I expected to have suggested some new
medicines to him; but he suggested many more to me. He is very modest and
engaging in his manners. He speaks French fluently and has some knowledge
of the Spanish language."[4]

The most noted colored physician after the time of James Derham was Doctor
James McCune Smith, a graduate of the University of Glasgow. He began the
practice of medicine in New York about 1837, and soon distinguished himself
as a physician and surgeon. He passed as a man of unusual merit not only
among his own people but among the best elements of that metropolis. That
he was appreciated by the leading white physicians of the city is evidenced
by the fact that in 1852 he was nominated as one of the five men to draft a
constitution for the "Statistic Institute" of which he became a leading
member. For a number of years he held the position of physician to the
colored orphan asylum, serving on the staff with a number of white doctors.

Living in a day when the Negro was the subject of much anthropological
and physiological discussion, Doctor Smith could not resist participating
in this controversy. There were at this time a number of persons who were
resorting to science to prove the inferiority of the Negro. Given a
hearing extending over several evenings, Doctor Smith ably discussed "The
Comparative Anatomy of the Races" before an assembly of the most
distinguished ladies and gentlemen of the city, triumphing over his
antagonist. In 1846 he produced a valuable work entitled "The Influence
of Climate on Longevity, with Special Reference to Insurance." This paper
was written as a refutation of a disquisition of John C. Calhoun on the
colored race. Among other things Doctor Smith said: "The reason why the
proportion of mortality is not a measure of longevity, is the following:
The proportion of mortality is a statement of how many persons die in a
population; this, of course, does not state the age at which those persons
die. If 1 in 45 die in Sweden, and 1 in 22 in Grenada, the age of the dead
might be alike in both countries; here the greater mortality might
actually accompany the greater longevity."[5]

The first real impetus to bring Negroes in considerable numbers into the
professional world came from the American Colonization Society, which in
the early years flourished in the South as well as in the North. This
organization hoped to return the free Negroes to Africa and undertook to
prepare professiona