EDITORIAL AND MISCELLANEOUS.
ATLANTA MEDICAL COLLEGE.
Without going into all the facts and circumstances connec-
ted with the relations which have existed between the Atlanta
Medical College and the Medical Department of the Univer-
sity of Nashville, but rather incidentally in reference to the
course of those controlling that department, we remarked in
the March number of this Journal, that in our opinion, they
had pursued an illiberal and ungenerous course, and had mani-
fested an arrogant and selfish spirit, and though we talked
thus plainly, as it was our purpose to do (feeling that self-re-
spect and a proper regard for our rights not only justified, but
required it,) we intimated a disposition to indulge a forgiving
spirit, and even signified our willingness to admit of the Nash-
ville School, all they have been claiming for themselves in
the modest, elegant and pious style of "before God and the
Saints, the University of Nashville had, by far, a larger class
of bona fide paying students than any College, outside of Phil-
adelphia, in the United States."
Our opinion of the controlling influence in the Nashville
School being such as we have stated, we felt that the pursuit
of an open and manly course made it proper for us to make
the declaration, that we were not dependent upon the counte-
nance and favor of that Institution, which Jiad been so con-
stantly and industriously held up, by the enemies of this school,
as the insuperable obstacle in the way of our success.
The opinion entertained and expressed in reference to the
Nashville School, has not been altered by the elaborate and
offensive article contained in the last number of the Nashville
.Journal, doubtless designed as the opening gun to what they
intend as the destructive fire which is to be poured upon us at
the approaching meeting of the American Medical Associa-
tion.
AVe have no taste for controversy, and have not tossed the
glove defiantly," or otherwise ; hut liavc thought proper to
state openly and candidly what our impressions have been in
reference to the conduct and bearing of the Nashville Faculty,
under the intluencc of a spirit, as we believe, whose motto is,
" rule or ruin," and while we have at last had an open decla-
ration of that war which we know to have been carried on
against us, in a different manner, we here state, that it is our
iletcrmination to be just to the Nashville School, without re-
gard to the course she may think proper to pursue.
In proof of our disposition to accord full justice to the
Nashville School, we intimated in the very article which has
been made the occasion of the recent attack upon us, that it
was possible, that she might realize the heighth of her apparent
ambition, in becoming " the leading School (so far, at least, as
the number of students in attendance can make it so) in the
LTiiited States;" and stated distinctly, that "we had no objec-
tion to the high destiny which seemed to await the University
of Nashville," and, in addition, that "it was an Institution,
taken altogether, to which we looked Avith pride and pleasure;"
in justification of which statements, we will adopt the lan-
guage of the Nashville Journal, that " there is nothing incon-
sistent in admiring a man, without endorsing all his habits."
It is true, that the Nashville Journal states that they have not
been ungenerous to the Atlanta Medical College, and that they
have not manifested an arrogant and selfish spirit; and in proof
of Avhich, present the fact, that so far from the College of
Nashville complaining because the Atlanta Medical College
chose to hold her sessions in the summer,* " that with the full
permission of all his colleagues, idiom he consulted, a Professor here
(there) assisted Atlanta in her first course," and asks the question,
" was this ungenerous ?"
In response to this direct enquiry, we admit the fact, that
Professor Buchanan was allowed by the Nashville Facility to be a
party to the establishment of the Atlanta Medical College, and thus
committed themselves to the acknowledgment, that the Insti-
tution was based upon principles equally high and honorable
with their own, which Ave state to be the fact, and can abun-
dantly sustain.
Italics are ours.
In addition to this, we state the fact, that Professor Buchanan
was regularly elected, by the Board of Trustees, to the Chair
of Anatomy, and early in the course, his name was published
as holding that relation ; and farther, that every member of the
Board of Trustees, and the Faculty, considered him a Profes-
sor, fully entitled to all the privileges connected with that po-
sition, and expected him to discharge all the duties connected
with that office; that Professor Buchanan considered himself
as occupying this relation to the Atlanta Medical College, with
the full permission of his colleagues, and as being under obli-
gations to do all that any other member of the faculty was ex-
pected to perform, even to the signing of the diplomas, is clear
and unquestionable, and will be fully admitted by him,
" So far," the Nashville School have not been ungenerous or
illiberal; "so far" from this, a tender and fostering care had
been exercised over the welfare of the little bantling (or " little
sister," as they are pleased to term it,) and we are not certain
that some did not even suppose that they intended it as a sort
of appendage to the Nashville School, so remarkable, we may
say, unprecedented, had been the generosity, and almost pa-
rental regard manifested by that Institution. But, to proceed :
a large class assembled, and we will merely suggest the 2)ossi~
bllitg (in the absence of any other sufficient explanation) that
the idea of competiiioii may have originated in some visionarg's
brain, (it could not have arisen elsewhere,) and have been whis-
pered in the ear of Nashville, (at least, they intimate in the
article alluded to, that we thought they were jealous, and as
we have made no such charge, the fair inference is, that they
have suspected themselves of entertaining such a feeling,) after
which, whether, as a result or not, we will leave others to de-
termine, we hear mutterings of disaffection, and then a protest
against the propriety of the publication, made long before, of
Professor Buchanan's name as Professor of Anatomy, accom-
panied with an order directed to him to sever his connection
with the Atlanta Medical College, under penalty, upon refusal,
of losing his position in Nashville.
Fortunately, for Professor Buchanan, (upon whom we are
not disposed to cast any censure in that matter, having ren-
dered us efficient service, and, at all times, endorsed in the
fullest manner, the correctness of the principles upon which
the Institution was established,) the Secretary of the Board of
Trustees had neglected to notify him of his election to the
Chair of Anatomy, and formally ask his acceptance, and thus
he was permitted to escape from the most unenviable position
in which ho had been placed by his colleagues.
What was the respective influence ot each member of the
faculty of Nashville, in the adoption of the course, with which
we have dealt so mildly, in characterizing it as illiberal and
ungenerous, we do not pretend to know; we can only say,
that the impression, at that time, was, and still exists, that per-
sonal considerations upon the part of the individual who is
understood to have the controlling influence in the Nashville
School, and who was known to be inimical to Professor Bu-
ebanan, had largely shared : let this be as it may, without go-
ing into farther detail, w'e ask the question, if the facts here
presented imposed a debt of gratitude, as intimated, upon the
Atlanta Medical College towards the Medical Department of
the University of Nashville; or, upon the other hand, are we
not fully sustained in the opinion which we have thought pro-
per to express of the course pursued toward us ?
" But, Atlanta chose to take the initiative in another untried
direction to this, we reply, that it does not accord with the
facts of history, as the University of Virginia, many years
since, established the principle of allowing students to come
forward for graduation, without any interval in the course of
instruction; and this Institution, with not more than three or
four, certainly not a full corps of Professors, has been fully
recognized by the highest Colleges in the land; and was even
commended for making attainments, not time, a test of the quali-
fications of the candidate for a degree, by a Medical Journal,
of which the great Drake was one of the Editors. We con-
tend, that our regulations, even in regard to the length of
tiyne which a student shall occupy in the study of medicine,
before becoming a candidate for graduation, are the same with
Nashville, and challenge them to the proof, that we do not ad-
here as strictly to the requisition as themselves.
While we hesitate not to say, that wo are not of those who
arc constantly heralding forth the inferiority of the American
Medical profession, we freely admit, that there are defects in
the system of medical education, and have long since an-
nounced ourselves as prepared to confer upon this subject, and
to aid in elevating the standard of professional qualification ;
we say confer, and mean to be understood. We intend that
those who control the Nashville School shall understand that
our claim to a voice in the regulation of medical matters in
this country is equal to their own, either as derived from State
Sovereignty, or according to the terms of admission into the
American Medical Association, with which they have seen
fit to threaten us, in reference to their successful control
of which, they seem to have forgotten, there may be some
doubt; though it is true, that it would seem to be a pity, that
there should have been so large an expenditure of time and
money, both last year and this, upon the part of our regidators,
if they should not accomplish our ruin through the instru-
mentality of this body. That the American Medical Associ-
ation has no control over this subject, and that, in the very
nature of things, it is an absurdity to contend for the power of
this body to regulate medical education, can be and will be
clearly demonstrated, upon the proper occasion ; besides this,
the rights and interests of all, who are, by their own regula-
tions, entitled to representation in that body, must be respect-
ed, even within the limits of their own legitimate sphere of
action, and therefore we contend that they have no right to
legislate out of their body those already belonging to it, or enti-
tled to representation in it—that " the Association is not a law
making power for the profession at large," is too plain to ad-
mit of question, and " having a code of ethics for the govern-
ment of its members, all the power it has is to cut them off from
membership for non-conformity to its code. This it has done,
and this, we trust, it will always do, whenever occasion re-
quires."* Having laid down their code of ethics—the adop-
tion of which and conformity to which, entitles all its mem-
bers to equal rights and privileges in that body—any new ex-
actions not specified in that code would be ex post facto in
their claims and entitled to no respect.
In reference to the last point, which we propose to notice at
this time, in the article contained in the organ of the Kash-
* S. W. Butler, M. D., Editor of New Jersey Med. and Surg. Reporter, and
Cliainnan of Standing Committee of American Medical Association on Medical
Education.	,
ville School, we have to say, that it seems to be a little remark-
able, without having, as they state, asked any one, they should
be able to speak so confidently as to our standing with other
institutions; in reference to that statement, we must be per-
mitted to say, that it is calculated to convey a false impres-
sion, ill regard to the University of Pennsylvania, the only
one of the three Colleges mentioned, with whose position we
have made ourselves acquainted, our special interest in refer-
ence to the relation we sustained to that institution, having
very naturally arisen from the fact that it was our Alma Mater.
What the position of the Nashville School is in regard to
the Atlanta Medical College, we do not know, as she has
never given it officially, so far, at least, as our information ex.
tends, but if it is intended, by the statement in the Nashville
Journal, to convey the impression (which seems to be the ob-
ject,) that the degree of this College is not recognized as equal
to their own, then we say, that the assertion, that they stand
in precisely the same relation to us, with that of the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania, is not in accordance with the testimony,
and which we stand prepared to prove whenever it is ques-
tioned.
Tn addition, we do not hesitate to say that the statement of
the Nashville Organ, that " they are doing precisely what the
first Colleges in the United States are doing," is not in accord-
ance with the facts, if it is intended to mean, that the first
Colleges in the United States do not fully recognize the Atlanta
College, and put her upon the same footing with the Medical
Department of the University of Nashville, in proof of which,
we present the fact, that the leading School of the Union, the
Jefferson Medical College, of Philadelphia, has, in the most
satisfactory and unequivocal manner, time and again, acknow.
lodged the Atlanta Medical College to the fullest extent that
we could possibly desire—that the leading school in our own
State, and certainly one of the first Colleges in the United
States—the Medical College of Georgia—has admitted our
claims as fully equal to her own, and stands most intimately
connected with, and committed to her policy, as equally high
and honorable with her own—that the Medical College of the
State of South Carolina, in Charleston, a long established and
most successful Institution, and maintaining a high standard
of qualification for graduation, even in these lax days, and lo-
cated in the very land of honor, does not fail in the most de-
cided manner, to extend to us the cordial grasp of full recog-
nition, and without going into farther detail, we would remark,
that if any student of medicine has ever been refused permis-
sion to become a candidate for graduation in any College of
the United States, after attending but a single course of lec-
tures, and that in the Atlanta Medical College, we arc yet to
hear the statement. But without adding more to an exposition
of facts, which we have been compelled to make in defending
ourselves from the unjust attack, which has been made upon
us by the Nashville School, just time enough for general cir-
culation before the opening of the next course of Lectures,
and just upon the eve of the meeting of a medical body, with
which they have sought to injure us; and hold up in terror be-
fore us—but as it was supposed, not time enough to allow a
reply through a regular medium, we take leave, for the pre-
sent, of the Nashville Organ, with the endorsement of its re-
mark, that "there is no accounting for taste," as will be clearly
demonstrated upon some future occasion, it necessary, from
the refined and elevated effusions of a " Western Editor."

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