Abstract
The Boylston Medical Society of Harvard University was founded in 1811. The purpose of the Society is promoting emulation and inquiry among the students of the Harvard Medical School. The founding of the Society was part of a pattern of re-organization and expansion of the Harvard Medical School and of Boston medicine. James Jackson and John Collins Warren, founders of the Society, also founded the Massachusetts General Hospital and the New England Journal of Medicine, and led the moving of the Harvard Medical School from Cambridge to Boston.
There are three Boylston Prizes. They were founded separately by Ward Nicholas Boylston between 1803 and 1826. The most famous one was originally offered only to doctors who were members of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and later doctors who were connected with the Harvard Medical School were allowed to apply. It was designed to stimulate inquiry into areas of medicine where little was known. The second one was offered to student members of the Boylston Medical Society. The last one was for prizes for elocution to undergraduate students of the Harvard College. The former two were also called the Boylston Medical Prize. The last two have survived to the present day.
