“Yours, in behalf of our oppressed and down-trodden countrymen,
“M. R. D.”
CHAPTER VI.
PRACTISING MEDICINE.
After a brilliant and useful editorial career, Delany dissolved his connection with the North Star on the 1st of June, 1849. An incident in connection with this is related, which seems appropriate here, as illustrating his earnestness in behalf of the paper, though personally disinterested.
On his leaving the North Star, he was solicited, through correspondence from Ohio, to take charge of a paper in the interest of the colored people of that state. This he declined; and, after setting forth his reasons why but one newspaper as an organ of the colored people could be sustained at that time, he said, “Let that one be the North Star, with Frederick Douglass at the head.”
We next find him returning to his home at Pittsburg, not for the purpose of resting upon the laurels so fairly won, but rather for recuperating his forces for the field of toil again. Here he resumed his favorite study of medicine, and, upon the strength of the preceptorship of his former instructors, Drs. Joseph P. Gazzan and Francis J. Lemoyne, he was received into the medical department of Harvard College, having been previously refused admission, on application, to the Pennsylvania University, Jefferson College, and the medical colleges of Albany and Geneva, N. Y.
After leaving Harvard, he travelled westward, and lectured on physiological subjects—the comparative anatomical and physical conformation of the cranium of the Caucasian and negro races,—besides giving class lectures. These he rendered successful. While his arguments on these subjects were in strict conformity to acknowledged scientific principles, they are also marked by his peculiar and original theories. For instance, he argues on this subject that the pigment which makes the complexion of the African black is essentially the same in properties as that which makes the ruddy complexion of the European, the African’s being concentrated rouge, which is black. This he urges by illustrations considered scientifically true. He maintains that these truths will yet be acknowledged by writers on physiology.
On his return to Pittsburg, after the completion of his lecturing tour, he entered upon the duties of a physician, for which his native benevolence and scientific ardor eminently qualified him. Here he was known as a successful practitioner. His skilful treatment of the cholera, which prevailed to some extent in Pittsburg in 1854, is still remembered.