THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF NATHAN SMITH, M.B., M.D.

(Yale University Press, 1914)

To the growing list of publications relating to the early history of Dartmouth College, there has been added another of unusual interest in the "Life and Letters of Nathan Smith," the founder of the Dartmouth Medical School. The book, with an introduction by Dr. William H. Welch, was written by a kinswoman, Mrs. Alan P. Smith; and, though it appears with the imprint of the Yale University Press, and was issued in relation to the recent centennial exercises at Yale Medical School, on whose first faculty Nathan Smith filled an important position, nearly half of its pages deal with his early life in and near Hanover, and with his many years of devoted service at Dartmouth.

With gifts of energy and untiring persistence that would have made him an outstanding figure under any circumstances and in any age, he so far outstripped contemporary thought and performance in New England that such medical writings as have come down to us are now considered classics. It is, however, for insight into prevailing conditions, both in the practice of medicine and surgery, and in his other profession of teaching, that the pages will be read with interest by the many men who wish to follow the beginnings of Dartmouth further back than the span of memory can reach.

Biographical details are adequately presented, and the description of his movements and various occupations is equally full; but it is in the well-chosen examples from the life-long correspondence between Nathan Smith and his former pupil, Dr. George C. Shattuck, that we gather most as to his daily life, the nature of his professional work, the difficulties against which he set himself, and the untiring and unsparing energy and devotion that inspired him throughout.

His influence as a teacher is shown in many ways, — perhaps best by the following anecdote: "President Wheelock came from Dr. Smith's lecture room to evening prayers in the old chapel, and gave thanks, in substance as follows: 'Oh, Lord! we thank Thee for the Oxygen gas; we thank Thee for the Hydrogen gas; and for all the gases. " We thank Thee for the Cerebrum; we thank Thee for the Cerebellum, and for the Medulla Oblongata'."

Dartmouth Medical School, then scantily equipped in material things, has more now to be thankful for than brains and gas; and among the proudest of her possessions is her history, worthily made for many years by Nathan Smith alone.