We wish to know whether Marcus Whitman was a diligent and proficient student. That he was we have convincing evidence. Many medical students took but one course of lectures in the medical school. At the end of these lectures a student was expected to return to his preceptor. If, after a further year with the preceptor, the student was recommended he was permitted to appear before a medical society for examination, but only rarely was a student admitted to such examinations immediately after the end of his first course of lectures.
Marcus Whitman was admitted to the examinations of the Herkimer County Medical Society after one session of sixteen weeks attendance at Fairfield Medical School, and on May 9, 1826, was granted a diploma. This document recites that
Whereas Marcus Whitman hath exhibited unto us satisfactory testimony that he hath studied Physic and Surgery for the term and in the manner directed by Law and hath also upon examination by our Censors given sufficient proofs of his proficiency in the Healing Art and of his moral character, Wherefore by virtue of the powers vested in us by law we do grant unto the said Marcus Whitman the privilege of practising Physic and Surgery in this state together with all the rights and immunities which usually appertain to Physicians and Surgeons.
Thus on May 9, 1826, Marcus Whitman, not yet twenty-four years of age, became a legal practitioner in the state of New York. The law then prescribed that a man must have studied medicine three years before he could be licensed; therefore this document is proof that Marcus Whitman studied under his preceptor, Dr. Ira Bryant, for two years before entering medical school. This sets the date of his beginning medical study in May preceding his twenty-first birthday.
This diploma also is evidence of his diligence and proficiency as a student. As stated, it was unusual to admit a man to examination immediately after his first course of lectures. The diploma is dated at Fairfield, the town in which the school was located, and the only members of that society who knew him were the professors in the school and they would not have recommended him for examination unless he had shown himself a good student. Thus we have indirect, but none the less convincing, evidence that Marcus Whitman was of good intellectual capability and had been a diligent and proficient student.
