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Sec[Section] 1 Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois represented in the General assembly
That Thomas P Whipple[,] Nathan Collins, and Joseph Tefft, and their associates are hereby constituted a body corporate by the name of the
Clinton medical college to be located in one of the towns of st Charles, or clinton as a majority of the trustees may think proper, for the purpose of promoting medical
Science and instructing in the departments of learing connected therewith
Sec 2 The said corporation may hold real and personal estate to the amount of ten thousand
dollars and the funds or property thereof shall not be used for any other purpose
than that declared in the first section of this act,, but the said corporation may
go into operation whenever satisfactory evidence shall be exibited to the Govenor that the sum of one thousand dollars in real and personal property has been raised
and appropriated for the purpose of endowing and organising said college
Sec 3 Thomas P. Whipple[,] Nathan Collins, Joseph Tefft Ira Menard, Jonathan Tefft, Truman Gilbert and Reed Ferson are hereby appointed trustees of the said corporation with power to fill any vacancy
in there board and shall be a quorum for the transaction of business Thereof
Sec 4 It shall be lawful for the board of trustees to appoint such professors and officers
as they may deem necessary, and to fill all vacancies as they may occur from time
to time, but after the first appointment no vancy in the board of instruction shall be filled or professor removed except on the recommendation
or with the
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consent of a majority of the professors for the time being.
Sec 5 The trustees for the time being shall have power to grant and confer all degrees
usually conferred by medical colleges and to give suitable diplomas, but the degree
of doctor of medicine shall not be conferred upon any medical student unless a majority
of the medical faculty and at least three other medical officers to be appointed by
the trustees shall certify to the board of trustees that they have received satisfactory
evidence that the candidate is 21 years of age, has attended two full course
of courses of lectures at some incorporated medical College, one of which shall have
been at the Clinton medical college, that he has pursued the study of medical science
for the full term of three years with some respectable practitioner of medicine authorised, by law, to practice Physic and surgery and that they believe him in all respects
worthy to receive such degree. A diploma conferred upon such recommendation signed
by the President and Secretary and by the professors of said medical College to which
shall be affixed the corporate seal of said institution, shall be a license, to practice
physic and surgery within this state.2
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[ docketing
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A Bill for an act to incorporate a Medical College, to be located in the Town of St
Charles or Clinton in Kane County by a vote of the Trustees.
[ docketing
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Engrossed
1Abram R. Dodge introduced HB 89 in the House of Representatives on January 7, 1841. The House referred the bill to the Committee on Banks and Other
Corporations. The Committee on Banks and Other Corporations reported back the bill
on January 13, recommending its rejection. The House refused to read the bill a third
time.
Illinois House Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 199, 218-19.
2In 1825, the General Assembly enacted a licensing law for physicians, but repeated this law a year later. In abolishing
its licensing law, Illinois followed other states in opposition to regulation of the medicine. In 1839, the
General Assembly considered a petition and a bill seeking to revive licensing, but opposition to medical reform scuttled these initiatives.
“An Act Prescribing the Mode of Licensing Physicians,” 15 January 1825, Laws of the State of Illinois (1825), 111-13; “An Act to Repeal ‘An Act Prescribing the Mode of Licensing Physicians,’”
25 January 1826, Laws of the State of Illinois (1826), 75; Paul Starr, The Social Transformation of American Medicine (New York: Basic Books, 1982), 58-59.
Handwritten Document, 4 page(s), Folder 57, HB 89, GA Session 12-2,
Illinois State Archives (Springfield, IL) ,