominence. L. Agassiz was professor of anatomy at Charlestown in 1851 and 1852. Conditions were not such that he could stimulate in medical schools the scientific activity he did so much to arouse in students of natural history.

Of other teachers of anatomy in America, there seems little need to speak specifically. Many were men of marked natural ability, full of enthusiasm, who served to inspire their students with love and devotion to medicine. Crude as the laboratory facilities have so often been, teachers of anatomy in America have throughout insisted upon some practical work being done, some knowledge being gained by personal experience. Anatomy was long the only subject taught in this way, and for this reason, our teachers of anatomy have played a most important part in the development of American medicine. To the inspiring zeal of the anatomical lectures many a physician has owed the courage to get some mastery of human anatomy, in spite of facilities so crude as to make the acquirement difficult. Facilities for the study of human anat- omy are vastly better now. Real first-hand knowledge is far easier to gain. Whether or not more knowledge will be gained under the newer conditions will depend largely upon whether or not the enthusiastic zeal of anatomical teachers, who were active practitioners, shall be exhibited by teachers who are professional scientists.

For an account of the history of anatomy in America, and a summary of its present progress, together with references to the literature, see Bardeen, "Anatomy in America," "Bulletin of the University of Wis- consin," No. 115, September, 1905.

C. R. Bardeen.