Appendix B: Drs. Nathan Smith and Cyrus Perkins

The following short biographical notes are taken from our Alumni Directory of 1940:

Smith, Nathan. SM; MB Harvard 1790; MD 1801; also Harvard 1811. b. 13 Sept. 1762 Rehoboth, Mass. Prof. anat. and surg. Med. Sch. 1797-1810; prof. theory and pract. med. 1797-1813. d.

26 January 1829, New Haven, Conn.

From Chapman’s Sketches of the Alumni is the following:

Cyrus Perkins, AM Class of 1800, the son of Isaac and Joanna (Edson) Perkins, was born at Middleborough, Mass, Sept. 4, 1778 and died at Rossville, Staten Island, N.Y., April 23, 1849 aged 70. He studied medicine at Dart. Med. Coll. graduating MB 1802 and MD 1810, also Harvard 1823; began practice at Boston, Mass.; removing to Hanover was Prof. of Anatomy and Surgery at Dart. from 1810 to 1819; next went to N.Y., N.Y. He was President of the N.H. Medical Society and an hon. member of the Mass. Med. Society. He married Abigail, dau. of Dr. John Smith, DC 1773 at Hanover in Aug. or Sept. 1800.¹

The association of these two men with Dartmouth at the appropriate time is further attested by the following description of their activities:

In August, 1810, Doctor Nathan Smith addressed himself to the Trustees of Dartmouth College. He was forty-eight years old, and had been the only professor in the medical department ever since he had founded it, thirteen years before. . . .

In the fall of 1810 Dr. Perkins came to Hanover as Professor of Anatomy, and set up practice which he conducted in partnership with Nathan Smith until Dr. Smith left for New Haven in 1813. He bought a house on Main Street facing the Green, on the site pres ^[354] ently occupied by Robinson Hall, and took in students as boarders. Some of these either were or intended to become his private students in medicine.^{2 [355]}