New England. Dr. Westel Willoughby (1769-1844) was professor of obstetrics, and was also president of the faculty from 1827 until the school was discontinued in 1840. Dr. Lyman Spalding (1775-1821) was professor of anatomy and surgery, and later, was the first president of the medical faculty. Dr. Spalding left the school in 1816. He subsequently founded the United States Pharmacopeia, as stated, and is regarded as an important figure in the medical history of the United States. Prior to coming to Fairfield, he had taught chemistry at Dartmouth. Dr. James Hadley (1785-1869) was professor of chemistry. He had graduated from Dartmouth in 1809, and must have studied chemistry there under Spalding. He was the grandfather of Arthur Twining Hadley, for many years president of Yale University. When the Fairfield Medical School was discontinued in 1840, James Hadley became professor of chemistry and pharmocology at Geneva Medical School, Geneva, New York, which has since become the medical school of Syracuse University. The fourth name on the original Fairfield medical faculty is that of Dr. John Stearns (1790-1848) who was professor of the theory and practice of physics. He had studied in Philadelphia under Shippen, Wistar and Rush, the outstanding medical teachers of their day in America, after graduating from Yale. Stearns remained at Fairfield until 1819, when he moved to New York. Subsequently he founded the New York Academy of Medicine, now one of the outstanding medical societies of the world.[1]
The faculty changed from time to time, and the school attracted students, so that in attendance it excelled even Harvard at times. Many of the names on its faculty list added real luster to the institution which they served. They were men of reputation and ability.
According to the Fairfield catalogues in the New York State Library,[2] Marcus Whitman registered at Fairfield Medical School in January, 1826. At this time the outstanding member of its faculty appears to have been Dr. Westel Willoughby, who in
