University at Buffalo - Buffalonian Yearbook (Buffalo, NY)

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was added, as deinonstrator of anatomy. A description of these professors, given by Dr. C. C. Wyckoff, a member of the first class, is as follows: ff I wish I could present to you a graphic picture of these first seven professors as they appear to me in memory-the dignihed and serious Hadleys, father and son, the courtly Christian gentleman, Professor Coventry, whose innate modesty put him to the blush upon demonstrating his obstetrical lectures upon the manikin 5 the agile and oftentimes brilliant Hamilton, entering the amphitheatre almost on a run, lecturing as he came, and seeming only desirous of improving every moment to give us the beneht of his vast store of learning, the more dignihed Flint, who at the beginning of his career as a lecturer was somewhat inclined to verboseness, but who afterward attained an eminence in this branch of the profession as may make us justly proud of having given him to the world, the daring White, who raised such a storm of abuse, which he manfully met, when he introduced ' demonstrative midwifery 3 ' the companionable, convivial Webster, who was masterly at dissection, lecturing as rapidly as the scalpel cut into the tissues of the subject, never for a moment at a loss for words to explain the hidden course of nature. Oftentimes Dr. Ford would have to perform the duties of a lecturer as well as those of a demonstrator of anatomy, but it was at no loss to the students. Professor Lee was perhaps less known to us, as he always retained his home in New York, but his uniform kindness made him popular, although his subject was dry and prosy. There were 60 students in attendance the nrst year. On june 16, 1847, the hrst class of 17 men was graduated. The course of instruction and the faculty in the University of Buffalo in those days compared, as they have done since, favorably with those of the other leading medical colleges. Its seven professors and term of four months, with a preliminary term of one month, was about the same as that of Harvard, Yale, the University of New York and the University of Pennsylvania. Medical education was then very simple. Nor must it be forgotten that medical knowledge was limited and that what was known could be taught in much shorter time than is needed now. The preceptor system was also then in vogue, and a course of instruction in the medical school was only supposed to hnish up or polish off what was taught in the offices of the preceptors. How imperfect and inadequate this system of instruction was those of us who have seen it well know. At the opening of the fourth session-of the College, the first real step in advance was taken. A new and, as it was regarded at that time, perfect building for medical instruction was then opened for use. This building was built by subscription after a long and hard struggle. The original faculty continued to conduct the affairs of the now prosperous insti- tution without change until 1851, when Dr. john C. Dalton was made professor of physiology. The following year Dr. Edward M. Moore, of Rochester, took the chair of anatomy, but was changed to the chair of surgery on Dr. Hamilton's resignation. In 1852 Dr. Rochester took the chair of practice. About 1855, Drs. Flint, Hamilton and Dalton were called to New York, and there all of them, working upon the foundation which they had laid in Buffalo, achieved world-wide reputations. Their successors in the 29

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