Moody Medical Library

Dr. Allen J. Smith had already discovered the Bacillus coeruleus (pseudomonas smithii) and had won the Medical News prize and other anatomical prizes when he arrived in Galveston in September of 1891 with his wife and two year old son. Upon being told that his chair was to be called "pathology, bacteriology, and microscopy," the young Doctor commented, "I do not mind the work suggested by such an inclusive terminology, but begged for the appearance of dignity the Chair be known as that of Pathology alone." The first professor of all subjects taught with a microscope - histology, embryology, bacteriology, parasitology, microscopic pharmacology, as well as tropical medicine, nervous and mental diseases, inorganic chemistry, and clinical pathology - was twenty-seven years old. He lectured for a time on medical jurisprudence and was dean on two different occasions.