“He treated his pupils with great rigor, and subjected them to the most menial employments.” An apprenticeship at that time was no sinecure; it was a period of probation attended with toil and exactions. The pupil lived, for the most part, with his master—was constantly subject to his orders, whether in the task of preparing medicines to be used in his daily rounds, in carrying them to the patients, or in making fires, keeping the office clean, and other household duties now devolving upon domestics. “To these, Dr. Bard has been often heard to say, he would never have submitted but from apprehension of giving pain to his excellent mother, and the encouragement he received from the kindness of her particular friend, Mrs. Kearsley, of whom he always spoke in terms of the warmest gratitude, affection, and respect. Under such circumstances he persevered to the end of seven tedious years, stealing his hours of study from sleep, after the family had retired to rest, and before they arose from their beds”[1]
The desire for medical knowledge was not satisfied, on the part of these American pupils, with the limited means of education at the command of their preceptors, who, as far as they were able, bestowed a training in the handicraft of the profession; and it was regarded as important that a visit should be made to Europe to complete the course of acquirement. We therefore find that most of the individuals alluded to pursued this plan, and returned to the field of their duty with all the accomplishments that a residence at the schools of the old world could afford to zealous aspirants for usefulness and distinction. The facilities for improvement which were presented in Edinburgh, in London, or in Paris, attracted thither these neophytes in the healing art; and to good account, as was shown in their subsequent career, did they apply the fund of information there acquired. Another seat of medical improvement was Leyden, which possessed attractions from the distinguished reputation of Boerhaave, of
- ↑ Memoir of the late Dr. John Bard (American Medical Register, New York, vol. i. p. 61). Dr. Bard subsequently settled in New York, and both he and his son, Dr. Samuel Bard, one of the founders of the New York Medical School, were distinguished practitioners of that city.
