19th CONGRESS, 
1st Session. 
36 
OF THE 
iiroffssovB in tfjc 3«cSic,n Department 
OF THE 
Cioiitwhism CoUfftf* 
IN THE 
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 
February 13, 1826. 
Printed by order of the Senate of the United State*. 
WASHINGTON: 
«UXT«» by gales £j SEATOJT, 
1826. 3 
36 
MEMORIAL. 
To the Honorable the Senate and Ilonse af Representatives of the United 
States in Congress assembled. 
The memorial of the Professors in the Medical Department of the 
Columbian College, in the District of Columbia, 
RESPECTFULLY SHEWETI1 ‘ 
That, in the year 1821, a charter was granted by the Congress of 
the United States, establishing the Columbian College, authorizing a 
Board of Trustees to appoint a President. Professors, and Tutors, to 
give instruction, and also to confer degrees, in the liberal arts and 
sciences. 
Byv irtue of the authority of this charter, an authority similar to 
that from which the medical schools in the different States derive their 
existence, with, perhaps, a single exception, the trustees, in their first 
circular, published in 1821, announced their intention to establish a 
Medical Department, and appointed two professors. This depart- 
ment gradually progressed to its organization in September, 1824, 
when two additional professors were introduced, and a desire express- 
ed that a course of lectures should be commenced as early as practica- 
ble, in the city of Washington. 
The trustees conferred on the professors no other assistance than 
that essentially resulting from the creation of the school, Ihc power of 
conferring degrees. In all other respects, their responsibilities were 
personal. At a great sacrifice of time and labor, Hie professors were 
enabled so far to mature the arrangements of the Medical Department, 
as to deliver a course of lectures in the Spring of 1825. To accom- 
plish this, a building was rendered suitable at considerable expense. 
At the close of the first course, two other professors were appointed, 
and a second, or winter course, is now nearly completed, with a class 
of thirty pupils, under circumstances promising a happy result. The 
present state of the school, and the inadequacy of the building, 
have induced the professors, on their personal responsibility, to appro- 
priate six thousand dollars to the erection of a large edifice, as soon as 
a proper site can be procured. 
The Medical Department, is, at this time, fully organized, and in 
this organization, every demonstration of a most liberal spirit has 
been made by the trustees of the College. The principle was avowed 
and acted on, to fill the professorships from the medical faculty in the 
District. How far this selection has elicited adequate abilities, is re- 
spectfully submitted as a suitable, and, to your Memorialists, a desira- 
ble subject of inquiry. 36 
4 
So far as the school has advanced, its steps give encouragement to 
those incurring the responsibilities. It has met w ith satisfactory ap- 
probation from the medical profession; the community has received it 
w ith all the interest such an institution is calculated to excite; while it 
bids fair to eventuate in permanent utility. The circular of the Me- 
dical Department will exhibit the fact, that, by the highest requisitions 
recognised in any school in this country, the avenue to graduation and 
the interests of society are strictly guarded. 
The above statement of the origin and present condition of the me- 
dical school in this District, your Memorialists consider as due to your 
honorable body, inasmuch as Congress has manifested every disposition 
to foster and protect the medical profession. That disposition w as 
fully evinced, by the incorporation of a medical society in the year 
1819, w ith powers to hold property yielding several thousand dollars 
annually; to constitute a Board of Medical Examiner*; to grant li- 
censes to practice physic; to repress ignorant and empirical pretenders. 
In the fulfilment of these duties, the society is efficiently engaged. 
Referring your honorable body to these two institutions, the one for 
education in, the other for the regulation of, the practice of physic, 
both directly emanating from Congress, your Memorialists entirely 
submit the question of the expediency and necessity of creating other 
incorporations at this time. To estimate aright the expediency, refer- 
ence is respectfully made to what has obtained in Philadelphia and New 
York, where two chartered institutions, in an early state of medical 
instruction, served hut to destroy each other; while the necessity for 
more than one school in one city, is by all mainly allowed to arise from 
a number of pupils, not likely for many years to resort to this metro- 
polis. Under present circumstances, your Memorialists would, with 
all due respect, suggest the inquiry, w hether the existence of two me- 
dical schools in this city, might not tend to create a spirit of profes- 
sional discord, and result hi fatal embarrassments to both? 
The consideration of this question, now agitates more than one of 
our State Legislatures, but especially that of Pennsylvania. There 
a memorial has been presented for the incorporation of a second me- 
dical school in the city of Philadelphia. Bv those applying for a 
charter, it is solicited on the ground that the number of pupils in the 
University is so great, as to render it impossible to do justice to their 
education. Taking this ground, the agents for the new school do not 
hesitate to admit, that, “in an early period of medical instruction, a 
division cannot be advantageous to medical education.” That, in 
Philadelphia, under these circumstances, it proved so destructive as to 
force a union, is well known; and that the school, no longer fettered 
by premature rivalry, has attained to high utility and prosperity, is 
felt in every part of our country. Not less convincing is [the history 
of two rival institutions in the city of New York, whose feuds sa 
crippled their operations, as to call forth the interposition of legislative 
authority" to bring about the organization of a single institution. In 
Boston, these precedents determined the legislature of Massachusetts 
to refuse the incorporation of a second school in that city, hut a few 5 
86 
years since. It may pointedly be inquired, what would be the effect 
on the flourishing school just established in Charleston, South Caroli- 
na, if a rival should be raised to distract the energies of professional 
exertion. 
The case now under the consideration of your honorable body, is in 
close analogy to those referred to in the early history of Philadelphia 
and New York. Here, under the authority of a charter from Con- 
gress, is a medical school, barely emerging from an inceptive state: 
the population of Washington does not compare with that of the two 
cities at the era alluded to; at this time, we can recognize schools in 
most of the States. In this city, the medical professors have person- 
ally, unaided by the trustees, at their own risk, pledged themselves to 
give to their school that dignity and character which shall render it 
worthy of its origin in the Congress of the United States, and of its 
location. 
No monopoly is here aimed at: nothing unworthy the high spirit of 
professional liberality. This memorial is based on acknowledged 
principles, the force of which is confidently and respectfully submitted 
to Congress. 
Signed by order, and in behalf of the Professors in the Medical 
Department of the Columbian College. 
THO. SEWALL. Chairman. 
THOS. HENDERSON. Dean.