No.  183.
Mm   Senate*)
              March 25, 1829.
                   REPORT

 Of  the committee on  literature, rela-
    tive to the incorporation of the Man-
    hattan College.

   The committee on literature, to which was referred the
 several petitions of the Rutgers' medical faculty, and of the
 students of medicine and surgery attending their instruction,
 in the city of New-York, praying that  the professors com-
 posing that faculty, and their associates, may be incorporat-
 ed by the name of Manhattan College, with the power of
 conferring the literary degrees usual to  medical science,

     Report :
   That in their opinion, it would seem, upon the first viev
 of the subject, there could be no doubt of the propriety of
 t -anting the prayer of the petition.  To encourage the dis-
 semination of useful knowledge by aiding in the erection and
 organization of every kind of school for public instruction,
 has long been engrafted on the policy of the state.   The fa-
 cilities derived to these objects from an  act of incorporation,
 have uniformly been granted to all who  sought them, and in
 many honorable instances, while the pecuniary resources of
 the state permitted, have liberal endowments been made for
the support of literary and scientific institutions.  The wis-
  No. 183.                1 
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dom and correctness of this policy, it is presumed, will not
be questioned, though errors may sometimes have been com-
mitted in adapting the means to the end proposed.

  The committee, however, are aware, that in respect to the
present application, a difference of opinion exists, not in re-
lation to the general purposes and views of the applicants,
the advancement of science, and particularly those branches
more intimately connected with the study and practice of
the healing art, but in relation to  the question, whether
those purposes and views will be promoted by adopting the
mode which is desired?  To this question the committee
have given serious attention;  and as  it is  considered of
great importance, they  deem it proper to submit their views
of it to the Senate, somewhat more at large.

  The opinion has been entertained, and by men, too, whose
character and  information entitle them to some deference,
that for the purpose of procuring  higher attainment and
more diversified qualification in the different  branches of
science, the business of teaching should be confined to a
limited  number, and to this end it has been deemed sound
policy not only to  confine  the patronage of government to
particular institutions, but to throw disqualifications and em-
barrassment upon the exertions of others perhaps of equal
or superior merit and skill, and thus producing, in effect, a
sort of monopoly of learning.   This opinion has been more
especially applied  to the school of medicine in the city of
New-York.  With respect  to  the  pecuniary aid which it
may be in the power and becomes the duty of government
to bestow upon the literary institutions  under its  control,
when its means are limited, there can be no doubt of the
correctness of that policy  which appropriates  those means
in such manner as  to make them effectual to the object, in-
stead of distributing them so generally that they become va-
lueless  in a too extensive diffusion. 
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  But it may wrell be questioned whether it is sound policy,
and more  especially whether it is consistent with the true
principles of our government, to throw either upon the busi-
ness of teaching, or upon  the acquirement of knowledge,
any other  shackles or disqualifications than such necessary
regulations as are calculated to impose equal study and du-
ties upon  those who seek the attainment and require equal
proficiency, from those who aspire to the privileges  and re-
wards of science.

  It should be borne in mind, that a monopoly of learning or
knowledge cannot be created by legislative enactment.  The
fostering care with which the arm of power confers and sus-
tains exclusive privileges in science, neither stimilates the ex-
ertions, increases the capacity, or elevates the views or cha-
racter of  those who may enjoy them.  A monopoly of the
business of teaching may indeed be effected;  but should it
even be conceded that this would produce higher attainments
in literature in the  few, it can  never effect a more  general
diffusion of knowledge throughout the  public mind, or be
productive of so much  general benefit.   The  latter should
be the great object of legislative interference, though a con-
stantly increasing elevation of the standard of that knowledge
ought also to be regarded with interest.   The  most obvious
effect of this monopoly is to quench the spirit of emulation,
which, existing among scientific  men, as well as between
scientific  institutions, is productive of vast benefits to the
public at large.  The immediate influence of that spirit " is
to render all those engaged more industrious in seeking  af-
ter knowledge, and more zealous to make it acceptable  to
others.  Every improvement on one side leads to a desire to
equal or excel  on the other, and the results of these mutual
efforts are at once rendered productively useful to the pub-
lic," by a  wider extended and more  general diffusion of their
benefits. 
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  Besides, this general diffusion of scientific knov/ledge has
another, and perhaps, no less important effect.   It sends back
to its own sources beneficial and material aids, to further de-
velopement and  still higher advances.   It excites, while it
furnishes greater means of gratifying, a desire for still deeper
research, and a far wider range in the truths of science.  Its
operation is like that of the reflections of light and heat com-
mingling with their own causes, and rendering the one more
glaring, and the other more intense.

   These views are strongly corroborated by the history of
learning and useful knowledge, in every  nation and period of
the world.   It was by the aid of such causes that our own
country, in her advancement in science and every useful im-
provement, has been  enabled, in  the short  period of fifty
years, to accomplish the work  of centuries in the old world.

  And if these views are correct, can it be pretended that a
monopoly of the business of instruction,  which excludes the
aid of such  important auxiliaries, and tends to extinguish the
very life spring of scientific improvement, is to be productive
of higher attainment in all or any of the branches of science,
even  among those who enjoy the  advantages of monopoly
itself.

  With respect to the necessity or expediency of permitting an
additional medical school in the city of New-York, as distinct
from the views already expressed,  the committee would re-
fer to the example of some of our sister  states; in the  prin-
ciple  cities of which, additional schools have been establish-
ed by law, notwithstanding the previous existence of public
schools, highly distinguished  for learning and usefulness.
The medical school in Philadelphia, under the control of the
University  of Pennsylvania, had long been advantageously
known to the world of  science : her teachers had gathered
honor to the American  name, and their pupils had borne the 
5
evidence of their  learning and capacity for instruction to
every part of our country, yet  did the legislature of that
state authorise one of its western colleges to establish an ad-
ditional medical faculty in Philadelphia.  The wisdom of the
policy has been sufficiently proved by the result and useful-
ness of the experiment.

   And it can scarcely be doubted, that the greater popula-
tion of New-York, and her enlarged means of drawing sup-
port to a literary institution of this character, from all parts
of the Union as well as the West India islands, will justify a
similar procedure.

   The character of the applicants is too well known to need
commendation or remark.  Every friend to medical science
must regret the  necessity, if such necessity exists, that their
talents and acquirements for instruction should be lost to so-
 ciety.  The committee are not aware of any such necessity
 arising either from justice or policy.  With a zeal and pub-
 lic spirit that have been condemned by some, but which the
 committee think  commendable ; and influenced, undoubt-
 edly, by  an anxiety  to reap the just  reward of long study
 and  labor, by the exercise of their talents in a useful and
 honorable  avocation, they  have,  at their own great private
 expense, erected and fitted up a building with  superior ac-
 commodations and apparatus for instruction.  That instruc-
 tion  has been pursued for three terms, under various auspi-
 ces,  with  credit to themselves, and as there is reason to be-
 lieve, with great advantage to those who have attended upon
 it during that period.

    The measure prayed for by the petitioners, is highly ap-
 proved by a large body  of the most  distinguished and  effi-
 cient physicians and surgeons in the city of New-York; and
 as the committee  entertain the opinion that it will tend to
 promote the interest of a science deeply and intimately con- 
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nected with the comfort and happiness of society, they have
instructed their chairman to  introduce a bill in accordance
with the  prayer of the  petition.  It is proper, however,  to
state, that one of the members of the  committee has not
concurred in the views expressed in  this report.
                                J. L. VIELE, Ch'n, 
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