Cornell University Medical College - Samaritan Yearbook (New York, NY)

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fi' Z. Z' ! ly Old Lying In Horpiml, 17ilo Street and Sefond 1414672113- his own expense. He is bitterly disappointed that the New York University, in whose future he took such a warm interest at one time, should have so utterly betrayed his expectations. It can be added authoritatively that several of the most prominent members of the council are practically sure to resign in the event of Chancellor MacCracken and his majority of the trustees refusing to return to the Medical College Laboratory the property conveyed to the University, that a number of other trustees are likely to take the same action, and that litigation will ensue. It is asserted that in the division of the council the men of real weight and influence in the community are arrayed against the Chancellor. An opportunity was offered to Chancellor MacCracken fully to state in these columns his side of the controversy, but he positively refused to discuss the matter. Chancellor MacCracken's campaign was destined for fail- ure and the services and resources of the Medical College Laboratory were lost to New York University for all time. In rapid succession thereafter: Q11 the dissident group formed its forces from the faculties of the old New York University and Bellevue Hospital Medical schools and all their adherents, including 215 students of the Cgmbingd schools, set up under the banner of Cornell Medical School, using a small building on the Bellevue Hospital grounds, near the Twenty-Sixth Street entrance, and -the,Loomis Lab- oratory, Q21 Colonel Payne put up 351,500,000 and Plans were started immediately for the erection of what was planned to be the finest medical school plant in the country, Q31 legal proceedings were initiated to decide once and for all the distribution of the properties in dispute between the two institutions, Q41 Bellevue Hospital Medical School became the graduate medical school for New York Uni- versity, combining forces with the remnants of the old New York University medical faculty, under the name New York University Medical School. In the autumn of 1898 the new Cornell School opened its doors with an enrollment of 245 students 3 64 of whom were in the first year class, 83 in the second, and 98 in the two upper classes. Of these latter some were expecting to be graduated at the end of their third year, while the rema-inder were pursuing a fOur-year course in accordance with a recent ruling of the State Re- gents, which was to be made obligatory for al-l subsequent classes. The legal disputes between the two schools were carried to the S-tate Supreme Court, the Apellate Division of the Supreme Court and finally to the Court of Appeals of the State and all decisions were in favor of the Medical College Laboratory group whose legal counsel, incidentally, was Elihu Root, later to be Secretary of State. Another interest- ing aftermath of the split between the two schools 'was the graduation ceremony of the New York University Medi- cal School in May, 11898, during which Drs. William M, Polk, Lewis A. Stimson, W. Gilman Thompson, George Woolsey, Henry P. Loomis, J. Clifton Edgar, Frederick W, Gwyer and Irving S. Haynes, who were interested in the establishmen-t of the new Cornell University Medical C01- lege, sat on the stage and heard themselves publicly and roundly criticised 'by the Chancellor. One of the students typed out his impression of what the commencement exercises should include: Programme Metropolitan Opera House Annual Commencement Exercises, New York University Medical College, Wednesday, May 18, 1898 Musice Qlntroductory March1 Oh Boys we'll never go there any more . I. Roll-call of the Council by the exActing Dean. Music: QSchottische1 Miss Mulligan's home-made pie . II. Conferring of the degree of M.D. QMacCracken's Dishonor1 by the Lord High Chancellor. Music: QAdaptation from the Mikado1 I've'got him on the list . III. Students' Farewell Oration: The Old Homestead . Music: QTwo Step1 I don't want to play in your yard . IV. Distribution of Prizes: Q11 A first prize of S150 to the chap who has corraled the greatest number of students for Cornell. Q21 A second prize of 55100 to the physical diag- nosis student who has most accurately mea- sured the size of the Old Man's spleen. Q 31 A third prize of 350 to the nervous student who can make a diagnosis between the Old Man and a Kleptomaniac. Music: QOriginal composition for the evening1 Cornell Quickstep . QDuring this performance the audience are most earnestly requested to keep their seats.1 V. Oration by Citizen George Francis Train: Terri- ggfial, Aggrandizement and some home aspects of ar . Music: QEthiopian Oddity1 A Bullfrog am no Nightingale - VI. Brief Q?1 Address by the Very Reverend Dr. Hen- nery M. MacCracken, D.D., LL.D.: Why I am a Pedagogue . V Music: QSong1 No one to love me, none to caress . . VII. Grand Finale: Public incineration of the Will of the late Valentine Mott. March Funebre. Exeunt omnes-allegro con moto.

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The Founding Faculty The faculty at the opening of Cornell Medical School was made up as follows. Dr. William M. Polk, Dean and Professor of Gynecology. Dr. Lewis A. Stimson, Professor of Surgery. Dr. W. Gilman Thompson, Professor of Medicine. Dr. R. A. Witthaus, Professor of Chemistry and Toxi- cology. Dr. Austin -Flint fthe youngerj, Professor of Physiology. Dr. H. P. Loomis, Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics. Dr. I. Clifton Edgar, Professor of Obstetrics. Dr. George Woolsey, Professor of Anatomy. The Chair of Pathology had not then been filled, but one year later an event of far reaching' importance to the welfare of the school occurred in the appointment to that Chair of Dr. james Ewing, a man who contributed greatly to the advancement of the school. A few years later the appointment of Professor Graham Lusk to the Chair of Physiology marked another event of prime importance. Dr. Lewis A. Conner, an instructor with the original fac- ulty and later Professor of Medicine, in an earlier historical paper, made the following comments: While it is im- possible to refer to each member of the new faculty, my attempt to give you some picture of the school in its early days would fail completely were I not to give you some impression of the personality of the two men upon whom the responsibilities and burdens of the new school chiefly rested. These were the Dean and the Professor of Sur er They had been colleagues and friends f g yi or many years, had served together on the faculty of the old New York Uni- versity School, had fought side by side for what they gon- ceived to be their rights in the ill-fated merger , and were the ones responsible for the decision of Colonel Payne to offer Hnancial support to the new school. With both of them the welfare of the school was their first thought and consideration. Both in their very different ways were re- markable men. .Both, as it happened,. had served as young officers in the Civil War-the one on the Confederate Side the other with the Union Army. , 0 Dr. lVilliam Merklefzbufg Polk First Dean, Cornell Ufziveriizy Medical College Dr, Polk, a native of Tennessee, was the son of the Rev. Leonid-as Polk, the famous lighting bishop, and a Major General of the Confederate Army. Dr. Polk had all the courtesy and charm of manner that characterized the gentlemen of the Old South, but behind his handsome presence and his gracious manner he possessed a vigorous personality and an executive forcefulness which watched over every detail of the school's administration and was the mainspring of its every activity. Dr, Stimson was a native New Yorker, had had a dis- tinguished career as a surgeon, and was the author of a treatise on fractures and dislocations, which was the standard textbook on those subjects throughout the country. He had been a classmate at Yale of Colonel Payne and was the latter's intimate and confidential friend. His somewhat re- served manner and cold' exterior hid a generous and kindly disposition, which showed itself particularly in his relations with his subordinates. He was guide, philosopher and friend to the members of his house staff and indeed to every struggling young doctor whom he thought deserving of help. Dr. Sti-mson had, I think, the most lucid and penetrating intellect of anyone that I have ever known. A mathemati- cian of no mean order, deeply scholarly and cultivated in his tastes, he was the envy and the despair of those Of us younger men who sought to emulate him. Such then were the characteristics of the two men upon whose shoulders the responsibilities of the school were chiefly borne during the first twenty years of its existence. Some special problems . . Women and Degrees By the summer of 1900 the new Cornell School building and its equipment were complete and -the old Bellevue building was abandoned. At the very outset of the establishment of the school O06 problem arose which at the time, and for some Yf-fats afterward, caused much concern and much solemn shakmg 20' of l its ' w0I'Il that reVOl UPOIT 5Cfl0 failu woul 5ClCC3 their was Possi It occul shoul Case two 1 woml Ithac life were requi the f influc grour to sp only was r to th no sl progr Schoc ceptet not a woulc Wl missic nish to the of Re were that w