ory of the Medical Department of
the College.

"Soon after its formation, the impression became general that the
State Society, excellent as it was both in design and execution, did
not fully answer the medical wants of New Hampshire. There were those
who felt that the young men of the State should have systematic,
didactic instruction, and that this could be accomplished only by the
foundation of a regularly chartered medical college. This plan was
eventually reduced to a demonstration through the energy and talents
of one man. It is with profound veneration that I write the name of
Nathan Smith. Himself a member of the society, I know not but he here
gained inspiration and encouragement for the enterprise from his
associates. At the annual meeting of the Board of Trustees of
Dartmouth College, in August, 1796, being then a Bachelor of Medicine,
not having received the degree of M.D., he made an application to the
Board, asking their encouragement and approbation of a plan he had
devised to establish a professorship of the Theory and Practice of
Medicine in connection with Dartmouth College. After considerable
discussion, the Board voted to postpone their final action upon the
proposition for a year, but in the meantime a resolution was passed
complimentary to the character and energy of Mr. Smith, and promising
such encouragement and assistance in the future as the plan might
merit and the circumstances of the college admit.

"The records of the college are extremely barren of details respecting
the preliminary steps towards a medical establishment, and there are
no means of knowing what the action of the Board was the following
year. It is evident, however, that some measures must have been taken
in relation to the future welfare of the school, for in the year 1798
we find that 'the fee for conferring the degree of Bachelor of
Medicine _pro meritis_ be twenty dollars.' The honorary degree of
Master of Arts was the same year conferred on Mr. Smith, while it
remained for a subsequent Board to discover that his professional
attainments merited the rank and title of Doctor.

"Later in the same session it was voted 'That a professor be
appointed, whose duty it shall be to deliver public lectures upon
Anatomy, Surgery, Chemistry, Materia Medica, and the Theory and
Practice of Physic, and that said professor be entitled to receive
payment for instruction in those branches, as hereafter mentioned, as
compensation for his