Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Chicago Medical Center Reopening [PAGE 4]

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of the deed and bill of sale of the physical property and the control and ownership of .the college. The Board appreciates the effort and sacrifices that you have all made to attain this end, and you may rest assured that with passing years the magnitude of your gift will be more and more recognized. On behalf of the Board of Trustees, the University and the State, I thank you. President James, for years you and the Board have hoped, worked, prayed,—yes, and fought to have the University possessed of a Medical School, which under liberal state patronage and your guidance should become a mighty force for the betterment of man's sanitary condition. Our hopes are now realized so far as the possession of the college is concerned, but for you there still remains the duty of organizing and conducting the institution on a grade commensurate with the funds we may be able to obtain for the purpose. In this new responsibility we believe that your success will be as great as it is with those departments over which you now preside, and also that its Medical Department will be one of the brightest stars in the University's crown. As President of the Board of Trustees I now declare that this institution, formerly known as the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago, has ceased to exist as such and has become the College of Medicine of the University of Illinois.

March 6. 1913. To the Officers and Faculty of the College Of Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago. Gentlemen ; I am very sorry that illness confining me to the bed prevents an attendance upon the ceremonies of the formal transfer of the property of the College to the Trustees of the University of Illinois. To anyone who has an unselfish interest in the advancement of the causes of higher medical education in this city, state and country and, above all, to that part of the public who have an interest in the welfare of the people in reference to their health, prosperity and happiness, the ceremonies of this day mark an important milestone in medical education in Illinois. I am one who believes that the state should educate its sons and daughters in medicine as well as in horticulture, agriculture, mining, the law, etc. Indeed, I think that of 'all the technical educations medicine is the most important. I believe the state should help to educate its men and women in medicine and surgery and this with a thoroughness which will place its university above the criticism of any educational institution of the world. The state cannot afford to conduct an institution for the education of its men and women in any of the technical professions excepting upon the highest, broadest plane* Medical education, in the opinion of a great many of the best teachers of medicine and the best general educators of the country, should ebmrace as its minimum preliminary requirement in addition to the high school, two years of university work, which should be spe3