Alumni Day Remarks

It is my privilege as president of the Yale Alumni in Medicine to extend greetings to all of you on this, Our Day, at our medical alma mater. On behalf of the alumni, I assure you-members of the Executive Committee of the Alumni in Medicine, and you, the administrative and faculty members of Yale University School of Medicine-of our sincere appreciation of your fine cordiality and of your excellent program of scientific and social activities. We all agree that it exceeds in scope and interest the Alumni Day programs of the past. We are given the opportunity to see the school in operation; to observe its teaching; to witness its exhibits, its functioning laboratories, and its vast research projects; to admire its fine libraries; and to attend grand rounds, symposiums, and conferences of the most interesting and instructive kind. We thank you most heartily for all that you have done for us. Of course, what most impresses many of us today is the great change over the years: old landmarks are gone, and old familiar faces. Such change is typical of the American way of growth in an age of rapid scientific progress, when the field of medical knowledge and scientific activity has so widened that new problems have and are continually confronting the school. Today, it is a great satisfaction to know, that, in keeping with the improvement in its physical equipment, the school will not only continue to emphasize but add emphasis to its fundamental function, namely, adequate and high-grade teaching. In the old days, we had superb teaching by inspiring leaders, but poor and meager equipment and little research work. Today, we have excellent equipment (though needing further modernization) developed by the efforts of recognized leaders in medical science-to whom we are glad to pay tribute. Now, there is a phase of the school's activities that is not so obvious as we look around within its walls. I refer to its interest in carrying extramural postgraduate medical instruction to outlying areas of the state, in co-operating with many hospitals, with the State Medical Society, and with other health-promoting agencies, thus taking on the functions of a medical center. Dean Long, I am sure, will elaborate upon this important contribution to medical practice. I trust that all of you have read his excellent 1948-49 report as Dean, and President Seymour's recent favorable comments upon it. This significant expansion …