The Annual Report of 1903 to Edwin A. Alderman, LL. D., President of the Tulane University of La., at the Annual, Commencement of the Medical Department, April 29th 1903. BY PROF. STANFORD E. CHAILLE, A. M., M. D., LL, D., Dean of the Medical MR. PRESIDENT:-In 1834, twenty-two years after Louisiana became a State, the Medical College of Louisiana, the parent of the Medical Department of Tulane University, was founded, and in 1835, issued the first diplomas in science or art ever conferred in Louisiana. During the sixty-nine years' existence of our college its graduates have numbered 3985, viz: 3646 in medicine and 339 in pharmacy. The total number of students registered this session, 426, has never been surpassed, and never equaled except for the year 1900; however, excluding pharmacy students, the number solely of medical students has never been equaled. This full attendance was not expected, because it was known that the number of students of the three-years' course would be many fewer than in previous years. However, this reduction has been more than compensated for by the gain of students of the four-years' course, also to the greater reputation of the Medical Department, and to the continued prosperity of the Southwest. This favorable result, in spite of more numerous and rigid examinations, has been very gratifying and will strengthen the efforts to increase the requisites for graduation. The desire of the faculty is much stronger to supply the public with better trained physicians than to increase the number of students. The number of medical graduates in 1902 was only 49, many fewer than in preceding years, because 1902 was the intervening year in the transition from the three to the four years' course. The number at the present session is 82, and probably it will not be many years before the maximum number of medical graduates, 114 in 1901, will be regained. Some students who, prior to 1899, had entered the threeyears' course, but had not been able to complete it, have been permitted to enter at the session, and will be graduated. But none except four-years' students have been permitted to enter since 1899, and no students except those of the four-years' course will be graduated in 1904 and thereafter. For this reason there will be a reduction in the number of students at the next session. Whether this reduction will be compensated for in 1903-4, as at the present session, only the future can determine. For the present and for future sessions, the faculty has materially increased the annual expenses, solely for additional teachers and instruction. So that never before in its history has the Medical Department had as many teachers and as much efficient instruction, and never before has a session been more satisfactory to every capable and ambitious student. For the future of the Medical Department the event of greatest moment was the bequest of Mr. Alexander C. Hutchinson, a childless widower of wealth, who died at his home, in New Orleans, December 7, 1902. By his will, dated the preceding November 20, he constituted the Tulane University his residuary legatee for the benefit of the Medical Department-"to contribute to its usefulness and beneficence in ministering to the ailments, injuries and other physical infirmities of the suffering and destitute poor of all races, ages, sexes and nationalities." The validity of this will is questioned by the relatives both of Mr. Hutchinson and of his deceased wife, and the several suits at law, to test the validity of the will, can be decided only by the courts. The noble purpose of the generous philanthropist to contribute several hundreds of thousands of dollars. to the relief of afflicted humanity is unquestionable. Should the execution of this manifest purpose be authorized by judicial decisions, the efficiency of the Medical Department would be notably increased and the utmost care be taken to fulfil the intentions of the donor. The Medical Department would at last be given opportunity and means to contribute to some of those original researches that have already notably increased and are destined still more notably to augment the health and happiness of mankind. GRADUATES OF 1903: In behalf of your faculty I cordially congratulate you on the completion of your many years' labor to secure your degrees and on your relief from numerous wearisome and aggravating examinations. I welcome you to the ranks of your chosen professions and to the commencement of your lives, not merely of legal, but of real manhood. Proof of full manhood demands satisfactory evidence of power, not only to support one's self, but also wife and children. Some of you have already proved your full manhood, and others of you have already secured positions sufficiently lucrative to support yourselves alone; but many of you have not as yet any profitable employment, and this day that releases you from the bondage of pupilage imposes on you the bondage of self-support. When you shall have succeeded by your own labor in supporting yourselves, then you will have given some proof of manhood; but not until you can also support wife and children will you be respected by manly men as having attained full manhood. Yet, not even then will you have reached the climax of manhood, for this requires labor sufficient not only to support wife, children and self, but also to contribute your full share to the welfare of the people of whom you may be a part. Idlers and wilful incompetents who live on the labor of others are vile parasites who disgrace true manhood. Although you may now have little influence and less money, you have here gained power to secure both. Your eyes, ears, hands and brains have all been so trained that you have secured practical knowledge most useful to the public, and the public will always exchange what it has to give for what it values. So that your first and incessant effort must be to seek opportunity and to prove your capacity to be useful to the public. The good conduct and character that have contributed to your success in this college will aid you elsewhere. In the many and severe trials of a practitioner's life the conduct that should control you may sometimes become doubtful. In the diploma of every one of you will be found a copy of the American Code of Ethics, and this will aid to determine your duty to patients, fellow-physicians and the public. This code is founded on the law that is not only most essential to morals, but also to the best policy; the law that promotes the wisest conduct and the highest character; the law that teaches how best to do justice to one's self-do unto others as you would be done by. Rely on it, that those who most complain of the inappreciation and injustice of others, are usually those who have been the most unjust to themselves. Good students you have been and arduous students you must continue to be if you are to do justice to yourselves and thereby gain an enviable place among the leaders of your profession. Never in man's history has there been such progress in science as now, and the science of medicine depends to a greater extent than any other on the progress of all others; hence not a year passes without the addition of most useful facts to medical knowledge. Without constant study you must limp in the rear. Consider how much more useful you are now prepared to be than were your predecessors of only a few years ago. Four of man's most disastrous scourges are consumption, diphtheria, malaria and yellow fever. By warfare against dried sputum the lives of many thousands can be annually rescued from consumption; by prompt and proper application of antitoxin, diphtheria can be bereft of its woes, and by thoroughly protecting the healthy from two different species of mosquitoes, malarial and yellow fever can be in great measure, if not wholly, eradicated. These enormous boons to humanity are but a tithe of those that medical knowledge is destined to confer on mankind. In the decisive warfare against disease and for the public welfare are you to be inefficient laggards, or shall you keep yourselves well-armed and efficient leaders in the endless battle you should wage to protect your patients and all your fellow-citizens from preventable disease and death? The medical profession could contribute much more than it has done to the public welfare, and the public would greatly gain if it contributed far more to the promotion of medical knowledge. To gain what is needed requires the strength that comes from union and this demands organized efforts. Hence, it is your duty to unite with the association in your county or parish that will give you standing in the medical association of your State and of the United States. In every one of these societies avoid self-seeking, advocating no gain for yourself or for your profession unless it be a greater gain for the public. The tie that binds teacher and student should be a mutual and a lasting benefit; and your teachers having zealously labored for your improvement, urge that you should always strive to promote the welfare of the Medical Department, as it has striven and will surely strive to benefit every deserving graduate, as long as his life may last. Never has this college contributed to the public any graduates as well trained, nor any more worthy than compose your class of 1903. For your invariable courtesy and your generous ap |